We opted for artificial due to pets (dogs drink the water/cats climb and drop needles). I love the scent of real trees, but the cost is insane in our area. What we paid for our artificial tree, would be 2 real ones and we've had it for 6+ years.
Nothing wrong with that & they are a ton easier to deal with for sure… I prefer real trees still tho… my cats always tried to drink the water lol but never tried to climb them luckily… n yeah real trees have gotten really expensive compared to past years… saw they were charging like 1200 bucks in New York lol… not that expensive here but 200 bucks for a nice 6-7 ft tree is crazy…