Since my kids were young, we've made it a tradition to go out to forest service land and cut down a real tree (with a cheap permit), which helps with wildfire mitigation. The trees are usually kind of scrawny and awkward as they're not grown on a tree farm where they're all spaced apart and tended to during their growth, but the experience is fun. We put our cheap, lightweight ornaments on that.
Our main tree is a fake one that we can put up earlier.
Both!
Since my kids were young, we've made it a tradition to go out to forest service land and cut down a real tree (with a cheap permit), which helps with wildfire mitigation. The trees are usually kind of scrawny and awkward as they're not grown on a tree farm where they're all spaced apart and tended to during their growth, but the experience is fun. We put our cheap, lightweight ornaments on that.
Our main tree is a fake one that we can put up earlier.