I don't
even bother with one. I use lots of small decorations - and just for
this living room I'm sitting in now for the most part. Reasonably sure I
haven't put up an actual tree in this century - though I still have an
artificial one stored in the cellar that the mice like a lot for their
nests that I haven't thrown away yet.
No one sees this living room
anymore but the occasional cable guy or other workmen here to fix
things and me...others that try have a meeting with my friends,
Remington, Smith & Wesson.
Fun Fact: It's
10 kinds of stupid to defend your house with a pistol. Bullets can make
holes in your walls that go right through to the outside. Do you have any concept
of how much it costs to fix that? Also, if you're fortunate enough to
have a family, those damn things are more likely to harm them than
actual bad guys. Use a Remington 870 or a Mossburg 500. The kiddies find
little to no fascination with those. Theoretically.
...Not that I advocate such violence here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. God forbid! "Uh, firearms are BAD, mmmkay?"
And
I digressed again, didn't I? Just use regular Xmas decorations if there
are no rugrats to satisfy. They look just fine, put you in the 'holiday
spirit' and save you a very large electric bill/live tree ripoff and
hours of labor.