Tooling along down the road, stumbled on a church rummage sale back in August. There, on the sidewalk, was a bent and splitting giant cardboard box containing a fake Christmas tree. Ten bucks. And HEAVY! We schlepped it into the back of the car, stuffed it in the garage, and pretty much forgot about it until now, when I dragged it out to set up for our obligatory holiday festivities. WOW!!!! This tree is a MONSTER tree. 14 feet tall! Since our living room is open to the second story, there's a lot of airspace to fill -- and that's why I bought the tree, because i figured to buy a real tree that height would be close to two hundred bucks, easily. And I'm cheap.
So now, we've got this fake tree that, when covered with oodles of ornaments, hundreds of lights, and miles of garlands, looks amazing.
And going forward, I'll probably always have a soft spot for it, because it was so damn cheap! What a STEAL for Christmas!