Christmas trees have become such a dilemna. Fake, U-cut, live, from a tree farm, or even no tree..... Pros and cons for all I suppose. For me the answer was to ask my father make me a metal tree. This is what I've been using for the last couple years:
I love my tree! It allows me to set up a tree early in the month and to have decorations up for all of December. It breaks down for easy storage. It's funky. It will last forever. There is no plastic. I can add evergreen branches (windfall or from pruning) to it as part of the decorations even. The only thing it isn't is cat proof: