O' Tanenbaum or Faux Tanenbaum

When I lived in an apartment I bought a fake tree. It wasn't anything special, but it was a Christmas tree. We used it the first year that we were in the house, but my wife never really liked it. So for the past couple of years my wife and I have gone out and bought a real tree. With our real tree we got all of the benefits - fresh pine smell - and all of the penalties - needles, watering. It's never really been a lot of work. But this year might be a bit different. Oliver is still at the stage where everything goes in his mouth, which in this case may include pine needles. On the other hand, when we had bats the fake tree got covered with guano. So if we were going to get a fake tree, we'd have to buy a new one. And is it better to put a real pine needle in your mouth or a fake one?

So we are left with a decision - O' Tanenbaum or faux tanenbaum?