Just went out and got our Christmas Tree at the home depot. It was expensive for a 7-and-change foot Frasier Fir - about $70 - but not nearly as bad as some of the rumors I was hearing of big shortages and skyrocketing prices.
My wife begged me to get a smaller tree this year - no kids at home, a fairly modest Christmas planned. I usually go the Clark Griswold route, as can be confirmed by permanent scars in our ceiling where a succession of mammoth trees gouged their signatures.
So, I listened to her, got a compact tree that falls a full 2-3 inches below our eight foot ceiling...And I'm already regretting it. I miss the monsters of Christmases past...
When I was a kid growing up, my dad and I would walk up on a ridge behind town where the woods were wild and scraggly enough that it didn't seem anyone was paying too much attention, whoever happened to own the land, and cut down a cedar to drag back home as a Christmas Tree. Dang, those things were ugly, but Christmas was just as sensational so I guess it doesn't matter that much about the tree.