I'd love to get a nine or ten foot real tree, but the mess puts my parents off. Add in to the equation the fact the the cats will attack anything that... will attack anything, and it's a definite no-go.
For the past seventeen years we've had an eight foot fake one, that looke really good.
This year we bought a new fake one - slightly smaller, at six feet, but it looks the part.
When I'm older, and I have my own house and cats, I'm going to lock them out of a room for the duration of Christmas, and get me a proper tree. Get the house whiffing of pine. Mmmmmm.