Where my trees at?

Okay, I am on the search for a tree this year. A cheap tree. A fake tree. Because a) I have no interest in cleaning up after a live one and b) Tim's allergies would be aggravated.


About 7 years ago, I got my very own full-sized tree. It was an exciting time. I'd never had a full-sized tree, since my dad grew up Jewish, my mom grew up Baptist and neither were practicing.


About two years later, my house had a fire. Ever since (except for last year, when I procrastinated too long and never put up the tree), I have dutifully put the thing together and taken it apart -- each time ending up with soot-covered hands.


Given that Tim's asthma is finally on the rebound -- with quitting smoking and a new kind of inhaler -- I decided it would be smart to get a clean tree.


But as I peruse the pre-Black-Friday sales and the previews of the actual BF sales, I notice a distinct lack of (cheap) fake tress that would satisfy me.


What I do see are an awful lot of pre-lit trees.


Why do people like these so much that they are willing to pay around $100 more for the darn things?!


The tangle of holiday lights never bothers me. So perhaps I'm just not the right person to understand. All I know is that this trend seems like a strange one to me.


After all, what do you do when the lights burn out? Can you replace them? Or is it planned obsolescence? If so, retailers are getting positively Machiavellian.


It wouldn't bother me so much, but in the last few years, I could swear the darn things are taking over! There are fewer and fewer non-pre-lit trees (naked trees?) in the ads.


It's a bit dismaying how much harder it is to find basic anything. The trees just seem like an excellent example. All the BF ads seem to feature "great" deals on fancy gadgets: large, plasma TVs, GPS devices, digital cameras, and computers -- all slightly less overpriced than normal. But still too expensive for consumers in this economy.


Though I fear that may not stop as many as it should.


I don't know about you, but I'll be very interested to read the papers on Monday to evaluate how sales actually went on the big day.


Until then, I will be scouting for some naked trees.