If I'm having a real tree (which is my preference) I buy pot grown trees. Be really careful about getting a rooted tree. Often it has just the bare minimum of root and will die regardless. Look out for roots sticking out of the top of the pot - that's a rootcut tree stuffed into pot, probably too small for it. A good pot grown tree will have moss, grass or other small plants growing in the top of the soil around the trunk. It will not drop needles if you pull a branch through your fingers and should not come out of the pot if you lift it by the trunk. If it does come out of the pot, check to see if the roots look disturbed. If they aren't, you've got a proper pot grown tree and it should last for ages if kept cool and watered well.

We have a tree in our garden that was originally bought as one of those little 12" table trees, covered in flock snow and tacky baubles. Mother carefully picked the flocking off, and now, some 9 years later, its a 3ft tree in a large pot. It isn't the lushest of trees, it has suffered from drought in its time, but it's going to hit double figures this year and that's pretty good going for a Christmas tree.

LTS