When we were kids we made a cardboard tree out of a giant box our aunt and uncle (their new fridge) gave us, and crayons. We couldn't afford to get a real tree until Christmas Eve when they would be put on sale or left for free. So every year after that we put our cardboard one up for the first few weeks. We also had a cardboard made fireplace.
On Christmas Eve though we had the real tree and we would decorate it and fight over it
Awwww good times! LOVE the fridge box story. I remember the neighbor having a store bought cardboard fire place. Thought it was cool. No one (at the time) had fire places.
We used to go chop down our Christmas tree. It was a fun family event. I wanted to have the same tradition, with my kids. First time we did it, son got pretty sick. Allergic to pine. We went to having a fake tree after that. Then when the cat population numbers went up, we switched to the wall Christmas tree.