i think my favorite christmas tree ever was one that laura and i made.
we picked up those foam disks from the craft store in three different sizes and a piece of wood dowling.
then we constructed a very erm, well, abstract tree from it, painting the foam green and red and the dowling silver.
the trick with fake trees is, i think, to make it obvious that it's fake, not fake trying to be real.
of course, when i was in germany i got a wee little potted evergreen, like you and paul had. that is also fun :D