Naturally, at a Christmas tree lot, customers have faith in fresh over fake.

But even though they still far out number sales of the fake ones.

Real tree sales have fallen in recent years, while the artificial trees have been on the upswing.

So to keep the cuts in their business from going any deeper, the real tree industry is on the verge of launching a marketing and promotional campaign.

The 12-thousand Christmas tree growers in the u-s are being asked to pony up the money to finance the campaign that will actually be overseen by the US Department of Agriculture.

The same agency was behind the 'Got Milk' campaign, paid for with a special tax on the dairy industry.

That's how it'll work with the Christmas tree growers, who want it emphasized that, unlike the artificial trees, these trees are home grown.

"Some of these plastic trees are beautiful�� Says tree farmer Norman Simpson. ��but they are shipped in from somewhere else� we've been a nation of consumers long enough� lets try to stay producers as much as we can"

It's too late to promote the real trees this year, but things might be bright by this time next year.