ALWAYS real. I would never buy a fake tree. A few years ago I ordered one (real) from LL Bean. The prettiest tree I've ever had, but they won't deliver it here.
We're headed up to Blairsville this weekend to get ours:
http://www.southerntreeplantation.com/
The problem is that my house is too small to fit a tree into, so we have to put it on the screen porch.