While it doesn't help at all with the alergies, most Christmas tree places have a little shaker. They put the trunk (?) of the tree in the base and it vibrates, knocking off most of the dead and near dead needles
It makes set-up and take-down of the tree a little less messy. Personally, I love the smell of our Christmas tree whenever I walk in our door - it has long been associated in my mind with the Christmas spirit (awwww). So my vote went to the real tree, but my mom wants a fake one for the setup reasons you mentioned DJ. lol, it has also been a long tradition with my father to go to one of the cut-your-own Christmas tree places and get one...its has always been...interesting