There's a scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas [1] where Charlie Brown and Linus are shopping for Christmas trees and all they find are these triangular metal trees. I always found that scene to be pretty surreal what with the extreme artificial nature of the artificial trees. The trees I was familiar with were made of green plastic needles embedded in a metal wire frame.
You know, real artificial trees, as opposed to the artificial artificial trees shown in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
Yeah.
Anyway, the thought that there were ever artificial artificial Christmas trees never crossed my mind until I came across the Aluminum Tree and Aesthethically Challenged Seasonal Ornament Museum & Research Center [2].
Oh my.
It just wasn't a surreal moment made up by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz [3] and animator Bill Melendez [4].
Oh wait! That's right! It was the 60s.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas
[2] http://www.aluminumtree.com/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Schulz