Jeff, have you seen this site:
http://aluminumchristmastrees.net/store/categories/1/christmas-trees/
I think you can get your tabletop tree for under $10. (To save time, shop trees in ascending order pricewise.)
And because I'm nosy, I just have to ask: Did your parents use a color wheel with their tree?
Somewhat belatedly--thanks! I'll check this out.
So far I've just been looking on eBay, where table-top models seem to be going for about $50.
It was my grandparents who had the aluminum tree, and, yeah, you betcha, they had a color wheel!
I'm laughing at my own fascination with these trees now, because when I was a little boy, I couldn't stand Grandma and Grandpa's tree. It seemed like such an abomination because you couldn't put lights on it--which, to me then, seemed the very essence of "Christmas tree." It was all very 1960. The tree sat in the big picture window in the living room, with the color wheel trained on it, so that passers-by in the street could see this aluminum tree change colors as the color wheel turned.
On eBay I've even seen a pink aluminum tree--which, of course, reminds me of instructions given to Charlie Brown to get a modern Christmas tree--"maybe painted pink!"
I'm also looking into feather trees.
