Well, I took a vote, and despite low voter turn-out, the results are in: we went with a tropical plant as our Christmas tree instead of buying and artificial tree.
Turns out it's hard to properly wrap a palm plant with Christmas lights, and their fronds are not very supportive of ornaments. But it gets the job done, nonetheless! Having it up makes it feel somewhat Christmas-y. Only somewhat because it's still 92 degrees out there...