We bought a pre-lit tree from Sams Club last year. THE BEST investment I could have done when coming to a Christmas tree. Really...I personally prefer the real thing to a fake tree any day. But, with cats, kids, and the fact that it's not feasible for me to keep it all together when I'm not here, we just went the fake tree route.
We searched probably about 7 or 8 stores..maybe more. Sam's had the best deal. It was $199 well ahead of Christmas. Then, we finally did the deed, but two days later, it dropped down to $149. Since the sale was within two weeks, they gave us the difference back. Of course, after Christmas???...my mother in law got it for $50. Nice...grrr....
But, my advice is to just bite the bullet and get a pre-lit/wired fake tree and use that year in year out. It's great.