You can actually see the stars of the open cluster ngc2264 quite easily, with a small telescope, or decent binoculars - and it does indeed have that tri-angular 'christmas-tree' shape.
I've seen the cluster many times with binocs, although it is upside-down in binocs, but appears the right way up in a telescope. (astronomical telescopes flip the image upside-down)
The nebulous gasses aren't so easy to see - a very large aperture telescope, or long exposure photograph is required.
Quite easy to find too - so long as you can find the constellation of Orion - just look for a line of 3 stars to the south/southeast, which mark his belt.
Above that are two bright-ish stars - Betelgeuse and Bellatrix
The Christmas tree is left of those, pretty much a direct line through those two, points right at the Christmas tree.
Then from the Christmas tree, down and right, roughly the same as an average binocular field of view (about 5°) is the Rosette nebula - again, you won't see the nebulosity with binoculars, but you will see the star cluster embedded in it - you'll know when you've found it because the 6 most prominent stars in the cluster make two tiny parallel lines of 3 stars.
And if you are out looking anyway - might as well take a look at the Orion nebula - below the 'belt' of Orion is a line of 3 stars - the middle one is actually a glowing cloud of gas.
And this nebula you CAN see in binoculars - quite easily.
Look also immediately above and below the Orion nebula for two more open clusters above, and one below (ngcs 1981, 1977 and 1980 respectively)
This might help...
http://i43.tinypic.com/biqwr5.jpg
If you see this Ricardo - would be a nice starting session for the new scope
Cloud-permitting, of course