Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was wary of artificial trees, my only experience having been with the aluminum ones we used to have when I was a kid. (For years we've either had no tree or a real one.) But this year we are in a new house with plenty of space for a Christmas tree, so I went shopping for a pre-lit tree. This tree seemed to offer the best combination of appearance and price and the reviews were good, so I took a chance. As other reviewers have said, the tree arrived in a few days and was easy to set up. (The instructions are very minimal, but it's pretty easy to figure out how it goes together and how to attach the light strings to the main electrical cord.) The tree is somewhat tall in relation to the width, but that is one of the things I liked about it. We have a tall room but not that much floor space, so it works extremely well for our living/dining area. One reviewer was very negative about the fullness of the tree, but I disagree. You DO need to spend some time "fluffing" out the individual branches to make the tree look good--but I read that same advice about every other artificial tree that I looked at (including much more expensive ones), so I knew that was part of the deal. Including unboxing the tree, assembling it, fluffing out the branches, and putting ornaments on the tree, the entire process took somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. I love the tree and even my husband (who is slightly humbuggy about Christmas) said it looked like a department-store tree once it was decorated. UPDATE: I'm on year two of this tree and still think it's an excellent value. All of the lights worked and the branches still look full. I probably took some extra time this year to fluff out the branches and, if anything, it looks better than it did the first year. (Third picture is this year's tree.) UPDATE: In year three, all of the lights worked and the branches still look full. Still very happy with the product. UPDATE: In year four, the tree still looks great an all of the lights work.