Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Searching online for a few days for an artificial tree. I shopped the home improvement stores to see their displays, and looked at the expensive online stores that do only christmas trees. The listing photo for this tree looks absolutely awesome and is either photoshopped or they took all the branches and put them on only one side of the tree. The listing photo (white background, tree with full branches and dark interior) is not what you will get. What you will get, however, is a very nice tree that will need shaping and filling in with ornaments and ribbons. I knew I wasn't going to get a tree that looked like the listing photo. Instead I based my buying decision on the customer review photos. As such I tried to add a lot of my own photos to help anyone trying to decide whether or not to purchase this tree. After the tree was assembled I found it helps if you circle around the tree looking for spots where you can see through and then positioning branches to fill in those gaps. When assembling the tree I started to fan out the branches as I assembled. I thought it was easier to reach all the branches that way. The mid section had a connection of lights that was not connected (and finding that end of the light string proved challenging). I thought it would be one connection with every section of tree but it was one for the bottom and mid section. One connection in the mid section and then one connection from mid to top. The LED light pattern blinks as follows: -All white. -All color -Fading white. -Fading color -Fade white then fade color, repeat -Blink white -Blink color -Slow alternating blink white / blink color -Fast alternating blink white / blink color -off I think once it's decorated it will look much better. I'll update my review with a decorated tree later. Overall I'm happy with the purchase. The box is very sturdy and should last at least a few years for tree storage. If anything changes I'll update this review. 11.26.2016 UPDATE We just set up our Christmas tree today. It has been in the garage wrapped up in a "Santa's Bags SB-10100 6-9-Foot Upright Tree-Storage Bag" we bought from Amazon back in January. I had wanted to store the tree in the box it originally came in, but it was too hard to get everything back in the box once the tree had been fluffed up. The tree spent half the year laying on it's side on top of a large shelf in the garage, and the other half standing up in the corner. The whole time wrapped up in the Santa Bag. I spent about an hour fluffing up the tree and arranging the branches. Looks great. I noticed a few needles on the carpet (maybe 5 or so). During the day it looks pretty good, but at night it really looks nice. See an updated photo "After one year in storage." If you are using a timer or remote to turn the tree on and off it will remember the LED blink pattern that it was set to last. My only complaint is that it takes up a good amount of space in the garage. 01.03.2017 UPDATE Added photos of the tree in the Santa Bags tree storage bag. The top third of the tree is taken off and placed in a zippered opening at the base of the tree. It takes two people to pull the bag up around the tree. I did not do any compressing of the branches before bagging the tree. I cleared some space in the garage. Until next Christmas... 2018 update: still awesome.