12" Moravian Star/Tree Topper

This star is as pretty in person as it is shown in the photos. Really nice looking lit atop the tree. What I didn't expect (and why I didn't give this 5 stars) is how it came. Admittedly, I may have not paid much attention when buying it. What I thought I was buying was something that would come in a 12" cube box. I planned on pulling it out of the box, hoist it to the top of the tree, plug it in and presto... instant satisfaction. What I got was a box about 10 inches long by 2 inches high by about 3 inches deep with what resembled one of those 3D Saint Peter Cathedral puzzles a family of 10 puts together and presents to grandpa 30 years later for his retirement gift. It's not quite that difficult to put together but if you're dad and figured your days of building trampolines and bicycles was over, think again. It comes as a kit. A 3D kit. With squares and triangles. You put this thing together using little snap things and patience. If your hand eye coordination is lacking like mine, more than likely you'll need to phone a friend. A friend like... Jesus himself. In all honesty and exaggeration removed, I put this thing together in about 30 minutes. At first I thought I'd cram it in the trash half way through for lack of patience but I finished. And when I put it atop the tree, stood back and looked at it, I thought it was worth the money and time. That's easy for me to say because I've already done it. All in all, I'd highly recommend this.

I like twinkly lights. LOTS of twinkly lights! Therefore, this was a just the tree topper for us. The Star goes together in just a few minutes (assemble it with your kids, it is pretty sturdy and kind of a fun project) and emits a bright soft glow once together. We usually have between 700-900 lights on our tree (Clark Griswold, eat your heart out!) minimum and it has always been kind of tough finding just the right topper that would not get outdone by the rest of the lights. This Star holds its own and fits the bill perfectly.I posted a pic of our tree from last year and you can see that this Star balances nicely with any tree with a multitude of miniature lights or the larger old fashioned lights that tend to be a bit brighter as well. One of the features of the Star that I like is the attachment wire that comes with it. It works great for artificial trees and I imagine it would be helpful with live trees, too. It is a green extension rod about 8-9" long and a little thinner than a pencil with a couple of zip ties that lets you anchor the topper to the main tree trunk to keep it from falling over.Only downside is that I wish the cord were a bit longer. It is about 6' long and you will have to hide it in the branches of the tree and connect it with an extension cord. I don't believe they recommend connecting it to the end of a light string. Other than that, this was a good purchase and I look forward to enjoying our Moravian Star topper for years to come.

About ten years ago my husband unexpectedly discovered his inner Clark Griswold. Since then our front yard Christmas display has been growing, and growing and...Last year he built a beautiful 12 foot tree made entirely of green lights. And then he put an ugly tinsel cone on top! This summer for his birthday I wanted to give him a more appropriate "topper". Although this doesn't specify whether or not it is approved for outdoor use, I could swear when I ordered it one of the product photos showed it hanging outdoors. The star arrived in a plain white box and the little brochure inside didn't specify either. We took a chance and used it any way.Although house rules dictate that the display can't be turned on (except for testing) until after Thanksgiving, it takes several days to get everything up. The tree was the first thing up last Wednesday . The test that night was beautiful. And then on Thursday it started raining- hard. And it rained until Sunday afternoon. About half our average annual rainfall in four days! I thought my beloved would have sealed the joints of the star but he didn't so I didn't have much hope for its survival. We tested the tree last night (36 hours after the rain stopped) and it still works perfectly. So this star is much more durable than I expected.The other reviewer's customer images are very accurate. This star is more "glow" than "shine". I was a little concerned that it would be washed out by all of the other bright lights so we moved the ballerina-hippo-jack-in-the box and the gingerbread man-on-a-trampoline further away so it should be fine :-) If I remember I will take a picture of the next "test" and upload to show how it looks outdoors.update 1-8-14: The star made it through the entire season outdoors with no problem. We had one additional hard rain in that time and it had no effect on the star. Looking forward to using it again next year. Oh dear. I shouldn't have posted this update! Amazon's current moratoium on customer images caused my photo to be deleted. At this moment it is still showing as a small picture with the other customer images on the product page but it isn't visible larger. Sorry- it really is pretty outdoors.update 11-16-14: My husband has started setting up his massive Christmas display (takes a couple of weeks). Put the big tree up yesterday and the star is working fine. Pretty impressive since it spent the summer in a very, very hot garage. This turned out to be much sturdier than it appeared. All things considered I have to bump my review up to five stars. Don't know what more I could ask for.

Too small and just okay quality

Beautiful