What’s The Deal With The Artificial Christmas Tree Box

It's a fight that I've been fighting for a number of years and I feel like I'm about to lose it.

Because our previous pre-lit artificial Christmas tree had an issue with the lights not wanting to work, about four years ago we purchased a new tree as a replacement. Once the new tree was up, it was beautiful and perfectly lit, but there's one thing I will not understand and that's how the manufacturer is able to get the tree into that box. When Christmas is over it's always a fight to get the tree back in the box. It's like a jack in the box that want to keep popping out of the top!

I was able to get it to fit by cramming it back in the box the first year. But doing so, I was terrified that I was messing up the lights on it and that they wouldn't work the following year when I pulled it out of the box. Thankfully that hasn't been the case for the past three years, but now I've got a new problem. The tree, that comes in three separate pieces to form the tree will no longer come apart from the base and middle section. Because of this little issue, I have a bigger issue because now it really won't fit in the box!

So I got very creative - as you can tell from the picture above - when it comes to storing my Christmas tree. I still have to cram the tree in the box and shove the top section in the box too and then fight like hell to keep it from popping out the side as I tape it closed with duct tape. If it bulges out on the sides at all the box becomes too wide to go through the opening in the attic.

It's a struggle, but I ultimately win. I just need some easier way to store this thing in a box that is accommodating. My question is why can't Sterilite, Rubbermaid and those other plastic bin makers make a big enough storage box for a Christmas tree because this little ole box that the manufacturer has given me is about to make me lose it.