Mini-Trees and The Masters

Got back from the drumline championships where the offspring took 2nd place! I taped The Masters golf tournament and am now ready to watch my favs (Phil and Freddy) and tackle my first mini-tree.
I got the first frame, 3 sets of lights, and a bag of cable ties, and I'm off. After getting the first set of lights on I noticed that it seemed a little small. I measured the area of the frame that holds the lights, and it was only 14 inches. Problem...I neglected to account for the length of frame that would need to go into the ground to hold them in place. The 24" easel had 10" legs which made the tree too small. Stymied...I'm going to have to check out the 30" or 36" easels, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.