This is my Christmas tree. Nice, huh?
Our 2011 Christmas Tree
But it’s past the New Year. Past Epiphany. Past Ukrainian Christmas. And school starts again on Monday.
I like the house cleaned up from all traces of Christmas by the time our routine gets back to normal. I say the tree can go. I’m ready to take decorations down.
I didn’t use to be this way
I used to be the ‘Oh Honey, can’t we keep the Christmas tree and lights up all year long?’ kind of gal. That was when my hubby was the ‘We’re done, it’s Boxing Day!’ kind of guy.
But apparently we’ve had a role reversal, and I’m thinking that January 2nd would be a perfect compromise. Since we’re well past that today will do. Let’s take decorations down already! Except I’m the only one who thinks so!
Twelfth Night the time to take decorations down?
There’s a British tradition that that one should take decorations down by the Twelfth Night (January 5). Taking them down after Twelfth Night was considered bad luck. If you didn’t take decorations down in time, it was thought best to keep them up all year round.
I’ve joked about keeping the Christmas tree up all year. We’d put hearts on the tree for February, Shamrocks for March, and Cross and lilies for April. Then flowers for May (and Starbucks cards for Mother’s Day… I could let it stay up until May if there were Starbucks cards). June could have grad caps and transcripts, final exams and red pens hanging from it, July of course would be flags and August would be beach paraphernalia.
September would be notebooks, pencils, text books and dictionaries (maybe if we kept them on the tree we’d lose things less often). October would be harvesty things like pumpkins and colored leaves. November would be War things like tanks and guns and navy ships and homemade medals of honor and pictures of war heroes and veterans. Then December we’d be right back where we are today… with all the pretty balls and ribbon.
When do you take decorations down?
What do you think? When do you take decorations down? How long should the Christmas tree stay up? Has anyone EVER left it up all year? I’d love to try it… at someone else’s house!
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Our tree comes down before the new year. By that time I am tired of having it take up half of my living room. Our Christmas decorations come down at the same time, unless we miss one or two, then those usually stay up all year.
My tree is still up too.
Well, we usually take our decorations down on new Year’s Day or the day after. This year we are moving soon, we thought December 30, so when I took the year round decor down to replace with Christmas I packed it all up. Then we found out we were moving mid January and my daughter asked if we could leave Christmas up until we move. Now we think it’s the end of January. (Can we just move already?!) I am NOT leaving Christmas up all month long, so two days after New Year’s I mentioned it to the fam. None of them were feeling the same urge to take Christmas down. The next day when I mentioned getting the boxes down from the attic my husband says, That’s on my list. I woke up today and decided I’m getting those boxes down today.” I looked at him a little puzzled and then said, “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?” And he replied, “Yes, I am.”
However, yesterday I was triumphant. Before anyone could say another word I gathered all the non-tree or garland decorations together in the kitchen and informed everyone it was time to bring the boxes in and put Christmas away. They finally submitted and we got her done! Christmas is down at the Suchey house. Things are a tad bare, but Christmas is down.
I used to visit a woman around Middleton NS who had at least 6 such trees in her house. They were in the back room or something- she had various themes of home made crafts decorating all of them, and left them up all yr round! When WE were in NS this would not have worked, since it is mandatory to have a REAL tree when you live there! I for one am always surprised to see how big the living room feels, once the tree is gone and furniture replaced…bonne annee tout le monde…
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Wow… six trees?!?!?! That’s a whole lot of space to use up. I’m with you… I like seeing how big and spacious and cleaned up my house feels when the decorations come down. »
My tree came down on December 28th. I love Christmas and all, but since we put the tree up near the beginning of December, I think almost one month is enough. I like to get back to the uncluttered living room!
We have mardi gras to attend to, so typically we leave Christmas up and take christmas decor down either on epiphany or day after. THEN if we have artificial tree up, we swap it to mardi gras/superbowl (this year add LSU decor). If the real tree is still kickin, then it gets converted, otherwise it’s out the door (as it was this year), and a much smaller ornament tree holder goes up and the house is decorated for mardi gras!
Do you have pictures of your Mardi Gras tree from a previous year? I’d love to see it!
actually I don’t- I’ve been bad blogger and forgot to take pix the past 2 years!
basically we have gold, purple and green bulbed, glittered and shiny, along with beaded crystal ornaments in same colros. then we have tinsel garland in the 3 colors as well. We always ave a mardi gras mask or a large saints bow up on top- depends if they are in playoffs or not!
Our tree came down last week- and it was time! It’s a real tree, and we usually forget to water it after Christmas passes…
I’m a leave-it-up-until-the- branches-point-down-instead-of-up kinda girl. One year I kept feeling as though I was to leave it up WAY past any semblance of an appropriate time. Actually, it was the beginning of March. Little did we know that we would suddenly be very unexpectedly hosting a Vietnamese family for several months. Having just arrived from a refugee camp, they were frightened and cold. When they walked in and saw the sparkling Christmas tree, they were in awe and sat down in front of it and just stared. They were able to tell us later that they had never seen such a thing…It gave them HOPE! They later accepted Christ as their Savior! Now, I pray. No tug to leave it up, I say goodby…….around Jan 20th…..not bad!
Carla, I love your idea..! Let it stay until next Christmas, with different themes for each month, I would say. But….it is a LOT of work! Now we need two fairies: clean-up fairy as well as a decorating fairy!!
That’s the problem…. I’m running a little low on fairies!!