Taking Down Holiday Decor

[sk!mom]

Mine is still up. It has finally been cold here the past week or so and I'm enjoying lazy days relaxing, reading, just enjoying the quiet and the decorations. I will take it down by the 1st since I go back to work on the 2nd.

My decorating is more based on each year's break schedule and any travel plans than tradition/Epiphany/whatever. I typically put it up Thanksgiving weekend because it's a 5 day weekend for me so I have the time. We celebrate Thanksgiving and then move on to decorating and Christmas shopping. If we travel for Thanksgiving, it goes up the weekend before so that Christmas welcomes us upon our return.

The takedown is whenever I feel like it between Christmas and my return to work after the New Year.

We were talking last night and DH pointed out that when our kids were young, I normally took it down the day after Christmas. I think that was because Christmas was so overwhelming then- so many new toys- so much to assemble- things to figure out- things to return when they didn't work. I think I was always just ready to start getting my house back to some kind of control. With kids grown, the gift amount is much smaller and they manage it all. I just sit back and enjoy.

This is 4 years in a row that college DD doesn't get home to enjoy the decorations until closer to Christmas so she likes them up for at least a couple of weeks.

Next year, DD will be working and in her own grown up home so when we take down the tree in the next few days, we are going to be separating out the ornaments that are hers.

 

[tvguy]

So, she has appropriated religion? How can she call herself an atheist then?

No, she has just rejected the retailers Christmas season time frame, and feels the one that aligns with traditional religious time frame.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That's what gets me. I hate rushing the next holiday to start before the previous one even gets here! Christmas stuff at the drugstore near me was already half off well before the holiday - which was kind of nice because I needed something, but still felt not quite right.

I'm right there with you. I love Christmas but the overlap with Halloween (with Thanksgiving not having too much of a presence nowadays at least at the stores near me) seems to make it more easy to push the holiday out before it even occurs so you can get right onto Valentine's Day. I mean at this point Valentine's Day is just over 1 1/2 months away..and I don't think we need ALL that time to prepare for Valentine's Day. Would be nice to have a bit more time for Christmas.

 

[MIGrandma]

I used to start decorating the house for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it seems to take me longer to get everything out and up so this year I started a few days before Thanksgiving.

I love the tree and decorations, so I'm never in a hurry to take everything down. It usually comes down about a week after the New Year. I do leave my lighted village up until March 1st. I do enjoy "having the house back to normal" after everything is put away though.

One friend takes her Christmas tree down ON Christmas Day. To me that's too early.

 

[mummabear]

The tree is also a sign of everlasting life.

The cut and dying tree is a sign of everlasting life

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I'm another who finds the weeks leading up to Christmas to be too busy to really enjoy, so this is the time to relax. My DH is off from work this week, the house is clean, the fridge is full of leftovers, and I can sit back in the warm glow of the twinkling lights. Cozy, quaint, yada yada. The decorations typically come down in the second-ish week of January, whenever I start to get that itch of wanting my house back to normal.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

ut why is the tree part of it? No one seems to be able to answer?

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.
http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees

 

[bethbuchall]

Ours is always up December 1 and down the day after Christmas. Spent this morning putting everything away. It's down for us because DH and relatives have birthdays in a few days. They all grew up with the Merry Christmas & Oh it's your birthday gift too.

My grandmother was born on Christmas Day. She grew up very poor. All of her siblings got gifts on their birthdays and on Christmas. She only received one gift on Christmas like everyone else because there was no money to spare. It made her sad even as an adult that everyone pretty much dismissed her birthday because it was on Christmas. My husband's sister's birthday is December 14th, so their house was never decorated for Christmas until after that. I grew up decorating for Christmas early because my parents liked to have the house decorated for their anniversary on December 1st.

Fortunately, we have no birthdays near Christmas in our family now, so decorations are up early and remain until after Epiphany.

 

[Southernmiss]

The cut and dying tree is a sign of everlasting life

Eh. Our trees are artificial.

 

[mom2rtk]

Eh. Our trees are artificial.

Now THAT is everlasting life.

 

[amberpi]

I'm in my mid 30s and decently educated... and had never heard of anyone celebrating the 12 days of Christmas (literally thought it was a song, so cool to learn about all the Saints, etc.) or anything about an Epiphany in my life (grew up secular, now spiritual but not religious). I've been reading along and educating myself. Thanks for sharing your observations with everyone, Dis. I've been learning a ton and how cool are all the varied celebrations of the world and even within our country!

 

[gillep]

Everything just came down except for my Christmas tablecloth, once I clear of the table I will throw that in the wash, and then put away all of the boxes, I am glad to have my home back to normal again!

 

[PollyannaMom]

My grandmother was born on Christmas Day. She grew up very poor. All of her siblings got gifts on their birthdays and on Christmas. She only received one gift on Christmas like everyone else because there was no money to spare. It made her sad even as an adult that everyone pretty much dismissed her birthday because it was on Christmas. My husband's sister's birthday is December 14th, so their house was never decorated for Christmas until after that. I grew up decorating for Christmas early because my parents liked to have the house decorated for their anniversary on December 1st...

Aw, how sad for your grandmother!

DH's birthday is only about a week before, so he always felt his got squashed as well. His parents were careful to separate it (except for not always having birthday wrapping paper and using Christmas) but sometimes other relatives just got him a "bigger" gift than his siblings. - They spent the same amount as two presents, but when you're little, you don't realize that.

It's hard to do get-togethers because everyone is always so busy, and forget about birthday cards! - To this day, I slip extra ones into the mail leading up to his birthday just so "the birthday door" is as full for him as it is for mine and DS's one and two months earlier.

 

[ronandannette]

We put it up Thanksgiving weekend. We have a small house & it looks so pretty & cozy decorated & so empty & cold when we put stuff away. When we put it all up, we always say "seems like we just put this stuff away" Then when we take it down, we say "seems like we just decorated". Time starts to fly the older you get!

I’ve got a smallish space also and love the way the Christmas decorations make it look. Once they come down though we all comment on how much more spacious and tidy the place feels.

Not only will my decor stay up until January, I actually bought some additional decorations for half price at Walmart yesterday and put them up. Two of those outdoor laser light things that shine against the house and make moving patterns. One has green and red snowflake type patterns, The other has Santa's sleigh and reindeer.

LOVE those - I’d not seen them before this year but suddenly they were everywhere!

For us the Christmas season is just beginning....in fact it's the 3rd day of Christmas....the 3 French hens day.

Sounds delicious!

 

[DVC-Don]

Everything down on Jan 1st.

This.

 

[mmouse37]

I was going to wait until Jan 1 but I think I am ready to do it today if our other plans fall through. Next week is much busier so will be harder to find the time.

MJ

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

OP back. Thanks everyone for replying. I admit it never occurred to me that people might be going away the day after Christmas and want to dispose of their cut trees before then.

Not only will my decor stay up until January, I actually bought some additional decorations for half price at Walmart yesterday and put them up. Two of those outdoor laser light things that shine against the house and make moving patterns. One has green and red snowflake type patterns, The other has Santa's sleigh and reindeer.

We wanted to get a Disney one. But the only ones they had left were the yucky generic ones. Well next year. Soon as they go to 50% we buy em. If they're gone before they get there, oh well. But this year we got a light tree and rope lights for the walk.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

I'm pretty pathetic about this. Every year, I would love it down by New Year's. But then I feel like I should stretch it util the epiphany. So I say I'll do it the weekend after epiphany but the kids usually have a ton of sports around that time. Then the next weekend, oldest son heads back to college. Then the next week is midterms for high school girls...so before you know it it's February 1st and the tree is still up. To make things worse, last year we bought a new tree where we can change the lights from multi to clear. I just love the clear lights in the dead of winter so the tree stayed up until mid-February.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

I am thinking it's coming down between tonight and tomorrow. The lights are pretty on the tree but i am over all of it. I just want my house back to normal now.

 

[mmouse37]

My one after Christmas holiday décor purchase......was at Lowe's and saw this for 50% off



MJ