When do you put away the Christmas decorations?

[ShirikiUtundu]

usually second or third weekend in January, whenever there is free time

 

[CdnCarrie]

I tend to get just a tad bit depressed right after Christmas. I've found it helps to take the "ripping off the Bandaid" approach. I sit and enjoy the tree lights with a cup of cocoa and Christmas music for one last time on the night of the 25th, then turn the lights off before I go to bed and they never go on again. I get up early on the 26th, and within hours all traces of Christmas have been packed away. We spend Boxing Day boxing up Christmas! I find that it's easier for me to cheer up and move forward when I'm not surrounded by Christmas stuff after it's over and gone. I clean the house, clear out the junk food, and try to get optimistic about the new year coming.

This year was a little different. I'm not really sure why; I just didn't feel the pressure to clear it all away as soon as Christmas was over this year. I still felt a little depressed, but the Christmas stuff didn't seem to be affecting this. Maybe it's just that everything was different this year.

I have most of it boxed up now, though, and it'll all be gone by the end of the day.

I’m like this too but after NYE. Christmas decor after the 1st makes me sad and depressed.
and I freely admit to judging those who still have Christmas lawn ornaments in April!

 

[dvcgirl67]

Usually we'd take it down sometime this weekend because we normally have a real tree. This year we decided on an artificial tree, and so we're going to wait until next weekend...or maybe the following weekend, because we're still mostly stuck at our house, and so who cares right?

 

[OHmomof2]

The weekend after New Year’s. Normally I would have done it this weekend, but I threw my back out...so next weekend it is!

 

[mumto3girls]

[/QUOTE]

Has anyone else heard about the effort to keep all Christmas lights up through the end of January to support first responders and hospital workers during the pandemic?

I had not heard about this, but my DH usually does the outside stuff and doesn’t think he will get to it this weekend. He leaves on a business trip Monday and isn’t due back until at least the end of the following week. I planned to pull the plugs after Epiphany, but maybe I’ll leave it on.

 

[mumto3girls]

I tend to get just a tad bit depressed right after Christmas. I've found it helps to take the "ripping off the Bandaid" approach. I sit and enjoy the tree lights with a cup of cocoa and Christmas music for one last time on the night of the 25th, then turn the lights off before I go to bed and they never go on again. I get up early on the 26th, and within hours all traces of Christmas have been packed away. We spend Boxing Day boxing up Christmas! I find that it's easier for me to cheer up and move forward when I'm not surrounded by Christmas stuff after it's over and gone. I clean the house, clear out the junk food, and try to get optimistic about the new year coming.

This year was a little different. I'm not really sure why; I just didn't feel the pressure to clear it all away as soon as Christmas was over this year. I still felt a little depressed, but the Christmas stuff didn't seem to be affecting this. Maybe it's just that everything was different this year.

I have most of it boxed up now, though, and it'll all be gone by the end of the day.

I’m like this too but after NYE. Christmas decor after the 1st makes me sad and depressed.
and I freely admit to judging those who still have Christmas lawn ornaments in April!

Yes. This describes how I feel too. I definitely feel a let down after the holidays and seeing all the decorations up knowing that I have to take them down and there’s not much to look forward to makes me sad. I leave it up through New Year’s as we usually have a party New Year’s Eve, but after that I just need it to come down and “start fresh”. I got a lot done today. A lot more to do tomorrow. Hopefully by dinner time tomorrow it’s done.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I’m like this too but after NYE. Christmas decor after the 1st makes me sad and depressed.
and I freely admit to judging those who still have Christmas lawn ornaments in April!

We don’t put outside lights/decorations anymore, so there is nobody to offend

I did realize today the benefit of not being allowed to have people come over is I can keep the inside stuff up as long as I want and nobody outside of our house will be the wiser, unless I post pics to social media.

 

[Micca]

Everything got dismantled today and moved to the garage. Tomorrow we'll start putting all the stuff on the shelves in the garage. I agree that it's kind of depressing to put it all away, winter time is pretty bleak and you gotta hide all the fun stuff during it? Who came up with that plan???

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We don’t take the Christmas stuff down until after Epiphany. Then it’s usually all down and packed away by the following weekend.

Has anyone else heard about the effort to keep all Christmas lights up through the end of January to support first responders and hospital workers during the pandemic?

I found this:
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2021/01/01/keep-your-christmas-lights-up-through-january/
It's from Salem, VA. Maybe that's why you've heard of it. But it's not a nationwide thing.

 

[kyton]

1st January every year - that means they’ve been up for 2mths.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

Most everything comes down December 26th. We have a live tree and it goes up the day before Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving night. Christmas trees and decorations give me so much joy BEFORE Christmas Day, but not at all after Christmas Day.

So 90% of everything comes down, but there are a few exceptions. I have a snowman collection and that stays up through January. I display all of our Christmas cards from friends/family on a door in our kitchen. I leave those up until Feb. to enjoy them. More and more people don't mail them until right before Christmas and many don't mail them until New Years, so if I took those down right away, there would be no time to enjoy them.

Some years, I'll leave our two mangers up until the Epiphany, but defintely not any non religious items like our Christmas Tree, Santa decorations, holly/garland etc.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I guess I'll have to amend my answer. My husband came in a while ago having taken down several of the outdoor decorations (I didn't know he was doing that). I guess tomorrow the tree comes down.

 

[RangerPooh]

For us it’ll be this week. My SIL was itching to take down our decorations Christmas Day, but we said nope, not until after the first. DD15 took down the tree ornaments today. We need to buy new plastic totes before the rest gets taken down.

 

[E&Cmom]

We will do it this weekend.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Tomorrow.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I found this:
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2021/01/01/keep-your-christmas-lights-up-through-january/
It's from Salem, VA. Maybe that's why you've heard of it. But it's not a nationwide thing.

That explains it! HCA is a big hospital network here in Virginia. I heard about leaving the lights up through January a few weeks ago where I live in Richmond, VA, but didn’t realize it was sponsored by the hospital system until I read what you posted.

 

[LuvOrlando]

We don’t take the Christmas stuff down until after Epiphany. Then it’s usually all down and packed away by the following weekend.

Has anyone else heard about the effort to keep all Christmas lights up through the end of January to support first responders and hospital workers during the pandemic?

I can get behind that

"It's from Salem, VA. Maybe that's why you've heard of it. But it's not a nationwide thing."

---it could be, count me in from PA

 

[MamaBelle4]

I don't take it down any dedicated time - whenever I feel like it. Maybe tomorrow. We got a massive tree this year and it's kind of taken hold of the entire living room

 

[Lehuaann]

Before Covid, all lights came down a day or 2 after Christmas. I wanted them down ASAP

Now, outside lights only came down yesterday due a warm spell. Inside lights/decor are still up. Not sure when we’ll take them down

 

[OKW8297]

We took the tree and most decorations down today, but the nativity will stay up until next weekend.