When Do You Take Down Your Holiday Decorations?

[Neesy228]

Ours will come down slowly over the course of the week of January 3rd. My kids head back to school on the 4th, so I will have the time to get things down and put away neatly. The tree will go out first.

I am anxious to clean up and declutter and have some room to breathe in my house. I love Christmas, but our house is too small for 5 people, a dog, a gigantic tree and all of my decorations for weeks on end.

 

[mummabear]

Sometimes after the kids are in bed Xmas night or Boxing Day, this year it went down on the 27th.
I have 3 young kids and s dog I actually just can't handle any more playing with the tree and like the space back as well.
Also we tend to head away camping on Boxing Day (we have family visiting from overseas this year so don't leave u til Jan 1st)

 

[trip]

Taking ours down on Monday the 28th. We are under a winter storm watch for Monday - expecting 6-10 inches of snow so it will be a good time to do it. Plus we will be leaving town on Thursday for a long New Years weekend and don't want to come back to that chore.

 

[mamamary]

Our decorations will come down right after New Year's Day. Prob the next day. We haven't even opened gifts yet as we were away and didn't have time to do it ahead of time. I keep any snowmen out until my valentine decorations go up. Otherwise the house looks too blah!

 

[Pooh2]

For outside decorations, we look for the warmest day the week after Christmas. Might be today!
For inside, when the needles are falling off the tree when we enter the room. This year is the best tree we've had so might wait until later in the week.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Ours are coming down today. We cut our tree down 3 weeks before Christmas, so it will be a fire hazard if we leave it up much longer

 

[ronandannette]

Ours will come down slowly over the course of the week of January 3rd. My kids head back to school on the 4th, so I will have the time to get things down and put away neatly. The tree will go out first.

I am anxious to clean up and declutter and have some room to breathe in my house. I love Christmas, but our house is too small for 5 people, a dog, a gigantic tree and all of my decorations for weeks on end.

Our stuff isn't up for long; the week of December 15 (generally) until the weekend after January 7. I love it all and so enjoy having it up but I agree with you that taking it down automatically makes the house seem so much tidier and more spacious.

 

[aprilchem]

Until the Epiphany on January 6. While the RETAIL Christmas season is over, the HISTORIC Christmas season didn't even start until yesterday, Christmas Day and ends after the 12 Days of Christmas on January 6, the Epiphany. So ours will no longer be turned on after January 6, and weather and time permitting, will come down on the 7th or 8th.

On the other end, Christmas decorations should not be put up more than about 2 weeks before Christmas, and NEVER on the after Thanksgiving.

We still have 2 more Christmas celebrations ahead of us NEXT weekend due to travel and work considerations of family members.

After the Epiphany (January 6th).

What happened to the 12 Days of Christmas?


In our culture, we have moved to the idea of Thanksgiving to Christmas Day as being the "Christmas Season." But (traditionally/ religiously) Christmas Eve is just the beginning of the Christmas Season. Now it's all over the day it should just be getting started.

I've seen a lot of Christians with this attitude this year - I think they're confusing DECORATING for Christmas with CELEBRATING the reason for Christmas. I know religion is banned on here, so I'll just say that it's absolutely possible to celebrate Christmas' meaning with or without decorations in your house. And nowhere in my religious doctrine is there anything that says that decorations can't go up before a certain date, but perhaps you read a different book than I do.

 

[tzolkin]

I've seen a lot of Christians with this attitude this year - I think they're confusing DECORATING for Christmas with CELEBRATING the reason for Christmas. I know religion is banned on here, so I'll just say that it's absolutely possible to celebrate Christmas' meaning with or without decorations in your house. And nowhere in my religious doctrine is there anything that says that decorations can't go up before a certain date, but perhaps you read a different book than I do.

I think you're reading things into my post.

I am certainly not confusing decorating with celebrating. And your snarky comment about "reading a different book"...

Of course you can celebrate Christmas without decorating, but if you had gone through the trouble of decorating why would you take everything down the day after Christmas if you were just beginning your 12 day Christmas celebration? That simply doesn't make any sense. That would be like decorating for someone's birthday and then taking down all the decorations before the guests arrived for the party.

And, for the record, in my home we do decorate right after Thanksgiving. This was a post to discuss when people put up and remove decorations and why, so I was sharing some thoughts for discussion not telling anyone else what they should or shouldn't do. I was just commenting that I think because there's "Christmas overload" in our culture for a full month before, most people are sick of it and ready for it to be done by the 25th. In the past, people were not as bombarded with Christmas everywhere during Advent so they were more apt to celebrate the Christmas season once it arrived.

 

[tvguy]

I've seen a lot of Christians with this attitude this year - I think they're confusing DECORATING for Christmas with CELEBRATING the reason for Christmas. I know religion is banned on here, so I'll just say that it's absolutely possible to celebrate Christmas' meaning with or without decorations in your house. And nowhere in my religious doctrine is there anything that says that decorations can't go up before a certain date, but perhaps you read a different book than I do.

My wife is an Atheist so for her Christmas is strictly a time of good spirits based on history. You are absolutely correct, no need for decorations. IMHO the commercial greed factor alone has pushed the Christmas season earlier and earlier. And turning to the Bible strictly as an historic reference book, there wasn't much going on in Bethlehem before December 25th.

 

[Nancyg56]

I've seen a lot of Christians with this attitude this year - I think they're confusing DECORATING for Christmas with CELEBRATING the reason for Christmas. I know religion is banned on here, so I'll just say that it's absolutely possible to celebrate Christmas' meaning with or without decorations in your house. And nowhere in my religious doctrine is there anything that says that decorations can't go up before a certain date, but perhaps you read a different book than I do.

When I was a kid my Mom would take all the decorations down on January 1st. For some reason I never did find out, if they were not down that day they had to stay up til January 6th, or "Little Christmas" as she called it. I have no idea if it was something that she followed when she was young or that she adopted as an adult, but to this day I generally leave all of my decorations up until at least the 6th. Old habits die hard! LOL!

 

[Nancyg56]

Until the Epiphany on January 6.

On the other end, Christmas decorations should not be put up more than about 2 weeks before Christmas, and NEVER on the after Thanksgiving.

I understand Epiphany. I was raised CAtholic and am still a practicing Catholic. We celebrated Little Christmas when we were kids, and my Mom, as devout as they get had a little gift on the 6th for us, but she got the decorations down and out on January 1st so she did nto have to leave them til the 6th. For me, the 6th is the earliest we take our decorations down, and afte that I do nto turn them on.

I have every room in my housr decorated for Christmas, so I have the bathroom and bedrooms done the weekend before THanksgiving. By SUnday following, the rest of the house is completed. I always put my otdoor decorations out on a warm day before Tanksgiving and turn them on the day after.

I respect whatever others choose to do,and expect them to respect how I choose to celebrate the seasons and holidays. I spend a lot of time getting my home ready for the Holidays, and I enjoy the ambiance. I decorate for every Holiday and enjoy the changes in my home, so while I will not have Thanksgiving dinner with trees up in the great room and dining area, when we are done with that Holiday it is time to get rid of the leaves and enjoy the pine and holly.

 

[dotfurio]

We started taking them down yesterday. It's a 2-3 day process. I dread changing out decorations because we have so much Christmas stuff it's like packing up and moving. I need to get it done and out of the way early so I can enjoy the rest of vacation without that chore hanging over my head.

 

[georgina]

We usually leave them up until around Jan 6, but I am taking them down today as my DD is depressed and the decorations remind me that Christmas is supposed to be a happy time. There is no joy or happiness in my home right now, I think our worst Christmas ever.

 

[Judique]

My lights will stay up until Jan 9, which will be the weekend after Little Christmas.

The decor went up in stages this year. Outdoor first, than the first tree and later the 2nd tree.

I decorate my baths by changing to Xmas shower curtains and mats and candles.

We are cutting back on decor as this stuff takes up so much space!

I'm tempted to leave the white lights on my fence as they really light up the area. I'll take them down last.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Whenever we get around to it after January 1. Sometimes right after the New Year, but the decorations have been known to stay up until late January or even early February. The outdoor lights and tree, however, will be lit for the last time next weekend, even if they stay up much longer than that.

 

[moon]

Not before Jan 6th. Yes, twelve days of Christmas, but they are up at or right after thanksgiving. We have a lot of decorations, and it'd be to much work to put the up just for a couple of weeks and then take them down.

Besides, it looks so pretty! I want to enjoy them as much as I can!

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Maybe 20 years ago we were driving to in-laws on Christmas Day about 1pm and we noticed a cut tree out by the curb. It may still have had some decorations on it. ExH theorized that Santa didn't bring the bratty kids their Power Rangers, they were whining about it all morning, the father got fed up and heaved the tree out the door.

I noticed something similar years ago as well. When arriving at my brother's house Christmas Day for dinner, we saw the neighbors had their cut tree out for trash already. I mentioned it to SIL, and she said the neighbors get their tree Thanksgiving weekend, and do all their celebrating Christmas Eve, so it wasn't unusual to see the tree out by Christmas afternoon.

I like your ex-husband's theory better, however. Sounds like they had a real great Christmas.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Our contract states that the exterior decorations must be removed by Jan. 5th, and the interior decorations by Jan. 7th. They've already removed and packed up the outside stuff and it looks like they will be here on the 4th to take care of the interior. I'm holidayed out so I'm ready for it all to go away til next year.

 

[scrapquitler]

All my snowman things will stay up until mid-March. The tree and other Christmas things will come down sometime after January 6th, and before our Disney trip on the 14th. One year our tree stayed up until St. Patricks Day (it's artificial) I don't plan to ever do that again, but if I get busy or in a deep funk, it could happen.