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The Kitchen Table

Finished putting the last ornament away!

10 years ago

Anyone else use the day after New Years to pack up the decorations and put things back in their places?

I usually do. This year my husband did his part by taking down the outside wreaths and decorations today. Sometimes he waits a few days.

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Comments (20)

Terri_PacNW
10 years ago
Nope..I leave my houses and snow men out through Jan...

Most of Christmas has already left the indoors...have to wait on Kian to return to get the outside lights down and put away..
patti43
10 years ago
I did it yesterday--even remembered to take the wreath off the door. Usually I forget it! My living room is pretty small and the Christmas decor gives me claustrophobia after a while--plus it looks cluttered and I hate that! I still need to move the furniture back the way it was.
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I am proud to report that, for the first time in more than a decade, my Christmas decorations all went up on one weekend, and all came down on January 6. Ordinarily, my decorations start going up a bit at a time at the beginning of December. I work full time and don't get to spend much time enjoying my decorated house, hence starting early. Over many years, I'd started to decorate AROUND some of the clutter because I couldn't quite get my act together enough to actually clean and then decorate. And then it would take me MONTHS to get it all down again. (I go all out - every room is decorated to some degree.) Well, because of a construction project that has been taking forever this year, our entire house was even more of a disaster area than it had ever been before (contents of the rooms related to the construction had been disbursed throughout the house for many months) and we'd found out that DH's family would finally come to visit us for Christmas this year. Finally, after a crazy month of working tons of hours, a week before Christmas, I pulled out all the stops - DH and I spent some time in each and every room, every day that week, making in each room a pile of "stuff" to throw/give away. And then I called the 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys and spent the most worthwhile $670 I ever spent in 2 hours. They FILLED their truck, carrying stuff from the basement, garage, and every room upstairs. (This includes dismantling some huge, heavy, crummy old desks to make them fit). After they drove off with it all (on Dec 23), I walked around my house breathing sighs of relief. Then I cleaned, moved things to the rooms they belonged in, and pulled out my decorations and put it all up all over the house at once. It felt so good, and we had a great holiday with family visiting for their first Christmas at our house. In past years, I'd get most of the decorations down, and run out of steam (some of them are a pain to put up and a pain to take down, but I really love them. Things like Pine garland and lights on my birch log pot rack in the kitchen, little ribbon things with apples and pears that hang on each cabinet door, pine and berries and glass ornaments entwined in my dining room chandelier, garland over every door, etc. My entire house gets a touch of Christmas in every room. I was on such a roll, that I've not lost any of the ground I gained, yet. And the first thing I did was take down everything on the same day, and organize it for easier installation next year. Now, I walk around my house every night and pick up anything that is out of place before bed, so I can enjoy orderliness in the morning.
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I too love the look of my "bare" house after the Christmas decorations are put away. I start out decorating after Thanksgiving and am all too ready to start putting things away after Christmas. I start putting away a few days after Christmas, but I always leave the tree up until after New Years. I really go all out so it's usually and week's work to get everything put away. I'm fortunate that I teach school and have the time off, so I just do it at a snail's pace. I do like to everything put away before heading back to work after the new year. We put up a tree in the LR that has all vintage ornaments (over 1000), it's actually my DH's baby. He collected most of the ornaments. He takes that down, and he does it real slow. That tree has been up as long as the beginning of Feb. LOL.
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Georgysmom
10 years ago
Usually leave everything up until after the 6th. I'm jealous!
heather_on
10 years ago
Mine are all staying up for awhile. Winter here is long and dismal and I need the cheering up. Some of my Christmas items stay up year round. I like them and see no reason to take them down.
sheilajoyce_gw
10 years ago
I left our inside decorations up for the grandsons' return today. After they leave next week, I will take a few days to take everything down.

Our one block street won the city's neighborhood spirit award for all the lights outside. Because of contest rules, they have to stay up till this coming Friday.
cheryl_ok
10 years ago
I will take mine down tomorrow, I do leave my snowmen out for the winter.
Holly_ON
10 years ago
Only put outside decorations up. They will stay up till the first day that the temperature rises above freezing.
grandmamary_ga
10 years ago
My tree is up in the den but the lights will not come on as my husband took Mr. Christmas off of the tree and the lights were attached to him. I still do not know why he left the tree up. Its so dark. I do like the ornaments that are still hanging on the tree. I had surgery last week so its hard for me to do much bending or I would have taken down the tree. I loved the Mr. Christmas mouse, he turns the lights on and off and plays carols that you ask him to play. We had so much fun with him this season. All the outside decorations are stored away for the season.
Mary
kathi_mdgd
10 years ago
Didn't put much up this year,just in the dining room and kitchen,and no tree.I always do those rooms with my santa collection,although this year i didn' t even .use them all.

Outside i put the wreath on the door,my huge stocki n g that i stuff with newspaper and plastic bags that hangs next to the front door,and a few of those snowmen and santas that you stick in the ground.No lights outside this year.Put a santa hat on this 2ft cow that stands out on the porch.

Yesterday the 31st,i cleaned out and straightened all the storage boxes in the shed and stacked them back in the order they will be used,and put everything away.Just kept out a few cross stitch pieces of snowmen,sled,and winter themed things,that i normally leave out for a month or two longer.

Kathi
Orchidllauraga
10 years ago
The outside stuff came down the day after Christmas. and the indoor stuff came down this past Saturday. We normally leave them up a little longer, but with Tony having carpal tunnel surgery on Dec 23 we had to take advantage of my DS being here to haul the stuff up to the attic.

I am going to miss him terribly. I take him back to school this Saturday and come back on Sunday...not sure when I will see him again...
grannytme
10 years ago
I r eally don't like taking the decorations down. They make the house look so warm and inviting. I guess I like things crowded and cozy! Will do it tommorow: I guess!
jannie
10 years ago
I keep mine up till January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings. My house looks so drab afterwards...
colleenoz
10 years ago
Mine stay up until Twelfth Night, but then they have to come down.
mboston_gw
10 years ago
Everything is down but not all packed up yet. I was going to wait till this weekend but yesterday was rainy and chilly outside, so I decided to go ahead and do it.

Now that everything is down, I will use today and tomorrow to do a good cleaning and put out different decor items than the fall stuff I put away to do Christmas.

Worst part of putting everything away is that I can never get it all packed up like it was before because of all the after Christmas stuff I bought. I did manage this year to throw ONE old bow away that used to hang on our light post outside. Oh well, there is always next year!
cheri2008
10 years ago
I spent the entire day New Years Eve taking down and packing away every trace of Christmas, inside and out.
I love Christmas and decorate as soon as December rools around, but as soon as it is over, I am done... seems to depress me to see after Christmas, so down it comes!
susanjf_gw
10 years ago
we had a couple of warm days before all this snow so had dh remove the porch lights...I still have a few things out I forgot before I put stuff away...no biggie....in fact had 2 containers of bulbs I dumped and am giving away...dd wanted the containers, which was fine....she had a lot of her own orneys her x (thank goodness) didn't try and get...I'm really glad I didn't let dh put stuff out on the yard! right now we have about 1/2 ft of snow and with the temps in the teens, they'd be frozen in...
grandma_bonnie
10 years ago
I have a Mr. Christmas! In fact I found some more at Lowes of all places for $10 each and got one for all the kids to their trees! The little ones love turning the lights off and on and sure makes it easy to access the lights...
Fun2BHere
10 years ago
I'll probably start taking mine down on Sunday. I already changed out the front door wreath, but I hurt my shoulder right before Christmas, so dragging out the decoration tubs from storage will take a little longer this year.
Lily316
10 years ago
I agree that after Xmas, it's time to get it gone. I did it New Years Eve. Every last inside thing is away, but I leave outside stuff up awhile and leave the balsam wreaths on all the doors up till March 1st. They last that long and are a wintry look.
kittiemom
10 years ago
I'm like Jannie; mine stay up until Jan. 6. I agree with her that my house looks drab afterward.

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