Our Christmas tree has been up about 10 days, so I'm not ready to put the decorations away yet! No snowmen here, that's a great idea but I don't like the clutter factor (we have a small house). I go back to work the 3rd... might have to re-think taking the tree down before then?

I *like* the people who leave their holiday lights outside LOL... winter is so long in Michigan it's nice to see cheery lights in the dark when I leave for work and again when I drive home in the dark.

It's only the Fifth Day of Christmas... mine will be up longer.

Our live tree has been gulping water since Dec 4th and looks great. Hope it hangs in there a few more days!

I think when this came up last year I commented that one of my disappointments was that "Christmas" comes to a screeching halt on December 26.

Yesterday morning I was strolling through Walmart (boy they work fast!) Christmas decor down, and the seasonal aisle was stocked with red heart-shaped boxes of candy and all things Valentine. My 13 yo commented, "This is an outrage." I replied that it seems the retail world controls our calendar, and, like sheep, we follow suit. I seriously wish there was some mandate that requires the retail world to adhere to some sort of REASONABLE timeline. Instead, it creates a panic-mode for shoppers to BUY NOW BEFORE IT'S GONE. And we buy into it. Even the so-called holiday music ends December 25th. Some of the music only references "winter" (not Christmas, not Hanukah, etc.) but even that goes away when winter is but only 4-days old. WHY? But I digress.

My Christmas season begins on the first Sunday of Advent... wreath on door... manger scene displayed.... lights outside. Then over the course of the next few weeks the rest of the Christmas decorations come out with the live tree put up last. (Typically the weekend prior to the 24th; this year it was the 17th, and will be a little early the next few years until the 24th falls on a Wed.) Tree lights are not lit until December 24th and then remain lit each day until it comes down.

Tree will come down on New Year's Day, inside decor will get packed away (leaving a few "wintery" type things out i.e. snowmen), manger scene will be displayed until Little Christmas (January 6) as will outdoor lights.

I agree that I don't like seeing Christmas decor outside once the end of January rolls around. I sometimes think about taking out an ad in the local paper in February (and March!) reminding residents that it's time to take down their wreaths.

Ah well -- to each their own!

We dropped some things off at a thrift shop today and lo and behold they had all their Valentine things on a front table.

I usually leave my tree up to at least New Year's Day. I usually put it up the day after Thanksgiving. This year I didn't put a tree up. My decor was all snowmen this time so I think I can leave them up a little longer into at least the first week of January. Then I want to get my Valentine decor up soon too since it will be here and gone in a flash.
The gallery on the Crafts and Decorations forum shows some of my Valentine decor if interested.

My husband's family tradition is that all Xmas decorations come down on New Year's Eve, so that's what we did. We also had collards, blackeyed peas, corn bread, & pork, for New Years, for luck. My daughter is a typical 7 yr. old, hates all food that isnt chicken nuggets, but she had a few peas & collards for luck...

What was an adjustment for me was how dark the house was without the indoor & outdoor Xmas lights....

I find it frustrating that Christmas is OVER on the 26th as well. When I was a kid, we left everything up until the 6th (Epiphany). Now, we take it all down either when the tree starts to get too dry, or whenever, close to the 6th, we'll have time to dismantle.

And even more so, I resent it that winter CLOTHES are out of the stores by Jan. 1.

My DH wants to buy gloves w/ his JCPenney gift certificate--I told him, he better get out there NOW, because they won't be around (even though the cold weather will). My DS got jeans when he was a baby, and I wanted to exchange them for a bigger size; I went to the stores on Jan. 2--only SHORTS available. And this is the Northeast--NYC--not Virginia!

I read in The Old Farmers Almanac that there's a traditional day called "Distaff Day", Januaty 7th, when all Christmas decorations are packed up and stored. I'll be doing that this year. I do like seeing outdoor lights in January, and I think people who discard their tree on Dec. 26 have no "soul".

You are right Talley--I had a chance to get to the stores today because I needed a heavier sweater and they are showing lightweight chartreuse stuff, lots of pink shorts and pink tops,polka dots and also white clothing with red hearts. Good grief --this is California and we enjoy a little cold weather so we can wear sweaters and leather boots.
Our outdoor lights are still up and so is the train. We didn't do a tree this year as we visited so much.
Happy New Year to all.

I wish someone would come and take ours down. We went to a New Year's Eve party and three of us got hit with a nasty stomach bug. With the fever I've had the past two days, I wish I had some of that summer stuff to wear. Back to bed now.

Gloria

Here in New England it is not unusual to see some outdoor decorations long after Christmas, usually wreaths and garland. I made a comment to our realtor about it. She so politely informed me they were not Christmas decorations, they were Winter decorations, and would probably stay up throughout the winter. Hmmm, being essentially lazy, I thought 'Cool". One year the chickadees made a nest in the wreath on the kitchen ell door, and we had four babies. So what's a little poop on the screen when you can walk up and peer right in to the nest! Last year, I spotted the birds starting to build another, so got it down right away. Going in and out of the garage got old, I admit.

I have an artificial tree that stays up in my living room. Thankfully I can afford the space it takes up, and I collect pink ornaments for it all year long. When the lights die, I will replace it with a pre-lit one, and then take it down, but waaaay too much time now to put all those 2000 lights on it every year.

One year I still had my real tree up at the end of January, and took a lot of heat from my brother-in-law about it. His daughter's 4th birthday was March 6, so I saved the tree, and for her birthday decorated it. I tied gummi worms, gummi bears, coins, hairbows, barrettes on it, and made a bow topper out of a pair of ruffled panties. I'll never forget the look on her face. And the niece with the April 1 birthday wanted it for her birthday. So we got a LOT of use out that tree.

Barbara

My front porch lights came down yesterday. I was forced to start packing my snowmen up today since I didn't have DSL for hours. Bummer! but at least I made a dent in the decor.

one thing about a real tree--you HAVE to take it down

I got mine down this weekend. I keep a few up all year: chile pepper lights around the door, and some more in a chimenea (it's supposed to look like flame), and some lights up on my palm tree -- I just like the way that looks, and it isn't Christmasy. I did rewrap the palm tree in a more organic green rather than red for this year. It was red all last year.

One thing for sure, if the lights are on, you won't have a problem recognizing my house. And, since they are on a timer (sunset + 4 hours), if I get home late, I can still see to put my key in the door with the chile lights on, even if I've forgotten to put the main outside house lights on.

But the icicle lights and most of the multis are gone, gone, gone.

Jean Marie

I got my tree down today, all I have to do is carry it up to the attic. It's in three sections, two of them are HEAVY.

Finally got all the decorations down and stored away. Next week I'll be starting the 26 week Grand Plan Cleaning Challenge, which I found on another site.

There is nothing that is so "Over" when it is over as Christmas. Love to see it come, love to see it go..now if ony summer came the next week, all would be fine.

LOL, Talley  good point. This is my first year with an artificial tree, and it's still up. Half the ornaments (the handmade ones) have been put away, but half are on the tree. I was never this slow with a needle-shedding real tree.

Mine are ALL down now, just not put on the shelves in the garage yet. I got all my Valentine Decor up so I can enjoy it. Time goes so fast. I used the photos from last year as my guide this time.

We have friends coming over from England on Tuesday and wanted to see an 'American Christmas" so we kept everything up this year. They leave Friday around 2:00 so by 3:00 I will be knee deep in taking things down. Mine generally come down a couple of days after New Years whenever the following weekend falls....

Lynne

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.