To want to take down Christmas decorations on 31stDec

I do kind of see the dichotomy of the "but but Epiphany!!" people - they see Christmas as a religious festival and that if you are going to do the tree/celebration/feast then you can't pick and choose the bits that suit you, so to them, the idea of taking down the decs before the Three Kings have shown up is just unthinkable.

They don't seem to realise that a huge proportion of people who "celebrate Christmas" don't see it as a religious festival at all. Yes in name it's about the birth of Jesus but they don't go to church and don't believe in God/Jesus. Many aspects of Christmas stem from much older celebrations, we have always marked the passing of the darkest time of year. So we're having solstice celebrations with parties and presents and feasting and calling it "Christmas". And the religious people can't get their heads around that.

Maybe next year I'll start calling it Yule. Yule presents, a Yule tree, Yule decorations. Then the "but bu BUT EPIPHANY!!!!" lot won't get their knickers in a knot.

Super tacky to take them down before twelfth night but that said its probably the same people that have had them up since Halloween.

Epiphany is irrelevant to me , I’m an atheist .

Epiphany is only relevant if you believe in it as a significant date. Christmas has been over for a week now.

Merry Christmas

The 6th Jan is an arbitrary meaningless date for most people.

Exactly. We're not in Spain, we don't celebrate the Reyes Magos bringing gifts on their camels, we don't have 12 days off work from 25th December - 6th January, people in England/Wales are generally back 2nd Jan, 3rd in Scotland. Nobody is having feasts and Christmas parties on 3/4/5 January.

I have no objection to people keeping up their lights or decorations until 6th Jan (or 6th April or October) it's their house and their choice. I do object though to the idea that there is a right and wrong way to manage things.

Because that means they are keeping them up until the official end of the 12 days of Christmas. You don't have to agree with it, you don't have to do it. But you're never going to convince me that Epiphany isn't a significant date and that it's right and respectful that public decorations, like council ones etc are kept to that correct date.

Also because I think it's hilarious how wound up people get by being told it's the correct date.

Why “quite rightly”? It doesn’t matter when they get taken down - keep them up til March! But if people want to take them down that’s their choice too. The 6th Jan is an arbitrary meaningless date for most people.

Our village has one of those streets which gets on the news every year because the entire street goes massively overboard with coordinated mights. People travel really far to see it.

They are always quite rightly still there until Twelfth Night. No question of them taking it down early.

From my lounge I can see the three houses that had outside lights all still have them up.

Plenty of outdoor lights still on in my road. I still have my tree up and switched on. It’s been a particularly miserable,dark, wet day here and the tree lights are very cheering.

Ours are staying up until the 5th and this is due to work commitments etc.

I've just moved my curtains and had a glance out of the window. Pitch black. Last night all of my neighbours still had their large displays of outdoor lights up
So I guess New Years day is a popular day for taking everything down.

Left to my own devices I would take them down on Boxing Day, unless I put them up much later, like the last weekend before Christmas. DH often argues for keeping them up until last thing on Twelfth Night but is sensible enough to realise that there's more time to take them down on a weekend day, so he's suggesting this weekend (the 4th or 5th) and I'll happily go along with that.

I'd argue you have a point. But it's all very much back to thr grind after last night here

@elQuintoConyo I think if it was like that here then most people would leave their trees up but the majority of workers in England will be back at work tomorrow

I'm in Spain. NYE is huge, we were out until 3am with DC! Then the night of 5th the kings arrive with a big parade, throwing sweets to the kids. Then it's family dinner at home with the gifts. 6th is a national holiday, 7th an extra day off for kids, then back to school on 8th. So we're still in holiday mode.
People are still cheerful, the artisan market is still going. It's lovely.
Our tree went up 8th December, it'll come down on 6th January. In our case it'd be weird to take it down earlier.

We’ve just got back in from a New Year party and it’s nice to see our decorations and lights. We’ll probably start to take some down tomorrow and finish by the weekend. I’m ready to have a good clean up now.

Yeah, it's mainly to do with that. I keep my tree and decorations up until the 6th but I work from home and can organise my schedule in a way that means I don't do a huge amount of work through school holidays. So it's genuinely still Christmas in my house. We still do small festive things each day, culminating in a lowkey but significant twelfthnight celebration. It feels right for my decorations to stay up until then.

But If I was back in work on Thursday, (which is a pretty good holiday most people don't get) or if I had already gone back to work on the 26th/27th, I'd be miserable with the decorations still up. And I'd have them back down a lot earlier.

Everyone says this, that people only take them down early because they had them up early, but i put mine up in the middle of December and took it down yesterday 🤷🏻‍♀️

Mine are going to be up until the 4th (busy 5th then back in work 6th)
I don't put them up until mid December.
Personally don't like the trend of putting them up super early then down straight after Christmas.

Isn't it funny how some people are like "THERE ARE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS!! YOU MUST NOT TAKE YOUR TREE DOWN BEFORE 6TH JANUARY OR YOU ARE A MISERABLE OLD SCROOGE WHO HATES CHRISTMAS"

but they're not like "THERE ARE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS! THREE BANK HOLIDAYS ARE NOT ENOUGH! THEY SHOULD ALL BE BANK HOLIDAYS SO WE CAN ALL SPEND MORE TIME RESTING AND WITH OUR FAMILIES!!"

Come on people, if you're going to care that much about pretty much archaic Christmas traditions, at least care where it matters 😄

I was stressing myself out worrying about whether to take the tree down or not and eventually just took it down yesterday. i still have a few decorations up but i was glad to say goodbye to the tree. i don’t really care about the 12 days of Christmas and i don’t want to celebrate it for 12 days. It’s not 1724.

Well dd is on call to her boyfriend & OH is doing something useful in the garage so I've taken down all the decs as there's bugger all on the TV. Earliest we've ever taken them down

Went for a NYE walk this evening and it was nice to see so many lights still up. The time between Christmas and New Year is my favourite.

Mine came down on Sunday. I usually wait till new year but I've worked all this Xmas and just wanted my house tidy again!