Why do people put their Xmas trees etc up now then take them down Boxing Day

Neer heard of Boxing Day being the limit. Traditionally, Christmas trees come down on Twelfth Night (January 5th) or Epiphany (January 6th), marking the end of the 12 Days of Christmas, but many people leave them up longer, often through mid-January, while some keep them until February (Candlemas), and a few even until Easter.

Of course there could only be two possible reasons. They are either stupid or have no self-control. There can be no other possible reason.

People have many different reasons for doing what they do and you have just exposed your ignorance and intolerance by boiling them down to two (negative) reasons.

I like the Dutch tradition of the special Christmas day for children. I also like that Sinterklaas looks a bit different from Father Christmas - more like a bishop with a straight beard. Not sure of the Black Pete in blackface though. Or the shops playing "De Zak van Sinterklaas" over and over again. It is not a song that gets better with repetition.

I couldn’t care less about Advent. We start Christmas celebrations on 6 December - Sinterklaas.

Or a fourth explanation - they have no clue about advent (other than overpriced calendars) or the rhythm of the Christmas period - and don't care!
Oops wrong quote!

But some people are saying their favourite part of Christmas are the days afterwards with more celebrations, eating snacks and the such like which isn't likely to happen if you don't have those days off of work so it's going to feel more ''normal'' if you are back at work AND the build up is also over.

And I was asking why you thought Christmas wouldn’t be special if people celebrate it differently from you?

You don't need a retailer to decide by yourself that you want to be ready for a new Year by the 01st of January and prefer to get rid of everything before that.

Retailer or not, I am not in the mood for Christmas decorations and trees after Christmas, I like to chuck my tree on Boxing Day or the 27th. Even if it means the tree is there for 48h, which is a bit of a waste

But they’ll also be at work for most of November and December- during their marathon “build up”.

I think they just respond to the advertising and the timetable set by retailers. It’s analogous to the sudden change to holiday commercials on telly by Christmas Day tea-time.

I think the Continent gets it right - they don’t do the long, long pre-Christmas Christmas which happens here.

Well pardon me for expressing my opinion!

Isn’t this a discussion? Or have I misunderstood? I can hardly express YOUR or anyone else’s opinion. So here’s mine, and welcome to it.

Why is it not special to other families if they don’t do it your way?

Or a 3rd reason.

They enjoy the build up to Christmas and all celebrations are over for them by boxing day, they are also back to work the next day so Christmas very much feels over, Advent or not.

I agree.

I like to start Christmas preparations late - say, a week before - and keep the decorations up till at least NY. That keeps it special. It has to be special and having decorations up for 2 months kills that dead.

For those explaining their starting Christmas in early November‘because they love Christmas “ - this makes no sense! If you love Christmas, then why not celebrate Christmas, which has 12 days, starting on 25 December? From 1 to 24 December, it’s Advent. It can only be one of 2 reasons:

• they are total victims of retail propaganda and manipulation or
• they’re the sort of people who have to be first, cannot defer gratification and then announce they’re bored with something, just at the time it’s actually appropriate to celebrate.

I agree that this is something that has been creeping in and I am not keen. I also wonder if it contributes to people who get extremely protective of Christmas Day (ie resentful of seeing in laws etc). My mum has always been adamant that Christmas is a season not just a day which I find really helpful - as a busy mum (like many of us) I enjoy the build up to Christmas but also value some days of calm afterwards. We have hosted quite a number of people for years and it is great to relax afterwards, but we also see and visit other friends and family members. I do work in education though so I have time off - I can imagine that if you work in retail having a small Christmas Day in pyjamas might be strongly desired!

It must depend on the job but when I worked between Christmas and New year then there were always some mince pies or Quality street, fairy lights strung up somewhere and some attempt at Christmas spirit.

For what it's worth my job used to be a logistical nightmare around the bank holidays but a lot of my colleagues seemed to be taking it easy and treating it like part of the Christmas season.

There will always be two categories of people, one being the category that has all the Xmas period off work, family parties and feasts everyday and then the other category is people that go back to work between Xmas, haven't got lots family or family gatherings and Christmas is over once you are back at work and there's no more celebrating. NYE is a different celebration for those of us in the second category because xmas finished when we went back to work.

Dec's up on 1st sunday of Advent (this varies...it's sometimes the end of November, sometimes into December..)
Dec's down on NYE - not because I'm sick of them, but because I can't bear to be back at school/work with them still up - it makes me sad 😔
I like to start the NY fresh and clean.
My parents always kept them up til 12th night which has informed my views on when they come down.
We are still hosting on boxing day so thats far too soon for us

Social media I’m guessing. All the reels about putting it up now. I have 2 hyper kids no chance in hell would I be putting mine up now. Start of dec for me or very end of November depending when the weekend falls

I would hazard a guess that’s because that’s what they want to do! We have 3 kids and 2 of them have birthdays late November/early December so we do ours mid November so it’s up by their birthdays. They love to have it up. And I take it down not on Boxing Day because I’m not home then but certainly before the kids go back to school as I like to be organised before they go!

Absolutely! Once Christmas Eve is over (or sooner), that's it for the festive food. Frustrating for those of us who are still celebrating!

It's also really annoying if you've got guests coming on December 28th, you realise you've run out of mince pies but you can't get any because the shops have moved on to Easter.

Yes I had an experience last year where someone on the cul de sac we live on decided to put Xmas cards through everyone's door which then started the cycle of others feeling like they have to do it. So anyway I went out to buy cards around 16th Dec and there wasn't any anywhere, places like home bargains and B&Ms had been letting the Xmas stock run out and the shelves were threadbare. It did make it feel like Xmas was nearly over already.

That’s what I meant by it being commercially driven and everything being moved forward. Everyone’s family is different but for me it’s the Christmas season until after New Year’s Day. The kids are still off school and people who I haven’t spent Christmas with visit at New Year. I agree that if I put the decorations up in November I would be really fed up of them by Boxing Day. I don’t really like the way the shops start so early and are clearing up before an event has actually happened.

🤣🤣🤣

It’s hell isn’t it? And it feels stressful whatever strategies you employ to make it less so. You just get sucked into it - especially in the couple of days before the 25th. Just thinking about it makes me feel a bit ill and brings home why some people get it all sorted (present buying etc) so early on.