How soon can I (reasonably) take down my Christmas decorations?

[dontpointatme]

Just that really...

I have a 2yo DD who has loved Christmas, and I normally do too, but it's been a shit one for me this year. Husband moved out on 23rd so not been the best time and I've just had enough of my house being a tip and hardly any space to move due to all of the bits and bobs that come with Christmas.

How long do I have to leave them up before I can start straightening out my house and making it feel like a home for just DD and I? I don't want to take it all away from her too soon (as in the tree and sparkles etc) but I want my house back!

We put ours up on 22 Dec so it will.come down on 5th or 6th Jan. They start collecting the real trees for recycling on 8 the Jan here so just in time for that

We have friends and family coming round tomorrow. Tree is going to say after

For us Christmas is Christmas Day and Boxing Day, then it’s back to work so no reason to keep the decorations up any longer.

But presumably many people had the tree up when they were still at work and school, particularly those who put the tree up at the start of December, so why does going back to work mean the deocorations have to come down? It's not as if there's a correlation between not working and putting the tree up, otherwise most people wouldn't put their tree up to Christmas Eve at the earliest.

There's a certain amount of excitement and build up when you put the tree up and you are still at work/school. Something to look forward to if you like.

However once Christmas Day has been done then for me it can all come down and I go back to work and resume normality in a clutter free house ready for New Year.

I wish we could shift the celebration of Christmas away from the starting on the first of December to enjoying the 12 days.

Advent is supposed to be about waiting and preparing. Then Christmas until 6th jan

I like keeping them up until at least 2nd jan.

I also think taking the tree and decorations down doesn't mean the enjoyment of anything suddenly stops does it? You can do it with or without the decorations and lights anyway.

I took mine down today and feel very happy that my house looks tidy again. Back to work tomorrow and wanted to get it over with before then .

I usually do it on Boxing Day but have family round on Friday so will be on Saturday this year.

This discussion happens every year. Along with the one at the end of DEc Ben about how soon the decorations can go up. At that point,lots of posters say ‘you’ll be fed up with them by Christmas’ and the early decorators insist they won’t. Then on the 26th, this about how soon they can come down. I am fairly certain there is substantial overlap between the two sets of posters.

December not DEc Ben.

I'm doing it tomorrow. I'd do it tonight but I can't be arsed. I need to clean, tidy, sort and get straightened up before DH goes back to work. There is a whole stuff -> boxes -> utility room -> shed movement situation I need to get on with.

Mine came down tonight. So busy for next few days and then party New year so need to start prepping for that!

I usually do it by stealth, taking a couple of decorations off the tables and bookcases a day until all that is left is the tree.

I used to leave them up till after New year but last few years have taken them down around the 28-30th
Christmas was yesterday!

Ours are down as we go on holiday tomorrow for 10 days and then are straight back to work and school the day after we come home.
Don’t fancy coming home to a dead tree and loads of holiday washing combined with the decs to take down.
Took about 20 minutes, we don’t go overboard with the decorations anyway.
House feels so much fresher, I hate the clutter of the extra Christmas things and stuff on the sides etc.

Cards are down, tree is down, just the outside lights to do tomorrow and the door wreath can stay til the weekend. Toys are mostly away. House is back to normal thank goodness.

All mine came down gifts, nice to have some normality back.

Always take mine down today, I like getting back to normal and the feeling of getting organised before the new year.

Haha, that’s what I usually do! I don’t know why but just felt the need to get it all packed away this evening . Hubby has even stashed it all back in the attic which is a first. It usually sits in the hallway throughout January until I have a meltdown and threaten to set fire to it!

God! That should have started
With a reference to what moastytoasty does and the stealth removal of decorations!! I better put the baileys down for a bit!!!!!

I gradually tidy mine away starting on the 26th.

Cards and random decorations (window/wall/door type crap) came down today, ornamental things will go tomorrow then the tree will come down on Friday.

Mine go up the first Saturday in December and I can't stand the bloody things after Christmas day, definitely wouldn't want to start the new year with them up!

Our tree didn't go up until the 23rd but I'm already itching to take it down. We have to move furniture round to make room for it and I want to be back to normal now. I'll be outnumbered though, and it will probably stay until NYD.

Christmas for me is 24th, 25th and 26th. After that it's over thank goodness

Gosh. Bring back normal normal normal! The clutter! The dust! Make the twinkles, the lights, the greenery, the celebration of the turning of the year/ the solstice/ the arrival of The Christ Child, those things, rituals that push back the dark nights of the winter, yet bring promise of the changes that follow... be gone! I mean it's a work day 'tomorrow', innit? (Disregarding that for many, 'work' doesn't stop altogether, at all).

Yes, you can 'make Xmas' whatever you want it to be, it being 'a free country', be it deployment of all friends/ willing relatives to source a Kevin the Carrot (or Xmas is ruined), or the correct LOL doll (sob); be it a childlike inability to delay gratification in order to at least wait til mid December to put up a tree/ yet down on Boxing Day... but don't then mourn the destruction of any tradition since you discard it with gay abandon.

I'm not perfect in honouring the Trad Christmas- my tree goes up on the first weekend of school holidays so the DC get a sense of 'this is special', 21st this year; they'll go down on Jan 5th, DC back to school, close to The Flight into Egypt, so not The Twelve Days of Xmas, but a close modern approximation.

I'm in no way 'Christian' but I do recognise the boundaries of a 'tradition', one that transcends just 'my famly/my roolz'.

Umm the 2nd for me and no earlier. New year is as much as part of the Christmas celebrations as any of it. We will take ours down on the 3rd which il already sad about.