The Christmas tree is down!

[ILikeMySuitcase]

Just taken down the main living room tree, absolute workout getting it back in the box and as usual I found a couple of stars once I'd packed away the decorations.

Trying to get all the trees down today so I can deep clean the house before New Years.

Anyone else just want their space back and taking decorations down today?

We've sorted DDs old toys, made a pile for the charity shop, so we could put away her new stuff. I feel much more relaxed now without all her birthday and Christmas presents (they're close) everywhere.

Relaxation and enjoyment means different things to different people.

Do you usually go around deciding who can and can’t celebrate Christmas and whether you deem their Christmas traditions appropriate? You obviously haven’t read the definition of what a tradition is.
Christmas has its origins in pagan celebrations rather than any religion.

i can confirm that this year, as every year we celebrated Christmas.

Yes!

Whatever the intention of starting the thread I think it’s been useful for some of us to understand that there are many ways of doing things. That traditions aren’t fixed and immutable.That the mass jollity of Christmas, the expectations on people (let’s face it, women) to make it all exactly right or be judged for our indolence/miserableness/class/wrongness is not that great. That we are atheists, heathens, Christians (of many traditions) and Jews and have a winter festival we call Christmas which can be lovely even if its not following the rules written in someone else’s book. I find it a huge relief to hear others that find it altogether too much as well and the ways they make it work for them.

Only bought ours in Saturday so it’s up for the next couple of weeks!

Not the thread....🙄

Well you seem very invested in all my posts! I’m also starting to think it’s not just the thread that’s batshit 🙄

Of course pp celebrated Christmas. As do many people who aren’t Christian. Like it or not, Christmas is secular in plenty of households.

It doesn’t just belong to Christian’s, especially since it was stolen from the pagans anyway and if Jesus existed, he certainly wasn’t born in December.

I'll take everything down within the next few days. Although pine trees are brilliant I just got an LED one this year. So need to take off the decs and smooth it down to storage.

It's been pretty upsetting this month as childhood friend OD and my mother was very nasty about me. It's quite horrible getting told you're a stupid little bitch when you've only just dropped off christmas presents and decorations and mince pies then get told you're the devil's work. I was thinking "where on earth did that come from? I am not a punchbag"

LED pine tree? Please share more information on this

Sounds like those are the kind of people who deserve to be cut contact with next year. No one should be spoken to like that, do you think you deserve it? If not, why accept it?

@Parker231

December and January aren’t long and dark months - you don’t need Christmas lights to enjoy them. Too many people lock themselves inside rather than getting outside and enjoying themselves

Depends on where you live. They can indeed be dark and dreary months and tramping through the mud is no fun.

Squelching through mud is one of the purest kinds of joy there is. There's a reason kids love it.

We need a rolling eyes reaction

At least there is an emoji on here. 🙄 NOWHERE did that poster say she needed a Christmas tree up to enjoy Christmas, but taking the tree down on Boxing Day is ludicrous. No-one does this in real life.

I know right. 🙄 With the 'I take my Christmas tree down at one minute past midnight' brigade thinking they're soooo radical and cool taking it down then. YAWWWN!

As I said, no-one I know in real life does this.

Exactly! The desperate rush to tell everyone is why I reckon they think they're dead cool and radical! 😆 As you say, it's as if they think people will be impressed. In reality, 99% of people think they're attention-seeking utter weirdos! 😂

Ludicrous is a strong word. We once had one of those Christmas periods where we were both back to work the day after boxing day (not counting the many years in retail where I was often at work Eve and BD). We also had plans the weekend (a wedding to attend) and the following weekend (visiting family 200 miles away who had been away over Christmas) which would mean that the decs came down Boxing Day or three weekends later.

We went with Boxing Day, which meant that once our very hectic December and first two weeks of January were over, we could rest.

It's not ludicrous if it works for you.

Ok - I’ll rephrase! It’s not my idea of fun.

Better.

Fun is subjective. I'd take mud over partying any day of the week, even as a teenager you would find me in the woods instead of on nights out (voluntarily, my friends often dragged me out).

Trying to get all the trees down today so I can deep clean the house before New Years.

Why have so many trees? How dirty do the trees make the house?

Boxing Day was great, had loads of family round & now chilling on the sofa. No cleaning at all!

This is what I’ve said. Just seems very attention seeking and like they’re seeking validation! Can’t understand the need to tell everyone about it.

We're also watching Christmas movies and have swapped Christmas decorations for winter decorations so the twinkling lights are still around

Whats a winter decoration?

It's day 2 of Christmas. 10 days of the DCs' holidays left.
The trees and lights are staying up. They wentvup gradually through December.

January is grim enough, so additional coloured lights for the first 6 days helps a lot before the days obviously eek out to a more tolerable length by the end of the month.

We've sorted DDs old toys, made a pile for the charity shop, so we could put away her new stuff.

So what, no one cares.

I said I don't understand the me first mentality and wanting to tell everyone what you've done and you respond to my post telling me this 😂 no one cares how OCD you like to make out you are

Well said!

You have not understood the points I made at all.

The origin of Christmas is the birth and epiphany of Christ. The Christmas tree has its roots in paganism - the world tree - like Yggdrasil; Santa Claus is a mashup of Christian saint St Nicholas with gifts to children with older folklore figures of Father Christmas and Père Noël; and the Yuletide season was a Germanic pagan festival which has been incorporated into Christmas celebration. Christmas remains a Christian festival however.

This is all moot however as pagan practices were still religious - so clearly as an atheist you wouldn’t hold with any of that.