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?

Nah. I much prefer my tree to be up. But then I put my tree up mid December and not as soon as Halloween had finished so I’m not that desperate to take it down yet 😁

I wondered if your tree is unattractive - unlike mine, I could look at it for hours as it's very beautiful - but now I see you have five of the brutes and very little spare time to actually clean up between work days. So that's fair enough imo.

Five though, I could not be arsed with that. It's enough work getting one out of the loft - the highest point of the house - down the loft ladder, then the stairs, like a body in a body bag. Plus its attendant boxes of baubles and decorations, at least four get dragged down too. It's a faff all right. Worth it for a month once a year, but I could not manage to do five. I think I've got at least three stashed away (four if you include 1970s Woolworths one which is honourably retired) and enough decorations to trick the whole lot out and leave spares, but one is enough for us atm.

I'll take it down in the first week of January, can't specify a day but I don't have the commitments that others do.

And incidentally I saw photos from the 1950s showing kids lining up to visit Santa's Grotto in a department store in Liverpool - in OCTOBER. Early prepping for Christmas is NOT a very modern thing!

When did you put your tree up?

We only put ours up on the 8th December and it will stay up until new years day.
I find it bizarre people taking it down on the 26th.

You ate all the cheese before Christmas didn’t you?

🎅

Just took ours down and no it hasn't been up since November. I think we put it up 2 weeks ago.
I love using the time before New Years to clean up and put all of the kids new bits away properly.
Not bothered what anyone else does.

Hmmmn

You have five Christmas trees, which is four more than the average family, so YANBU!

I didn’t even put my tree up this year 🧐

Ours has only been up a week. It's a living (potted) tree so it'll go out on NYE.

Bit sad taking a tree down today IMO.

Me too. But I don't need a tree to enjoy this time of the year. A clean house also gives me joy. Space for the huge amounts of new toys DD got makes me happy.

Ours is still up because we like a lazy boxing day. But it'll be down before the New Year. Because that's what we like.

Doing things differently to you doesn't make people miserable, weird or lacking joy.

My husband and I were talking about this the other day. There seem to be two camps of Christmas people, those who follow traditional/religious Christmas and those who follow commercial Christmas (as in, follow what the shops do).

Of course not. I’ll be taking everything down on Jan 5th/6th, as always.
As others have said, Christmas is only just starting.

I grew up with a tradition of Christmas tree ( a real one) being brought in on Christmas eve morning and taken away on Jan 6th. I’ll never get on board with people who have a gazillion of trees and everything up in early November.

I don’t wait until the Xmas eve now, tree comes up at mid-December and tends to come down on New Years day or the day after. Perfect for us. This is the Christmas, I love these days between Xmas Day and NY.

Shops put stuff on shelves during the 6 week summer holidays nowadaya and by Xmas eve they’re already starting displaying Easter eggs. It’s depressing!

Sounds utterly joyless

Or those of us who put it up when suits and take it down when suits.

Wow. How utterly miserable and joyless. Our trees have been up less than a week and Christmas has only just begun.

I bet you’re one of those that decorates ridiculously early.

I hate what Christmas has become. I don’t really even think I’m a grinch. It’s just become some stupid prolonged debacle of shite

I agree with you.

But the newly developed problem is the extension of Advent into the period before Advent Sunday, and sometimes before Remembrance Day, and sometimes even before Bonfire Night.

The end of the Christmas season has been Epiphany for centuries, and still is across the globe. Yes, you'll have to go back to work (or indeed work through even on the first and second days of Christmas) so it's not a case of it being a complete shut down. But the sparkle and specialness keep going, just as they have since pagan times.

Current fad for starting a month early isn't likely to last long against centuries old winter festival traditions that extend beyond Christianity

I've had a turkey sandwich and eaten the left over pigs in blankets but twelfth night means absolutely nothing to me as I'm not religious. Christmas is over as far as I'm concerned as soon as Christmas day is finished. For me Christmas is about the decorations, family time, twinkling lights and overindulging in food and drink.

I think it’s sad that some people need a Christmas tree and lights to make them happy. What do you do the rest of the year?

Mine will also be down by New Year’s Eve. However there’s a few days to go until then. It’s only Boxing Day and threads like this on Boxing Day just kills the spirit I think.

How can they be joyless AND decorate too early??

and don't forget Valentine's Day followed by Mother's Day, St Patrick's Day where they all seem to have Irish roots and then we are into Eeaster That build up will be starting before we know it. There is basically something every month of the year for them to get worked up over and post endless drivel about.

I'm like you OP, I find Christmas vaguely stressful and so although I enjoy it, I'm happy to move onto the next part of the year. I don't mind leaving the tree up for others to enjoy for a couple of days, but I'll take it down Sat and get things all freshened up for New Year. I go back to work between Xmas and New Year and then on 2nd start in earnest, so the idea that it would be a relaxing 12 days is odd to me now.

We usually get a tree around mid-Dec, so we've had our 12 days or more by the time we take it down.

Why would anyone else care what anyone else is doing? There's no moral virtue in having a sawn off tree in your house til 6th, do it if you like it!

mine only went up on the 23rd. It’s coming down 2nd jan before I go back to work