WIBU to let Santa stay

[fortifiedwithtea]

How superstitious are Mumsnetters about Christmas decorations still being up after 12th night?

Our house is always a tip and every year something accidentally gets forgotten to be put up the loft. Much bosom hoiking from DM about bad luck.

This year we have a new telly. Nothing wrong with the old one 24 years old and still going strong but the DC were feeling a bit deprived and I caved in to demand. Unlike the old model which was deep and boxy and we could stuff loads on top of it, the new one is super slim. However for a joke DH managed to balance a small hand knitted Santa on top. Now the DC are asking can Santa stay, he makes them smile.

I don't have any strong objection, don't believe in bad luck. It would be typical of our shit heap home. We have guinea pigs living in the living room too hay everywhere. But DM would be horrified.

WIBU?

If you don't believe in bad luck I genuinely don't get what you're actually asking?

If you're asking to do something in your own home that your Mum wouldn't like, then of course YANBU.

A small knitted Santa cannot change the future

My understanding is that decorations not taken down on or by 12th Night have to remain up all that year to avoid bad luck. So, Santa stays!

Aww I'd leave it - for the kids. Having said that I'm not in any way superstitious and although my DM wouldn't have cared or probably even noticed that sort of thing would have horrified my Gran and for that reason alone I'd leave it up!

A small knitted Santa cannot change the future

Shit. Really?

Thought the superstition was that if you let them up after 12th night you had to leave them out for the rest of the year. You'd be okay.

I am that people in 2015, in the UK are superstitious.

Leave it, if you like it.

I love my Christmas decorations ..... And don't take them down on a particular day / date. In fact, they'd stay up all year round if I had my way.

Seriously, bad luck is a red herring. You are not going to get ill, or lose your job, or suffer a bereavement just because of a rogue Santa left out.

Just leave the ones with the webcams Mutton

They could possibly change your future

Santa stays then. I didn't know DM never told me decorations had to be kept up all year if they were forgotten.

I'm not at all superstitious but I wanted to gauge if others shared my view, seems they mostly do.

I'll probably put a washing machine programme on tomorrow too

EVERYONE I know finds at least one missed decoration sometime in February. It's almost a tradition, but you shouldn't do it purposely.

You reckess thing fortitude.
Open an umbrella indoors too

I say steady on there OP

Decorations left up after twelfth night are then supposed to remain until candlemas (2 February). Not all year! This seems to be followed in much of Europe where Epiphany is a big thing. If you go to Paris at the end of January all the Christmas trees still seem to be up!

What's wrong with running the washing machine on January 1st?

I'll definitely be doing washing tomorrow, but I've taken my tree down as my granny used to say that otherwise you would take the luck of the old year into the new. This year has been shit so I'm taking no chances. I have left some twinkly lights in the mantelpiece and new stag candlesticks because I like them.

The hobgoblins take it down on 12th night.

There's another thread about the washing machine thing. Now what's going to worry me is: if I hadn't known about the superstition before putting on a wash tomorrow, which I'm going to do, would someone still have died?

You'll wash all your luck away! My Gran got very funny when she came round last NYD to find the washing machine on. She felt the need to include in her blooming Christmas missive to far flung friends this year that despite that, I had a good year and 'produced another child that I still won't take on help for'.