To want to take down my christmas tree

[DonaldStott]

I have been jolly. Had a lovely few festive days. But we are going away in a couple of days for New Year and only home the evening before we are back to school/work.

I want to take it down today, but husband thinks I am being a bit of a misbag.

I am in the school of bday cards up only on the day of your bday, then into the recycling, so I do like these things to be short lived, but I want my living room back now the day is over. Aibu?

Our tree comes down on Christmas night when the DC are in bed. DS1's birthday is on Boxing Day so the tree comes down and the balloons go up.

Ours will stay up until Epiphany, because I don't want to have a cut-short Christmas. Always seems a bit joyless to me to finish early.

But I find I care less and less about what others do. So if they want to have less Christmas, that's up to them. You don't even have to celebrate it, it have a tree, at all.

Kitnkaboodle

"... I think it's a long time since everyone merrily feasted until Jan 6th."

That sounds like a challenge

I refuse to engage with the whole pre Christmas hype.

Easier said than done. The first of my four work Christmas parties (I work in a very large company) was on 6 a December*. DCs school Christmas fair was a week before that! The tree etc didn't go up at home until later but festivities were thrust upon us early.

*and yes I am a Head of Dept so had to go!

Birthday cards in this house stay up til the next birthday comes around! One day? Where is the joy?!?!

But Christmas isn't over. We are in the middle of Christmas! It runs from Christmas day to January 6th. True fact.

Look the thing is that if we want Christmas to continue for 12 days there is only one way to make it so. And that's to bring back Twelftnight parties! We need figgy puddings, king cakes, wassail bowls, mini bonfires where we burn our Christmas greenery etc. It's the only way and I'm game if the other traditionalists are. But it's hard to make it happen if I'm the only one trying.

Birthday cards in this house stay up til the next birthday comes around! One day? Where is the joy?!?!

In my house it's just me and DS should we keep my early December birthday cards up until his mid-November birthday?

Sometimes we have Christmas lunches in January.
DS's football lunch will be this year, and the small group at work has done too.
I must remember to take some Christmas chocolates for my students, who, hopefully, have been studying hard during the holidays. :)

We put our tree and decorations up around 10/11 December and then usually take them down the day before 12th Night depending on how that falls and whether we're back at work. We've decided to take ours down on Bank Holiday Monday as we like to leave everything up for Christmas and New Year.

Each to their own IMO.

Ours came down yesterday, good riddance to it and Christmas. Next year we're going away, far away from my mother.
Next year will be Christmas proper.
Fingers crossed.

Tree came down today here. Wanted the space back.

Birthday cards are left up for a couple of weeks. Then cleared away.

I am still busy wassailing! Hang in there with me, you Twelfth Nighters!

12 the night here,but we only put it up a few days before Christmas day.I just love the evening sitting by fairy lights.Love the idea of 12th night bonfire parties sound more fun than NY does.

Tree came down yesterday. Fresh sheets for everyone. Big hoover throughout. Sorting recycling into piles to take to the tip (too many deliveries).

I'm away from home today but will be back later and it is nice to have a fresh start for the new year.

Tree came down last night.
Christmas cards came down Christmas night.
birthday cards stay up for a week.

Birthday cards just stay up for the actual birthday, I can't ever imagine leaving cards up until the next one as they would be around for months. Wouldn't feel any different if they were always there, nothing special about it.

Tree been down for a few days, it's never up for new year.

Am I the only one absolutely confused by the people who are presenting taking Christmas trees down and cleaning (including changing beds) as intrinsically linked? It sounds as if some people are constitutionally compelled not to run the hoover around or change abed sheet while the tree is up, and equally compelled to gut the entire house as part of the process of removing one tree from one room

Our tree isn't in the way at all - it's a moderate 6 ft ish tree in the corner of a fairly generous sized room, and other decorations aren't ott and don't prevent me changing bed sheets or telling the kids to tidy up should the mood take me

Taking the tree down is equally unlikely to trigger an unavoidable cleaning frenzy - some people are posting as if there is some absolutely automatic, unavoidable, set in stone, legally binding and utterly odd code of cleaning conduct tied to Christmas trees which nobody sent me the memo about

Mind you I also dont don't understand what birthday cards have to do with the price of fish so it's probably just me

I'm not a card fan so don't put any birthday cards up, just look at them, leave them in a pile til a few days after my birthday then recycle. The kids cards go up for a week or so - I've never met anyone who keeps cards up all year unless it's one very special one perhaps.

The Christmas period is 24th December to 6th Jan though so that's when our tree is up - goes up late morning on 24th, down 2 weeks later. Those two weeks are a kind of Yuletide limbo even if I am working some of it, and it's nice to have twinkling lights and a real tree in the living room at a cold dark time of year.

I agree - all this fresh start, fresh year thing is odd. We clean around our tree and change the sheets as usual. The tree is just nice and twinkly.

Well the tree is down. I couldn't be arsed doing it tomorrow on my last day before back to work