Taking the tree down!

[Elsouth]

Is it wrong to consider taking the tree down tomorrow? When is everyone else doing it?? I think last year I did it just after Boxing Day. As the kids get older the presents seem to get bigger and I end up having to rearrange the whole room. Need that tree gone. Does that make me a grinch?

juliesaway that's not true as I've celebrated it the 12 days way before as well. I just prefer my way and the lead up better. It's such a shame you can't find any post Christmas activities to dabble in!

pre rather

Please tell me what fabulous things you do over the 12 days after 25th December?? Im sure we're all keen to hear...

isuppose there’s the shops to go to on the 26th so best take the tree down now that it’s over......tragic mentality.
Yawn, what's tragic is your inability to get why people might celebrate in a different way, and trying to imply it's because we all have to get down to the Boxing Day sales mine has nothing to do with going to the shops, I have no inerest in what the shops do pre or post Dec 25th.
I'm not missing out, I'm doing something slightly different and celebrating in my own way, shock horror, it works for me. I would hate my Christmas stuff to still be up in the new year, yes it's traditional but why would I do it just because it's traditional if I found that stressful.

Oh gosh no we would never take the decorations and tree down on the 26th or 27th. We are still celebrating for a week after Boxing Day!

The tree and decorations and lights go up on the 1st, and come down on the 6th of January. We have them up for 5 weeks, and we love every minute. Every one of 10 homes in our cul de sac has Christmas lights up outside, and the whole road looks beautiful.

We have friends and family around on a few occasions between the 20th December, and the 2nd January, so we wouldn't dream of taking the tree and decorations down as soon as Boxing Day.

Each to their own, but no way would they coming down the day after Christmas day. I agree with the people saying that the Christmas period is technically meant to be celebrated til 12th night/6th January...

Then again, we start celebrating it a week to 10 days early, by having a few meals out, and the works Christmas party, and watching Christmas films.... So maybe quitting it a week early is no different to starting it a week early IYSWIM.

Maybe you should try a different way of celebrating Julie? As you're obviously not having that much fun celebrating your post 25th December 'Christmas' if you're so busy on here justifying it to us...

To be fair Julie, having read your sneery responses on this post, there's not a hope I'd want to celebrate anything the way you do.

You do sound like your judgey pants might have cut off the circulation to your sense of fun. Also, Christmas, in whatever capacity people choose to celebrate it, is about peace, love, hope and goodwill, you might want a quick recap on those.

You seem to have missed the point - no-one gives a fuck what you do for Christmas or when you do it, but when posters say it's really odd that people have trees up "when it's not longer Christmas" then someone is likely to point out that they're talking out of their arse.

You aren't reading the same thread as me. Nobody is saying it's weird to still have a tree up; all of the 'that's weird / wrong / commercial etc' vocal traffic is coming from the 12th nighters! Keep a tree up as long as you like, but don't tell people who aren't interested in having a tree up until 12th night that they're doing Christmas 'wrong'!

julie

I am an atheist.

Christmas to me is a social event, not a religious one.

I didn’t put any decorations up at all this year, for reasons that have nothing to do with you.

I still gave and received gifts. I saw friends and family. In sort, I celebrated a secular festival in a manner that suited me.

You did what suited you. I’m glad you are enjoying the season. Why don’t you calm the fuck down and be glad other people are enjoying themselves too?

LEM I’m glad we didn’t put decorations up this year. We ended up being gifted six tubs, three pouches, and several tubes of sweets and chocolates. We’d have wrapped around to Festives ‘18 at the rate we eat them! :o

Ours only went up on Christmas Eve, so it's up until 12th night

Mines not coming down until twelfth night since, to me, we are still celebrating the feast of Christmas. I get annoyed when other people tell me I have to take my tree down straight after Christmas day - er no I don't (jog on and take your own tree down if you want to).
Pages of advice on when to take the tree down: www.google.co.uk/search?q=when+should+I+take+my+christmas+tree+down&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=fs&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=e4xFWvuKGcTfgAakuZGQAw

I am intrigued as to what celebrations take place now. Is it just seeing family? What happens during the 12 days of Christmas?

How can people carry on celebrating when many are back at work or school/college/university before the 12 days are up?

Batteriesallgone I can't answer for everyone but for me it's mostly the liturgical celebration (Christmas trees are most certainly still up in churches); it's a time for celebrating and being thankful for the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I also see a lot more of family and friends (due in part to being off work).

BUT I recognise that these are my beliefs and they are not shared by all. Everyone can take down their trees when they want to - it's certainly not my business. If they want to leave them up until Candlemas, that's fine too:

Candlemas - The End of Christmas
You might think that Christmas ends when you take the Christmas Decorations down - but it doesn't! After both Christmas and the season of Epiphany, the end of the Christmas celebrations come on February 2nd, 40 days after Christmas, with Candlemas
From: www.whychristmas.com/customs/whenchristmasiscelebrated.shtml

Stop right now! I have conclusive proof thst Christmas carries on into the new year! Check out the dates of the Christmas Radio Times.

People were celebrating Christmas whilst still going to work and school in the pre-Christmas period, so why not during the actual Christmas time? Many take Annual Leave and there are only 3 working days usually between the two sets of bank holidays making it 'efficient'.

We might go see a pantomime, go ice-skating, drink mulled wine, see family, see friends, - go for a winter walk, shop at a Christmas market with any money the kids got, watch films whilst eating chocolate, have late nights, play board games, make more decorations, bake some gingerbread, - all that kind of stuff, in a relaxed way now that we aren't running around trying to make costumes work for school Christmas nativities etc that happened in the pre-Christmas time.

How do we make Christmas last 12 days?

As each of my siblings have 3 or 4 places to visit to see each parent (most of us are married to people whose parents are divorced) it does take a while to get all the travelling done to share a special meal and exchange gifts with our nearest and dearest in person.

In churches and households where there is a crib scene done properly, the figures of the wise men (and any accompanying camels) won't be added to the crowd beside the manger until 6th January.

There are still Christmas concerts going on over the next few days here and there.

I love the liminal time where normal life is suspended for a couple of weeks. I wish the schools didn't go back till after epiphany.

I'm assuming all you dogmatic '12 days of Christmas'-ers are all Christian. Do you feel that it is entirely a Christian celebration and should only be celebrated by fellow Christians in the Christian way then?

You aren't reading the same thread as me. Nobody is saying it's weird to still have a tree up; all of the 'that's weird / wrong / commercial etc' vocal traffic is coming from the 12th nighters! Keep a tree up as long as you like, but don't tell people who aren't interested in having a tree up until 12th night that they're doing Christmas 'wrong'!

I don't think you're reading the thread at all. The poster I was responding to said precisely that:

Would seem odd having a Christmas tree up when it's no longer Christmas

And I never said anyone was doing Christmas 'wrong', or they should have a tree at all, simply that the above poster was talking cobblers.

There’s so much cobblers on here (from both sides) that we could put Timpson’s out of business Riding :o

For us, we spend advent t doing the work and Christmas doing the fun, so before Christmas we will discuss the baking and making and planning and then we have twelve days of relaxing and eating and days out and enjoying our presents.

On each day, we move the figures of the wise men a bit closer to the crib in the nativity scene, and when they get there on Epiphany, we have a special cake with a token inside and whoever gets the token gets to wear a crown and be king or queen for the rest of the day.

We do 12 days largely because our school holidays are always roughly 23rd December to the 8th January, depending when weekends fall, and because 3 kings (in the form of school kids dressed up and reciting poems, swinging an incense burner and writing Roman numerals on our door in chalk) actually come to our door on 5th.

Christmas markets are actually advent markets should be over by 23rd though...

Not religious, do work between Christmas and New year, don't care how anyone else does it except that I hate seeing Christmas stuff up before mid December or in shops before start of December because it drags it out so much it becomes dreary and irritating.

I like to contain Christmas within the school holiday, and ours always coincides with the 12 days. I hate Christmas spreading itself all over November and December like an guest arriving far too early and making itself at home...

Who cares what other people do?! Leave the decorations up all year if that what you wanna do!!!

Thanks cath and others who answered my question.

Seems like 12 days only works if you are religious or have lots of family to visit.

I’ll be sticking with my ‘Advent Christmas’ I think.