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?

I de-Christmased the house yesterday too. Had to be then as it was DH’s last day at home so he could give me a hand to get the tree to the tip and pack everything down/clear up. It’s nice when it’s all up and twinkly but it is nice to have the house back to normal again.

Teddy - yes, but it's a tradition, not a law.

Didn't the three wise men visit Jesus on 12th night and that's why it's 12 days of Christmas?

I don't think anyone really believes this as actually happened though do they? It's an illustrative story to demonstrate commitment, as many of the bible stories are.

It's also around the length of the pagan festival around the Christmas period.

Why does everyone put them up so damn early in the first place. Not surprised people have had enough of them come 27th December.

To hold back the dark, bring greenery to the winter, celebrate the whole of advent & Christmas and feel cosy. It's only 36 days tops

Ours is still up. I really don't want to take it down. It is a real tree and smells and looks so lovely.

Why would anyone put it up in November? I'd be sick of it as well.

And the needles, the fact that it will be dried out on Christmas and is therefore an even bigger fire hazard...

Ours went up on the 22nd (of December), was decorated on the 23rd and will stay until the 6th or the morning of the 7th. Which is when Christmas is genuinely over in our family.

(also, I really love how the tree looks this year. Many straw ornaments, some family knickknacks, a few baubles, white candles. We really nailed it this year. preens )

I never said it was law supersop I'm just making conversation...

@horatioisabrick I got used to putting up the tree Thanksgiving weekend in America. It's a long weekend, people start shopping for Christmas, it seemed like a natural time to decorate. I still do that even though I'm in the UK and Thanksgiving isn't a thing here. I like having the tree up for the whole of December and then taking it down on New Year's.

That's very early.
I grew up using "real" candles. So putting a tree up this early seems dangerous...
Also, I hate hoovering.

@Lleyr

Not saying there's anything wrong with your tradition, btw.
And Christmas doesn't really end until the 6th in my family (so keeping it up is nice.)

I'm going to take mine down on Saturday. It is a lovely big pretty tree and it smells so lovely. Room will look bare without it.

Our tradition is the tree goes up the weekend school breaks up - nice start to the holiday and comes down the morning of New Years Eve to give more room for that nights party and a clean house to start another year. I couldn’t face having to come home from work and have to spend the evening getting rid of the tree and packing up the decorations.

Mine came down today. Was hoping to do it tomorrow but had ashitty day and thought "Christmas is over". Will leave outside lights on for one more night though. The tree looked pretty good but dumped a pile of needles on way out. Sitting in its water bowl outside its perked up a bit though.

Twelfth Night today so down came the tree as dusk fell. I miss it already.

I've been thinking about this thread a bit in recent days, not really because of the tree, but why some people think Christmas starts in December and ends on the evening of 25/12, and others see it as starting on Christmas Eve as Advent ends and going on to Twelfth Night. I'm in the latter camp. I was brought up in a devout churchgoing family but I have no religious belief now, so it's not for that reason. Christmas for me is a midwinter break. It's also very definitely a period of feasting. I love my food so that's probably why I like Christmas so much. We have a lovely meal on Christmas Day (and a very nice one on Christmas Eve) and then oodles and oodles of delicious leftovers and other Christmas specialities over the succeeding days. By Twelfth Night it's pretty much all gone and it's time to start eating sensibly again (sigh).

In centuries past, this would have been a very lean time of year indeed for most families. As autumn turned into winter, belts would have had to be tightened until the spring when farm animals had their young and crops started growing. There would have been people really struggling to eke out their stores until then. Hence Lent - make a virtue out of necessity just at the point when stores were almost exhausted. Hence also Christmas/Yule/New Year celebrations, I think - for most of us it works better psychologically to have lean times alternating with feast days than to have the same rations every day for months.

Presents are a very small part of Christmas for me. Maybe in families where presents are a big deal they are the main feature of Christmas and that's why it feels as if Christmas is over once they've been distributed. But surely most people go on eating a bit more than normal in the days after Christmas?

Our tree and decs go up in mid December and came down when school restarted. (January 4th) Must have them down by 12th night or bad luck for the rest of the year.

For us the main Christmas events finish on Boxing Day with the presents, parties, family gatherings, lots of food and drinks takings place in the period of 1 - 26 December. DH is a doctor in a busy GP’s practice and goes back to work on 27 December so for us Christmas is then over and the decorations and tree cleared out of the way for the New Years Eve party.

The tree is down and the decorations are boxed up.

The kings have arrived at the stable.

#twelfthnight

Bastard thing!

Tree and other decs all down today. Just an illuminated star in the front window still (no reason, just looks nice).

You can all take your trees down now!

Today (Sat just going to bed) or tomorrow depending on how busy I am. I usually do it at the weekend after 12th night. I don't put the tree up until a few days before Christmas though. We buy it and keep it in the garden until nearly Christmas.
For me "Christmastime" lasts until about now. It isn't just about Christmas day. Christmas eve is the beginning of the Christmas festival for me which lasts a fortnight.

I also celebrate the solstice but as the 2nd Jan is also a holiday up here in Scotland taking a tree down in the middle of another celebration (when I'm often away visiting family or have family visiting us) seems too much of a fangle. I love my tree as well. I also don't do many decorations. Just a real tree and some draped tinsel and other dangly bits. To me taking it down before 12th night seems a bit sad, unless you're going away for a week or something and a sign you started too early. A lot of things in Scotland don't really get going again until Monday.