Sad about getting rid of Christmas tree!!

[lollipoprainbow]

I'm being utterly ridiculous I know but I always feel really sad about getting rid of my real Christmas tree, almost like dumping an old friend !! It arrived all damp and smelling gorgeous and in its net, me and dd decorated it beautifully and it has gladdened my heart for a month. I'm looking at it now feeling really sad about it going next week. Anyone else ??!

@Sciurus83 - when I was single, 28 and bored of London, I wanted another adventure so hopped on a plane! I’d never been to the Caribbean before, didn’t have a job and didn’t know anyone.
14 years later I’m still here, with friends that are family, been working for the same law firm since I arrived, met a husband, had 2 kids, dogs, a home and our beloved plastic Christmas tree! 🥳🤣

Have you ever read The Little Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson, OP? If not, don't!

Normally I can;t wait to get rid of the decorations but this year they are staying up until 12th night. Not sure why, I just want them around for longer. (Tree went up quite late, so maybe that is it. And DC are adults now so the house isn't bursting at the seams with new toys everywhere.)

OP, if you always feel this way, why not buy a tree with roots and keep it in a huge pot in the garden, bringing it in for Christmas? That way you don't need to say goodbye to it.

I'm taking my tree down on the 2nd and clearing up but normally put some lights up around my fireplace (non christmas ones) so there's still a bit of joy and cosiness left for January which is a bleak drab month IMO

We've rented one this year, it will go back to the farm and we can have the same one every year if we like. I won't be as sad to see it go because of that

@Strokethefurrywall please start a AMA thread, I want to hear more but don't want to derail

I've got a real one and I'll be repotting it outside so it can come in next year or have some lights on it outside. You do not have to get rid of it!

Why not buy one in a pot with roots? Keep it watered over Christmas then move to garden. Bring it indoors again the next year.

I normally feel like you but this year I want it gone so I can crack on with redecorating the living room.

If you really want to, why not keep it up for a few more weeks - maybe until candlemas? I mean, there's no law against it.

Totally agree but this year is the first year we've bought a live tree. So it's got roots in a pot and it's going back in the ground for next year. So I don't feel so bad as I'll see it outside and think about next year! Also ir didn't drop any needles - yay!

The company who supplied my real tree plant ten trees in Mozambique as carbon offset for each Christmas tree, which they grow in sustainable forests in the Scottish borders. And my tree, after Epiphany, will be collected by the council for recycling.
So I'm happy to enjoy the gorgeous citrussy, smoky, pine scent of a Fraser fir all through Christmas and New Year.
It is sad when it comes down for the 6th, but it wouldn't be a special treat if it was up all year! And the Spring is on its way - I have daffodils pushing well through the soil already, despite being 50 miles north of Edinburgh. Look forwards, not back.

@Icebreaker99 oh good gracious no !! I will steer clear !!

I don't have a garden otherwise I would 100% repot it.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/55214390.amp

Real trees can have a lower carbon footprint than fake trees. They just need to be disposed of correctly.

You buy a real tree to keep in the house for a few weeks then destroy it? wow how incredibly wasteful.

Buy a plastic one and use it each year.
Buy a small potted indoor real one and use it each year.
Buy a big real one and replant in a neighbour/friend’s garden to use again each year.

Real trees can have a lower carbon footprint than fake trees. They just need to be disposed of correctly.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that. A real tree needs quite a few years to grow to a desirable size. Plastic maybe not "eco-friendly", but ours is 25 years old now and still as new. Math is pretty obvious.

I can't bear to kill something green and living for the sake of a couple of weeks, so I don't have one.

Oh gosh I have absolutely no intention at all of taking ours down yet.

I always have mixed feelings about mine. I want Christmas to last, because there’s so much winter left afterwards. But if I leave it up too long, it feels wrong. Just as all the lights outside are cheering and filled with anticipation in December, but become rather depressing to me once Christmas is past.

I feel like I need something to look forward to, rather than the feeling of clinging onto something that I’m going to have to let go of.

Once I do take it down, the room usually seems much brighter and clearer though. I just wish spring was a bit closer, but for that I really need to move a couple of thousand miles south.

I feel the same OP and mine's and artificial tree just going back in the loft! I love Christmas and I'm always sad it's over but once NYD has gone I do feel it's time for them to start coming down even though it's not 12th night, I can't bear them being up when the children are back at school, it just feel wrong!

Actually I'm pretty sure that's why I feel so down on NYE, like you say the fun is over and it feels you're saying goodbye to old mates for another year, it's silly I know.

We wait all year and pay a lot of money for our beautiful trees (chosen and self cut from a local farmer who replaces everything he cuts each year and limits sales to retain all sizes of tree, he supplies up to 20ft). We never take it down until it's dying! This year it still looks brand new so suspect it'll last until feb! Seems wasteful not to enjoy it while it's green and gorgeous, all the other decorations go on the 12th night but the tree stays until it's dying then it dries on the wood stack for a few years and is chopped into firewood.