Taking down Christmas decorations

[Differentstarts]

I know im being unreasonable as its none of my business what other people do but I get really annoyed at people who put Christmas decorations up in October and then take them down boxing day or like my friend Christmas day. I don't know why this annoys me but it does what happened to it being done on or at least around the 6th January. I'm just curious what others do?

Up 10 days before maximum, and then down before New Year as I want to get the house tidy before kids go back to school and I go back to work.

the season of "Christmas" is changing and lots of people can't cope with that. The majority of people in the UK are not christian and do not go to church - the story of the birth of Jesus is just a fairytale for them with angels and donkeys and kings in cool costumes. For most people "Christmas" is a time for eating, getting presents and doing stuff with the family. And the season has shifted forward so that now Christmas = December.

Nobody is feasting and having their friends over and hosting a Christmas party on January 5th. Or 4th or 3rd. Even if that's what the Tudors or Victorians did. Times change.

Mine go up 1st weekend in December and come down on new year's day usually. I don't understand why someone would take them down on boxing day as its still Christmas, but each to their own.

I put white 'fairy' lights up 1st Dec. Christmas Tree & C. decs 14th Dec.
Tree & C. decs down on 12th night.
White lights down at Candlemas.

I have a friend who goes Christmas mad on 1st Dec (& has FB 'countdown' to that. Not for me but makes her happy.

Ours go up either the last weekend in nov Or the first weekend in December depending on dates/circumstances

usually the other decorations start coming down gradually on the 27th with the living room decorations being left to any date after the 2nd of January depending on time off and when the closest weekend is

we have had a busy Christmas so the decorations will start coming down today and the living room decorations and whatever is left will come down on the 6th

we decorate the living room, dining room, kitchen, hall, snug and pub shed to a greater or lesser extent so they come down by a room a day

The tree goes up here during the week before Christmas. Down 6th January. Although I might leave the nativity scene up until Candlemas this year, we have never done that before 😀Advent is the big thing during December for us.

Love it that PP with ADHD leaves everything up for months because it brings her joy. Anything that brings joy has to be good. The only thing that makes me sad is when people feel under pressure to buy stuff and celebrate even when they can't afford it or don't want to.

Oh, we always tried to get them down on the early side as ds1 birthday is the 3rd of January and parties were a pain with all the decs up

then dd turned up and her birthday is the week before Christmas so we didn’t time that right at all….i blame dh 🤔

Not really bothered what other people do tbh. Ours go up first weekend in Dec and come down Jan 2nd.

This is what it boils down to. Christmas for me is parties, nativitys, sitting around doing Lego and eating cheese and chocolate, staying up late and having lie ins. Drinking too much.

All this stuff is December/twixmas and needs to stop when I return to work!

I do the same. I regard now as still part of Christmas but I can see more people start and finish earlier now. I wouldn't want them up for 4 weeks either.

Lots of people saying that they're still celebrating on NYD and that decs should still be up.

My decs came down yesterday. I am at a party tonight and gathering for a big family meal tomorrow. But neither event is at my house and I like a clean, fresh house before we start a new year. I am looking around now at my clean, polished surfaces and everything back in its rightful place, and all the extra space now the decorations are back in the loft, and I love it. I love it as much as putting the decorations up on 1st December.

I wasn't feeling festive this year due to losing my mum in January. Christmas hasn't been great for the last three years due to health issues with various family members.

Anyway, I got a little potted tree (rather than going into loft for our usual decoration and tree) and put up some lights the week before Xmas. However because I did get a potted tree I'm planning to take everything down today/tomorrow before the tree gets too unhappy being inside. I'm going to plant it in the garden so might do that today as it isn't raining for a change!

I put white 'fairy' lights up 1st Dec. Christmas Tree & C. decs 14th Dec.
Tree & C. decs down on 12th night. White lights down at Candlemas

Ooh. I might steal that. I do like to have some fairy lights (and candles) all through the darkest months.
Another pp mentioned NYE and New Year's day being a big thing for them, and I think this has changed too for a lot of people. We would always have a big dinner New Year's Day, with lots of people invited, or go for a walk and a curry with friends, and decorations would be still up. It was always a social time.
I don't think people are really annoyed by the "clear everything by the 27th" people, more sad that what used to be a slowed down time to relax has turned into a rush to the next thing.
To me midwinter is for refection, hibernation, sleeping, slow cooking and reading and I'm in no hurry to get revved up again!

Sorry about your Mum Tumbleweed. The 1st Xmas after losing a loved one is very hard.

Took all ours down on Saturday. I lost a very important family member in July, expected and peacefully but I just couldn't feel it this year. I'm sad to go into a new year without them but I know that they would say to me don't be daft. It's good to have the house back to normal.

I think I know why it bothers people so much when others take their decorations down before the 5/6th. I suspect it's a two pronged thing. As it currently stands, they'd quite like to take theirs down a bit earlier too. Because once festivities are over, they are a bit sad feeling. And it's also like having a big job hanging over you that you could do now and get it over and done with but you can't for no other real reason than tradition.

The other reason is that, it does actually suck that come Christmas night, it all just feels over. Loads and loads of big build up to one day, and then when it comes, it's all flat by bedtime. Christmas day kind of should be the beginning of fun, not the end. When my DS was very young I used to go all out and do 12 special things every day of Christmas. With a little finale for twelfthnight with a special breakfast, a last gift and a special cake. But it used to feel like we were in a weird bubble. We'd be still wandering around in our Christmas jumpers on the 4th of January getting odd, somewhat sad looks from kids who were back to school the next day. The older he got and the more involved in outside life, the more our Christmas celebration had to get pared back as he was often in school by the 5th, which make it hard to be very celebratory. So I really do wish there was a way to bring more of those 12 days back. Just so Christmas wouldn't go so flat before midnight of the 25th. And we're in Ireland where it's still very normal for everyone to keep their decorations up until the 6/7th. But it's not a celebration anymore by then. Unless part of a group doing women's Christmas.

I think that's where I'm at. I'd love to give my children 12 days of Christmas but I don't feel able to do it alone. New year's Day feels like the latest I can sustain it. Right now all I can think of is how little time until they are back at school (3rd and it's a religious school 🙄) and how I can get Christmas wound down.

I used to take the decs down on New Year’s Day as soon as ILs had left. It symbolised getting my house back to myself again. These days I am happy yo leave them up until 6th Jan.

It's not that deep for me. I just think it looks weird to take them down during the actual festival that's all. It's untidy.

Very much each to their own
Out tree goes up quite late,this year on 17th December and comes down on 12th Night
We have a few social occasions this week including a night with with 6 other couples which we normally do pre Christmas but we couldn’t get a date
I enjoy having the decorations up for the whole time,but appreciate other people do it differently

I took down Christmas decs on 27th, but I've put up fairy lights and candles around the place (fake candles, I have a horror of the place burning down). Wintery rugs/throws around. I like to think of it as re-orienting to get through that Jan-March time when it's all a bit cold and bleak!

So you like the tradition of having 12 days of Christmas, and you wish there was a way to get that tradition back, but you don't want to keep the tradition yourself as then you'd be like those sad people who do it for no reason other than tradition.

I'm not at all jealous of the people who've already taken their decorations down because for me, it's firmly still Christmas. I'm off work, kids are on holiday, decorations are up, we're catching up with one group of friends this afternoon and another tomorrow, we're still enjoying treat food and wine.

It's a little bit less special if I know that some people feel Christmas is over now. That's because as above, one of the special things about Christmas is that everyone is slowing down and celebrating at the same time. I know some people have to or choose to work, I have too previously, but it still makes it special to have a festive atmosphere outside of work.

To be fair most people do at least stop on Christmas Day, and round here the lights and decorations are still all up and I expect will be until at least new year's day, so I'm not majorly fussed what everyone else does.

Whilst I don't follow the official traditions I do think that taking your tree down on Christmas Day is borderline psychotic so I guess we all have to draw the line somewhere.

My tree goes up in the living room on the 23rd of December and down first thing on boxing day. It hasn't always been like this, but I now have 3 autistic children and 2 of them just can't cope with the total overwhelm of Christmas and we've found the less time with decorations the better. My middle son has his own smaller tree and some lights and lots of tinsel, that go up in his room at the beginning of December but he does also like to have them taken down on boxing day. In their minds, Christmas is over and so all things Christmassy should be gone. They're happy, we're happy, it's not a big deal for us. I couldn't care less about what others do with their decorations, keep them up all year if it makes you happy!

I once met a woman who didn’t really like celebrating Christmas and would use her children’s misbehaviour as an excuse to scale it back. She’d say, “right, if you two don’t stop arguing, I’m taking the tree down”, then would follow through. Within a few years, she’d stopped putting a tree up at all. She’d also stopped sending Christmas cards, though I’m kind of with her on that one.

This woman was very careful with money in general, to the point of eating porridge three times a day to save money, so I suppose that was behind it.