To wonder why some still have Christmas trees up?

[Strawbsss]

Not bashing anyone...

Genuinely interested, if you have your Christmas tree still up, can I ask why?

I see a few around my hometown, a couple seem to have just fairy lights on it so I'm wondering if it's just a 'cosy' thing?

Mind your own business 🧑‍🎄

just kidding. Who knows - maybe they haven’t had time to take them down, maybe they like the coziness through the dismal winter.

In the Anglican church at least the Christmas period lasts until Candlemas (2nd February) so some people keep decorations up until then.

A Catholic priest I know has his up till candlemass.

Because I can't be arsed to take it down 🤷‍♀️

There have been at least three long threads on here in the recent past complaining about the lack of cheer in winter streets in the UK compared to Sweden (where apparently people specifically light lamps in their windows to make their houses look cheery to passersby), and asking why people have taken down their Christmas lights because it ‘cheers the place up’.

I'm disabled
I prioritise getting the outside decs down - wreathe etc.

Takes me a while to work through it all.

Tree came down yesterday.
Still washing the last of the Christmas bedding.

There were a few up still in our area. I wondered if it was candlemass but I've not noticed this in previous years.

We have a prelit tree. Maybe next year I’ll take the actual decorations off by twelfth night as usual but keep the actual tree up longer. No reason why not really, without the baubles it’s just a tree with lights!

What’s Christmas bedding?

I remember talking to a mum of a child at my daughter's primary. She was from Poland I think. She said the tradition was decorations stayed up until the end of Candlemas but you had to wait for the Priest to come to your home and say some type of prayer before you could take them down. She lived in a giant block of flats on one of the higher floors so it would take forever for the priest to get to her flat (as each visit involved lots of polite small talk and tea and cake type foods).

A long time ago - in the 1970s - I knew a family who kept their Christmas tree up all year. They were functioning alcoholics and they just couldn't be bothered taking it down. They were a total exception to the norm back then because almost every body stuck to the tradition of taking Christmas tree and decorations down by 12th night.
They would fit in very well now where people just do their own thing as regards both putting up and taking down .

A quilt cover with Santa on or similar 🧑‍🎄

It's on a long list of jobs to do, might get done this weekend.

One of my DC has a January birthday, so I leave the tree up and put their birthday presents under it. It becomes a birthday tree. Depending on what day of the week the birthday falls or how busy we are, it might take another week or two for me to get around to taking it down. It was down by mid-January this year, which was quite prompt for me.

The late Anthony Bourdain lived with wife number 1 in a New York apartment. Neither of them were over-concerned with housework. They kept a Christmas tree so long that the embarrassment of putting it out with the rubbish was too much for either to cope with. Problem solved by cutting bits off with nail scissors and disposing of it, bit by bit, a small bag at a time. Recounted in Kitchen Confidential, his first book. RIP Anthony.

One year mine was up until May half term.

I did read about someone who wrapped her tree up in cling film with the decorations still on before putting it away, so all she had to do was unwrap it the following year. I wouldn’t do that, decorating it is half the fun, plus it looks different every year!

I put mine up as close to Christmas as I can - never before 20th Dec - because I hate the commercialised Christmas creep and genuinely think we'd be happier if we spent Advent getting ready for Christmas and then did all the celebrating and indulging from 25th Dec instead of in the weeks leading up to 25th Dec. I then keep it up because January's a bit miserable and I bloody love my tree 😁

Usually take it down after Candlemas but this year I fractured my wrist a couple of days before Candlemas (last day of a skiing holiday so don't feel too sorry for me). So I have an excuse to keep it up. Forgot to top up its water before we went on holiday though so it does need to come down as it's looking a bit sad.

I put lights on the tree in our front garden for Christmas and neighbours keep telling me how much they like having them still up, I'll probably take them down early March (should get husband to do it as I am supposed to be going easy on the wrist, wouldn't do to fall on it). Can't just leave them on the tree because foxes are guaranteed to chew through the cable 😡

My post reads like the most overheard in Waitrose thing ever - we lead pretty bog standard Zone 3 terraced-house lives and the ski holiday is our one trip abroad each year except for seeing family, honest! (But lucky to be able to do it at all, of course.)

I put trees up for a couple of different things through the year, some may think I'm odd, but it brings a bit of joy to my home where I spend 95% of my time so I'm not really fussed.

There's loads of uncollected by the council dead trees cluttering up the footpaths where I live - the owners might have well kept them up and looking pretty rather than them looking dead and getting in pedestrians way !

Yeah there were some very angry British people on that thread, defending the darkness to their last breath, unable to fathom that other countries have other traditions. 😂 Very odd.

I’d love mine up all year 😬
Took me way too long to take it down this year.

I haven't seen one since early January, but I always love my night time dog walks looking at people's decorations and lights so I'd quite enjoy it if a few were up! A couple of houses round here have left up garden lights, but taken down Christmas themed bits.

Most decorations have been taken down already, but I haven't yet got around to taking the garlands/lights off of my stairs ( winds around the bannister).
It's a galleried landing, and the stairs are U shaped, so it looks really nice, although that's not why I haven't taken it down yet.

I haven't done it simply because I'm really down atm, and I can't find the motivation to get up, let alone do that. I do know that I really need to, though.