Does no-one leave their decorations up until 12th night anymore?

[MrsSeanBean]

I feel like a right freak with decorations, tree etc still up. I thought the custom was to leave Christmas decorations up until 12th night. I suppose that custom, as with so many others, has vanished.

Am I the only one?!

my tree came down a couple of days after christmas and I took the lights down from the window yesterday. Dh will take the icycles down from outside in the next couple of days. I am not religious so the Twelfth night thing means nothing to me.

Another ex-Catholic here who steadfastly refuses to take them down until the Epiphany The tree is looking a bit tired but the bugger stays till 12th night. It helps that it is a Friday so I can take it down after the kids have gone to bed. We put ours up a bit too early (9 December) but we were having a shitty time and it cheered us up. I prefer the end of term (no liturgical basis for that timing, just makes sense to me )

I tend to view Xmas decs as a nice way of cheering up an otherwise rather dismal time of year. I am not into Solstice etc but I am in favour of some bright lights and glitter in the depths of winter - as were the early Christians who appropriated the whole idea in the first place.

Each to their own in their own home, I guess, but no, you are not weird

I can't stand having decorations up after boxing day. It feels like being at a party when everyone else has gone home.
I lasted t new years eve this year but then they had come down.
I didnt realise there was any religious significance to leaving them up til the 6th. . I have learned something new, and before breakfast as well!

We usually leave them until 12th night, but took them down early this year because we had time before we go back to work.

I always cling onto mine as long as possible - definitely holding out for 12th night here. It gave me a nice warm glow this morning when they DDs came down in their uniforms and rushed to turn the Christmas tree lights on. Although ours only went up the weekend before Christmas - I can imagine that if you've had your decorations up since the beginning of December (as seems to be increasingly common) you are desperate to get rid of them by New Year.

I think it's because people put them up far too early! I mean - end of november/beginning of december? If people put them up on, say, Christmas eve or something, then they'd probably not be pig sick of them by boxing day

When I was a small child, my mother used to decorate after we went to bed on Christmas eve. We went to sleep with music playing on the record player, and woke up to the magic of a decorated house. The decorations then stayed up until 12th night because my father thought anything else was bad luck.

Now, I am busy and disorganised, so the tree and sitting room get decorated on Christmas eve, and the dining room is done while DH cooks the goose for Christmas dinner. But they still stay up until 12th night!

I'm taking mine down slowly, as the shock of the bare house always increases my January blues even more.

I am ridiculously supersticious and fear the consequences of a single bauble left out after 12th night. Sometimes I see decorations up in a house after the deadline, I assume where the owners have gone on holiday, and feel that the rest of their year will be doomed.

I'm over thinking this aren't I?

I put mine up mid December, and still want them down boxing day.
I'm the grinch, aren't I?

Ours are still all up apart from the wreath on the front door.

12th night here, sad to think of them going back in the loft :(

We also have fairy lights in kitchen all year round

As it clearly states on Wikipedia, Twelfth Night is Epiphany Eve - ie. the evening of 5th Jan. By the morning of the 6th it is no longer the Season of Christmas but is the Season of Epiphany so it is too late to leave your decorations up until the 6th as Christmas finished at midnight the night before. Forget counting days and nights: Epiphany begins on the 6th, so Christmas finishes at the end of the 5th. Decorations down tomorrow. Twelfth Night is tomorrow night (5th), and we're off out for a final Christmas meal with colleagues.

I put them up when the kids break up and take them down the day before they go back. Something about them being up when life has returned to normal seems a bit grim for some reason. But I hate the whole thing of getting them up in November and then taking down on boxing day.

Dandy Wikipaedia is a great resource but not totally reliable (or gospel, he-he ). The picture is less clear and the Christmas season can finish as late as Candlemas on 2 February Details here. I won't be leaving the decorations up till then

Mine usually go up the first weekend in December but, due to bah-humbug-ness, they went up quite a bit later this year. It has meant that I'm still happy to have most of it around the place.

I did take the tree down last night (mainly because I had three mindees coming today after the Christmas break and the tree was taking up most of their play space) but there're still plenty of decorations around the place.

I'm having a wisdom tooth out tomorrow and am expecting to be feeling properly sorry for myself tomorrow night so wondering whether I should take everything else down tonight.

mine came down day before NY eve. I actually hate having them up after christmas and would take them down after boxing day if DH would let me. To be fair though i am expecting a baby anyday now and didn't want to come back to a still decorated house.

I always wait till the 6th as I,m quite late getting them up in the first place. However this year had to take the majority down for a house viewing on the 3rd- just the tree left as waiting for better weather before I drag it outside.

I think the 12th night has been and gone hasn't it? Xmas Eve plus 12 days would be the 4th. We took ours down yesterday.

I'm taking ours down tomorrow. I love the way the house looks at Christmas so like to drag it out as long as possible!

This thread has got me thinking - other than the decorations staying up, are there/were there any traditions associated with the 12 days of Christmas (once Christmas and Boxing Day have passed) that either I don't know about or that have just died out? I would love any excuse to be Christmassy for longer, but other than having the decorations up, it seems Christmas is over after the 26th .

Maybe I could start by suggesting to the BBC that they keep running the little Christmassy bits between programmes till the 6th, instead of stopping on Boxing night .

ProfessorSunny, 12th night is tomorrow. It's 12 nights from Boxing day.

Ours are still up. The 6th Jan is a big thing in Spain and kids get yet more presents

I feel like Yawner, I do them bit by bit. The tree (that lives in a pot in the garden) is still up but I'll take the decorations off today, leave the lights on until tomorrow, which I, as a lapsed High Anglican of the Church in Wales, deem to be Twelfth Night.

As a Pagan and SAD sufferer I need these bright reminders that the Light will return so there will some pretty lights around all through the year.

I'm thinking of getting some lovely fairy lights to have up all year round (after xH took the lovely ones we had, that I got from freecycle )

Everything still up here :)

tree down the tip yes

got em all down, got a viewing Saturday.

Still up here. The 6th is Nollaig na mBan or "Women's Christmas" in Ireland, where traditionally men would have to do all the cooking etc. Nowadays where I'm from it's an excuse for hotels to charge groups of women wads of cash to listen to some old-fashioned show band while they get a "free" drink, but Christmas will never be over for me until it has passed even though I don't celebrate this now.