How do you keep the Christmas feeling after the 25th?

[Christmas21]

I've noticed the last few years that Christmas feels 'over' as soon as Christmas day is done.
We've got the panto booked for the 27th this year but does anyone have ideas for prolonging the festive feeling?

We had our tree up from November 27th until February 28th!! And it was a real one!!.. Loved it!!
We also continued watching Xmas films!!

We go away for New Year, so the holiday season continues, appreciate not available to everyone especially in these times, but I love it

The first weekend in December is early, delay that by at least a week.

Our tree gets closer to Christmas eve every year. The anticipation is the special part.

Unfortunately, many on the Christmas boards get frothy about how/when people do their decorations, eat, celebrations etc.

Ummmm, nope, can't say it's those that frequent the Christmas boards regularly doing that. More often it's people seeing the thread in Active and leaping in who seem to be more prescriptive.

Plus, MN as a whole tends to have prescriptive frothers...have you even been on AIBU?!

We don't. DH has to go into work at 6am on Boxing Day so I take the decorations down. His birthday is on 27th so I make the meals nothing like Christmas food.

The kids are at uni now, so Christmas prep begins when they are home mid December.

I work in retail part time, so not really into all the keeping it special after... other people's special makes it crappy for the folks who provide it ... we are together when we can be, so we keep it simple, which is special in itself.

I don't - just thankful it is all over for another year. Itching to take the tree down by the 27th and everything packed away on New Year's Day. Peace and tidiness reign!

We have our friends for 12th Night, always have a big dinner, so Christmas ends on Epiphany for us. We don't put the tree up til Christmas Eve though, so we're not tired of it.

Last year I put up twinkly lights on the fireplace which we kept up after the tree came down....to the end of January. Helped keep the feeling there for a while extra month!

I personally prefer the build up, the christmas lights, the trips to santa etc but I we try to make it last till new year's eve if I can. Christmas films, Christmas food etc helps. We normally put our Xmas tree up the 1st weekend of Dec but we are going away this year that weekend so I think we will have to put it up the week before. The kids will probably think it's great haha

I like the lull between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. It’s not Christmas but it’s special family time - we do as little as humanly possible which is delightful after a very full December run-up! Play with toys, eat, watch films, go for lovely walks, see family… Twixmas is its own event.

@MagicSummer

I don't - just thankful it is all over for another year. Itching to take the tree down by the 27th and everything packed away on New Year's Day. Peace and tidiness reign!

Me too!!

Ooo no Christmas is over when the dc go to bed on the 25th. I’d take the tree down if I could get away with it but I’m usually for too knackered instead and besides Chrismas evening is spent blowing up balloons and putting up decorations and wrapping ready for ds3’s birthday on the 26th. So we go into celebration mode with birthdays and nye, but Christmas is well and truly over

Spend Christmas Eve putting up and decorating the Christmas tree and putting out your Christmas decorations and lights etc.
Then have a traditional 12 days of Christmas. Maybe hold back some gifts so your children have a new gift to open each day.

I think that Christmas begins incredibly early in some households nowadays. It used to be very rare to see a Christmas tree in someone's front room before the middle of December. Now, it's quite common to see them up on the 1st of December, or even earlier! By the time christmas Day arrives, it must already seem a bit passé!

I'm not religious so Christmas is more a celebration of life, tradition, winter etc, which I think helps prolong the festive spirit as I'm very much still in Christmas mode until New year's day.

Me and my partner prefer boxing day really as we put so much effort and energy into the kids day on Christmas itself, and Christmas eve. I wouldn't say though that I do anything actively Christmassy but playing with presents, reading new books, still eating Christmas food including Christmas dinner for several days, dressing in cosy clothes and pajamas most of the week, and just relaxing, keeps that Christmas spirit alive

If I had my way, I’d enjoy the dead days between Christmas and New Year and tidy everything away for a fresh start on Jan 1. But because ds has autism we have a slow build up and a gradual retreat. He finds it hard to deal with too much excitement, but also hard to deal with Christmas being over.

So we have a selection of tablecloths that we use from Christmas Eve to New Year (we just use place mats normally). We start building our nativity a week before Christmas and add figurines up to the 6th. We organise some family visits for the days after Christmas.

I really like the idea of moving some traditions like making the gingerbread house to the week after.

We don't! 27th we always take the Tree and Decorations down. We put them up on the 1st as really enjoy the build up and the excitement it brings, but once the day itself is over we like to get back to normality.

I absolutely hate that Christmas is “over” after Boxing Day. The fact I loath NYE makes it worse.

We put our Xmas stuff up REALLY early, normally the day after Halloween. We love the build up, and totally embrace all the Christmas TV and Christmas films etc….I prefer the build up more than the day to be honest. I’ve a feeling this year will see the shops really push Christmas even more early after the horrible year we’ve all had.

Bring it on.

My Nana used to say Christmas is over once you've eaten your dinner

We have traditions too. Boxing Day our village has live music and dancing so we always do that. Then book a panto or Christmas show. Other days we have family over or visit them. We often book a local illuminations or NT house all done up for Christmas too. NYE is a big candlelit family dinner with champagne and fireworks if we aren't off to a party. NYD is always a big hilly walk.

But part of the fun of Christmas is being able to stay in PJs until lunch time, watching old films, reading Christmas books, playing Christmas games, eating up the cheese and nuts and turkey. It's a dip but a nice dip.

We went ice skating between Christmas and New year in 2019 and it was lovely. Really wanted to do the same last year but was obviously cancelled. We are also going to our first pantomime this year and I think we'll do that just after Christmas day as well.

We watch Christmas TV, eat and drink nice food, spend a lot of time as family

I think after Boxing Day, it’s no mans land week, weird, I like to get on with the new year

I love the week between xmas and new year, but it doesn't feel christmassy to me in the same way the build up does. We will sometimes see a panto, but mainly we hang around the house eating leftovers and cheese, playing board games and just being together. It is like the world outside has paused.