When does Christmas 'end' for you?

[AD80]

When I was a kid I felt it was different compared to now. I felt like Christmas lasted for days after the big day, it would still feel magical between Christmas and new year. We'd visit family between Christmas and new year. I'm not sure if it was just because I was a kid, I was fortunate enough my parents had jobs where they'd be off for the whole festive period. But it felt like shops shut for a few days too! 🤷‍♀️

I'm not sure if it's just me or because I'm grown up but these days I feel like people forget about Christmas soon as the day is over. No Christmas songs played after the 25th! Shops back to normal. Often people take their decs down

What does it 'end' for you.

Won't be ready to let go this year. We all have covid at the minute. Dd was last to get and she won't be out of isolation until the 25th so we've pretty much missed the whole of December which makes me so sad 😪

I just feel like making it last this year. I don't take my tree down until after New Year's Day anyway!

I am going to look at doing things we'd normally do now after Christmas and hoping it'll still fee Christmassy !

I hate the idea that I'm supposed to spring forth rejuvenated into the NY. I always want to curl up and hide away in January.

Epiphany / 6th January so the day after 12th night. There's a reason why most cultures have festivals of lights in the Winter- December and January are just depressing without twinkly lights!

I hate the new trend of putting up decs in November and taking them down just after Boxing day!

Christmas is over when the xmas tv mag runs out.

The first day of Christmas is Christmas day, the 12th is 5th January.

November/ early December are not Christmas!

A few days after Hogmanay and New Year's Day abs when I can be bother to clean up.

I'm usually back at work on the 3rd or 4th January, so I like to take the tree down just before I go back. I love Christmas but I'm always glad to pack away all the clutter and presents, and start the year with a tidy house. My sitting room always looks huge once the tree is down. So that's probably when Christmas ends - when it's all packed away and work/school is starting to loom on the horizon.

The week between Christmas Day/St. Stephen's Day and New Year is a time for chilling and eating nice food. For years Santa brought Lego sets, so we'd use those days to make up the Lego and do arts and crafts and do jigsaws etc. At night we watch movies or play board games. I also curl up on the sofa with my new Christmas books - I love having three or four books to choose from and the luxury of deciding which of those seems the most appealing. I've no interest in shops (real or virtual) apart from picking up essentials like bread and milk. In normal times, I might drag myself out of my cocoon to go to the cinema or a musical. But I don't know what this year will bring.

I think there are a couple of reasons why the Christmas magic has gone and people just want it all over and done with by 27th and they’re both related to greedy employers ! These days the shops are pushing Christmas stuff and the television is all Christmas food and present adverts from early November so we’ve all had enough by Christmas. When I was young my dad broke up for Christmas on about 23rd and had at least a week off. These days staff are still working on Christmas Eve and then often back on Boxing Day. No wonder they don’t feel festive! Who wants to come home from work to see your decorations and tree up and think that was Christmas - just one day! So let’s get them put away and forget it happened and plod on with another year.As AD80 mentioned Christmas used to seem to go on for longer - that’s because it did ! As people had more time off work they were able to extend it, visiting family, having family parties and trips to the panto etc. It’s a shame it’s not still like that. Like I said greed has done this - why let my staff have time off to enjoy the festive season when I can force them to work and make more money for me ???!!!! The shops used to be closed for several days too so staff got a hol too. And guess what - we managed with out having to shop for a few days. I never shop on boxing day out of protest because I don’t think it’s fair on people having to work. I do actually believe that at least this year the shops aren’t open on 26th Dec (Boxing Day). That’s good.

When i wake up on the morning of the 27th

Decorations stay up either until 12th night or the day before kids go back to school. 27th is our last really festive day but I work in retail and am back on the 28th (incredibly lucky with how my shifts fall this year).
We tend to just chill between 27th and New Year anyway but still play Christmas songs right up until the tree comes down.

I hate the new trend of putting up decs in November and taking them down just after Boxing day!

Agree. The week between Boxing Day and New Years is my favourite part of the holidays; the chaos and stress of the buildup and the day itself is over and it's generally a cosy week of visiting and chilling out. It would feel depressing to me if all the remnants of Christmas were already gone- it's only just begun!

But surely Christmas is what you want it to be inside your four walls?

For us, Christmas is the lead up to Christmas and Boxing Day. It’s about decorations up, films, visiting friends and family, everything that goes on in school, work lunches, parties, volunteering etc etc. We aren’t religious at all. We go with what we enjoy, not with what others deem to be the way we should celebrate Christmas. For us Christmas is over and definitely decorations down before Hogmanay.

Dec 27

@DappyApple

Also as a child I remember the sales didn’t actually start until January and the shops definitely weren’t open on Boxing Day so most people didn’t think about going shopping straight after Christmas. And would hold out for the sales. Also back then parents were more likely to have the week between Christmas and New year off work. (Two week shutdown)

But now shops and workplaces very rarely close so you don’t have that clear definition of it being a national holiday.
It’s back to the grindstone as soon as Christmas Day is over!

I think we're of a similar vintage. The sales were New Year/January sales and there would always be an article in the newspaper about some bloke who queued up outside the shop for about a week so as to be first in line to secure a dream holiday for his family. His family would bring him flasks and food etc. to keep him going. Everyone else would shake their head on reading the article and say, "Wouldn't you want to be mad to spend your whole Christmas queueing outside a shop?".

The big department stores would have ads in the newspapers and on radio and TV for their sales starting 2nd January. We never imagined back then that the shops would be open on St. Stephen's Day (Boxing Day in the UK). I feel very sorry for anyone working in retail over Christmas. They don't get a proper Christmas break at all.

Christmas is over by bedtime on Boxing Day. Once the kids are in bed, the decorations come down and like someone else said, my house suddenly looks twice the size.

The 'holiday' feeling when you don't know what day it is and you eat weird meals at weird times lasts until the kids go back to school which is 3 Jan this year.

Christmas is 12 days long, starting on Christmas day. I have no idea how people who do it any other way manage to eat all the Christmas cake/Christmas pudding/mince pies that are required .

I imagine the people for whom it's all done by boxing day must either be very abstemious, or start before Christmas, and while I can manage a few mince pies with the school carol service I can't imagine Christmas day without either the setting fire of the pudding or first cutting into the royal icing of the fruit cake.

Thinking even more about food, loads of people still seem to do a 'big shop' before Christmas, if you're only buying for one day of festivities and not 12 days where you intend to relax and feast why do you need so much food?

Candlemass in February!

@Toddlerteaplease I left my outdoor twinkly lights on til Candlemas last year. I felt like the world needed the cheer.

I think I’ll do the same this year.🎄🎄🎄

@Borracha

Christmas is over by bedtime on Boxing Day. Once the kids are in bed, the decorations come down and like someone else said, my house suddenly looks twice the size.

The 'holiday' feeling when you don't know what day it is and you eat weird meals at weird times lasts until the kids go back to school which is 3 Jan this year.

Omg, that fills me with horror! There’s surely enough months in the year to have a tidy house while the beauty and sparkle of decorations is so fleeting

Do your kids /dp have any say?

Obviously you do you and it’s none of my business, it just seems so...cold 😳

[quote HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule]@Toddlerteaplease I left my outdoor twinkly lights on til Candlemas last year. I felt like the world needed the cheer.

I think I’ll do the same this year.🎄🎄🎄[/quote]
Lovely idea!

by New Year's Eve at the latest... can't imagine leaving all decorations up for another week, tradition or not.

6th Jan. I'd only remove the tree earlier if it were dying and looking too worse for wear.

28th or so of January.
I am not a fan of new year and I love the calm stillness of January, I enjoy getting back to quiet and routine,.

First weekend in New Year for the tree etc, but tbh not much happens after Boxing Day here. Its all in the run up. I also celebrate the Solstice and very much looking firward to that next week. Fire pit , Yule log, etc

Epiphany/6th Jan for us. I'm half French and half Irish, so we celebrate with a bit from both countries. The figures of the kings finally arrive at the manger, we eat a special cake decorated with a crown with a little figure inside the cake, and whoever gets the figure is king or queen for the day. And in non-covid times, I go to the pub with a bunch of women friends to celebrate "women's Christmas".

And the Christmas tree goes, but I leave up the smaller sparkly lights and any greenery that doesn't look horribly dried out until candlemas/St Brigid's day/Imbolc which is when the spring cleaning gets done.