When should Christmas decorations come down?

[crispini]

Poll question: When should Christmas decorations come down?

In a *perfect* world, when *should* they come down?

And, when do you take YOURS down?! :D

[AllegroRondo]

1. The first Saturday after New Years

[BarenakedLady]

36. Yup.

[Breeze54]

65. Agreed! If you're religious, then Jan. 6th ...

technically. At least I think that's the end of Advent.

[hisownpetard]

2. Valentine's Day.

[BrotherBuzz]

20. That's a good target date. But they absolutely must be down before Easter.

No ifs ands or buts....

[hisownpetard]

29. Or else just hang your Easter eggs on the dead wreaths, for eco-friendly deco-rating.

[Iggo]

3. Please, take your time.

But have them down by midnight December 26th.

[Blue Fire]

4. Ours come down right after New Years.

It's the putting them up right after T-day I give my family a hard time about!

[ElboRuum]

5. In a perfect world...

...the question is moot.

The Christmas holiday is a pagan ritualism which doesn't celebrate anything in particular. While many are under the impression that Christmas is somehow Christian, many Protestant denominations had (in the past) admonitions against celebrating it because there is a great deal of assuredness that December 25 on the modern calendar does not correspond to the actual date of birth of Christ. The closest thing that Christmas observes practically is the importance of maintaining family ties and the extending of various vague shows of goodwill to all manner of people.

In a perfect world, goodwill would be something we'd show on a regular basis. It would be the act of a society based on the ideals of brother/sisterhood, and the warmth we are supposed to make special effort to show on Christmas would be present year round. Thus, lacking any true religious import (Easter being the observance of penultimate significance on the Christian calendar) and having no other real raison d'être, Christmas would not likely exist, and by corollary, neither would the aforementioned decorations.

What, too analytical?

[crispini]

13. LOL. Ah, I wish it were a perfect world.

But I do disagree with "it doesn't celebrate anything in particular" -- precisely *because* of the fact that it's co-opting the earlier pagan rituals. IMO, it's pretty much a solstice celebration for many of us at this point, even if we don't think so: a celebration of light in the darkness, marking the shortest day. :D

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

6. Other.

When you feel like doing it. I have gone as long as Martin Luther King's birthday. I have relatives that have done it Christmas night or even the next day. It truly depends on your mood. IMHO. :)

[edbermac]

7. New Year's Day for me.

[MissMillie]

63. this is the correct answer

you take them down while you're watching the bowl games

[tigereye]

8. let's just say it usually takes us a while...

:hide:

[yellowdogintexas]

35. don't feel bad, we have had Christmas un-decorating that posed as Mardi Gras

celebrations.

I think the longest we ever left them up was sometime during Lent one year.

I strive to get them down by Twelfth NIght, and I am not an early decorator either. I started putting stuff up around Dec 12 or so.

OUr tree takes a long time to un decorate and pack back up, but I turn the lights off on the tree permanently after Epiphany.

LOL I do use red and white for outdoor lights so I can throw some hearts and patriotic stuff in there and get by through February.

[no name no slogan]

9. Some time within a few days after New Years

But since I don't put any up, I don't worry about them

[zanne]

10. There's something depressing about Xmas lights after Xmas.

I don't know why. (By the way, let me explain to the religiously sensitive that I wrote "Xmas" to save space, not because I'm putting down Christianity.) End of disclaimer.

[Blue Diadem]

11. Usually New Years day or within the week after if there is bad weather.

Once, we did leave one of small trees up inside until a little after Valentines day. That year we took down all the other stuff but just left up the bare fiberoptic tree for my Gdaughter to hang up Valentine hearts. Then she wanted to keep it up to hang paper Easter Eggs..but we nixed that idea. I was afraid we'd end up having it up permanently.

edited because I had a duh moment again.

[KittyWampus]

12. Twelfth Night. It seems sad & strange to me that people consider "Christmas" over after Dec 25th.h

NO wonder people get depressed.

I stretch the holiday out. After the 25th is when the relaxed fun begins, for me.

That's when I bake the cookies and send em out to friends w/ a New Year's wish for happiness :)

[tjwmason]

18. Exactly.

Christmas is too much fun to stop on 25th December.

The problem is when folk start it too early, then by 25th they're already fed up with it.

[swimboy]

45. I just got my candles in the windows today.

Three days in, but I've been distracted.

:loveya:

[Kajsa]

37. Cryingshame, I feel the same way.

Now, especially after the 26th( day to buy the house calenders)
it's much more relaxed around here.

I love to see the Christmas lights and bake cookies.
Now, I have more time for those things.

In the traditional Swedish fashion, Christmas begins
on Christmas Eve.
My family is from Sweden.

:hi:

[KittyWampus]

43. I've a little of the Swede and German in me. My tree has lots of straw snowflakes

I don't do the candles anymore though.

We used to light the candles on the tree on Christmas eve and let them burn. :)

[Kajsa]

44. You are braver than I am.

You're part Swede?- Cool!:)
That explains a lot in celebrating Christmas
after Dec.25th.

I have the electric lights for everything,
except the Advent candle holder.

We celebrate Santa Lucia Day here,( Dec.13th) and
I have electric lights in the Lucia crown.

I love the straw snowflakes and heart shaped
ornaments.

:hi:

[underpants]

14. January 6th

by January 6th

[yellowcanine]

15. It depends what they are. Anything involving an inflatable should be taken down immediately.

[FloridaJudy]

25. As in ten seconds after it's put up. eom

[Critters2]

16. Epiphany

January 6th.

Mine go up the first Sunday of Advent. Well, this year, everything but the tree did, because I was depressed about not getting a tree as a gift, as I had the last three years. But other decorations, stocking, Advent wreath, Yule log, etc all went up on Advent 1.

And they'll all come down on Epiphany, January 6th.

[CreekDog]

51. There's the magic word!

The Christian church has a calendar...if only more people knew about it!

:hi:

My vote is Epiphany too.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. I take mine down January 6th, or the Sunday afternoon after that day.

In my family and cultural background, nobody really recovers from the holidays until after January 6.

:evilgrin:

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. We never put any up, but there are still pumpkins on the front walk.

When should they be taken away?

[BrotherBuzz]

21. When the fruit flies lose interest, or when the pumpkins and the ground become Zen.

Those or two main indicators. Smell is another indicator, but it is extremely subjective and hard to call.

[Critters2]

28. The smell goes away after a while. I know this from experience. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

38. These are whole, uncut pumpkins, which are displaying remarkable resilience.

I joked today that we'll put up the Christmas lights in February when we take down the Haloween decorations. At least that got a laugh. :)

[Critters2]

39. If kept in a warm place, whole, uncut pumpkins can blow up!

This happened to a friend of mine in seminary. He kept one in his room past its "due date" and it exploded! I'm guessing from the build-up of gases caused by biodegrading of the innards. It was quite a mess to clean up!!

[Fire Walk With Me]

41. Hmmm. In that case, I'll be sure to move them to my little brother's bedroom...

Is there any way to synchronize the explosion of multiple pumpkins?

Moo-hoo ha-ha!

[Critters2]

42. There's probably some way to do it,

but you'd have to have similarly sized pumpkins, of nearly exactly the same age, for the gases to build to the right pressure at the right rate. I'd just buy the biggest freakin' pumpkin you can find and let it start ripening...

[CreekDog]

53. if there is, put it on youtube

you can be famous for 30 seconds

[CreekDog]

52. A pumpkin stroking out

wow

[Mutley]

22. When I bother to decorate

the decorations come down a bit at a time between Christmas Day and New Years Day. If on New Years Day I still have anything up, I make it my mission to make sure it all comes down. But I don't like to do it all at once, so I tend to take a few things down here and there throughout that week after Christmas.

I didn't bother to decorate this year since I am moving, so I have nothing to take down. :D

[havocmom]

23. Just before Groundhog day. But keep the lights unplugged on any real tree

or garland.

By Groundhog Day, the hours of daylight are noticeably longer and one doesn't need the extra lights and cheer!

I'm series!!!1!

[Blue_In_AK]

24. There's a little old man in our neighborhood

who leaves his tree up all year long. We walk past his house during the summer and see him sitting in his chair by his picture window opposite his twinkling Christmas tree. Every evening there he sits all by himself with his tree. It kind of tugs at my heartstrings every time we go by there.

As for us, we usually take ours down New Year's Day.

[hisownpetard]

30. Anyone checked lately to make sure he's still breathing?

:shrug: :hi:

[Blue_In_AK]

31. We see a car there in the driveway periodically,

so my guess is somebody comes by to check up on him.

[skygazer]

26. I still have Halloween decorations up

I haven't gotten around to christmas.

[pitohui]

27. they can and do come down on 12th night EOM

,

[hippywife]

32. Now! Now! Now!! LOL n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

33. 12th Night would be ideal; but

they often don't come down until it's almost Valentines Day.

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. Not until after Christmas - which means, not until Epiphany. Jan 6.

[Xipe Totec]

40. You take them down on Stupiphany

That's the day you realize you left them on past Epiphany.

[Deja Q]

46. Why put 'em up?

[reyd reid reed]

47. They SHOULD come down

by the end of the first week in January.

Last year came down just before Opening Day.

:eyes:

[reyd reid reed]

48. Whoops

:blush:

[Withywindle]

49. Other...

About a week after all my neighbors have, whenever that is. :evilgrin:

[Orsino]

50. When they look like this...

[CreekDog]

54. Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

and what is the rest of the crap on that lawn?

[hedgehog]

55. On the Feast of the Baptism of Christ.

I'm always ambitous and think that this year we'll undecorate properly so mext year decorating is easy. Instead it's always a shock when we open up the boxes. What were we thinking last year when someone carefully packed away a box of crumpled newspaper? And who packed all the lights underneath the ornaments?

[ThatsMyBarack]

56. NOW!

All I had to do was put my fiber-optic Xmas tree back in its box.

[bigwillq]

57. ASAP

after Christmas.

[Rabrrrrrr]

58. So, January 6, then?

[Burma Jones]

59. Chinese New Year

at least in my neighborhood.........

now, the lights may not be turned on for most of January, but for the week or so before Chinese New Years, the lights come back on, and I like that......

[applegrove]

60. A week after New Years. Extend the season as long as possible.

[Left Is Write]

61. Christmas isn't over until after 12th Night.

So there.

[DS1]

62. The minute Keifer Sutherland gets out of jail. He'll take them down for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCiageqMHJc

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

64. I took ours down Dec 26 this year...

I would say at least by Jan 1st.