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Is It Time Yet?

January 10th, 2011

It seems like just about everyone around here has already taken down their Christmas decorations. Perhaps they were taking advantage of the 50 degree days we had on New Year’s, but it seems like everyone did it a little earlier than normal. My Christmas decor is still up, I usually don’t take it down until mid January.

One of the things I’m particularly enjoying is the card garland on my stairway. I’m sure a few of you will recognize your lovely cards on there! I’m not in a hurry to take these down as I usually am with my Christmas cards.

I’ll probably take all of my indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations down some day next week. I’m never in a rush because I enjoy it so much, not to mention you spend all that time decorating why not enjoy it for more than a few weeks! That’s one nice thing about having natural holiday decor, it’s more wintery than Christmasy so you can leave it up a little longer. I’m really hoping the days get a little warmer so I don’t freeze my fingers off while taking down all that outdoor garland. I’ll be giving those Ethel insulated gloves another go at winter work. I will be sad as I always think things look really bare when all the lights and garland are gone.

When do you take down your Christmas decorations?

16 Comments to “Is It Time Yet?”
  1. Marianne on January 10, 2011 at 5:03 am

    Here in the UK decorations come down on Twefth Night, 6th. January. It’s considered bad luck to leave them up any longer. Pretty well everybody does this.

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  2. Canadian Doomer on January 10, 2011 at 8:12 am

    We didn’t decorate at all. I’m such a grinch.

    However, if we did, I’d have taken things down last week – after Twelfth Night. I really hate the practice of packing up everything on Boxing Day and saying “Christmas is over”. It doesn’t start mid-October, despite what the stores want to tell us, and it’s not over on Boxing Day. :)

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  3. Susy on January 10, 2011 at 8:43 am

    Very interesting that in the UK you have a day to take them down by, we don’t have such a think here I think most people do it with the weather here in Ohio, if it’s warm enough to do it without freezing your fingers off. Looks like it’s awfully cold to do it this week here with single digit temps.

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  4. Kelly on January 10, 2011 at 9:33 am

    We usually take them down before the new year rolls through. This year we took them down Dec 27th because we left the next day to visit family for a week and left our cats the run of the house (they’d have destroyed everything – we have to wrap the tree up each night in a blanket to keep it safe while it’s up).

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  5. Missy on January 10, 2011 at 10:07 am

    We are still holding on, but we are the only ones on the block who still have outdoor lights on at night. All the frigid temps in December gave the outdoor garland a run for the money. It’s pretty brown and sad. Shaun and I were just saying that we need to take everything down this week. Sad. The house is so much warmer with some twinkling Christmas lights.

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  6. Throwback at Trapper Creek on January 10, 2011 at 10:14 am

    I’m a holdout too, we did take the ornaments off the tree but the twinkling lights are so pretty we have left the tree for a while with just the lights.

    We keep our house on the cool side so the tree is in really good shape still…

    Reply to Throwback at Trapper Creek's comment

    • Martha on January 10, 2011 at 10:50 am

      We enjoy the twinkling tree lights,too,so I’ll take the Christmas ornaments off the tree this weekend,then redecorate for Valenines day with small cards and lots of heart shaped lollipops all tied on with valentine ribbon. I have lots of very small doves left over from a wedding that I sit on the tree branches. Grandkids love it.

      Reply to Martha's comment

  7. Nebraska Dave on January 10, 2011 at 10:49 am

    Mine are still up but not by choice. With ending of the holidays it seems that everyone had a little project for me to help them with. Well, and then there’s Bradley the six year old. After two weeks home with Grandpop, I need to recover a little. So wouldn’t you know that last night snow came, school is canceled, and the little bugger can’t wait to be outside with Grandpop building a snowman, sledding down the school yard hill, and building a snow fort. I’m thing it will be about a three asprin day for sure. :)

    Have a great day.

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  8. TreeHugginMomma on January 10, 2011 at 11:52 am

    I really love the stair garland with the cards and I am going to do that next year.
    My tree is still up. We don’t do outdoor lights because I am just to cheap to pay for them. I have started taking things down and piling them on the table. I need to get the motivation to pull the boxes from the basement and put everything away :)

    Reply to TreeHugginMomma's comment

  9. amy on January 10, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    We do the natural decor as well……so we don’t put up our decorations until much much closer to Christmas……We practice Advent and the epiphany too…..so we keep our Christmas decorations up longer until at least January 6th…..Love your card garland:)

    Reply to amy's comment

  10. Denise @ A Bun Can Dance on January 10, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    We took our decorations down last week on “Twelth Night”. Though it made me feel quite sad as our tree was still as fresh as the day we brought it home from the local plantation! I still have a few of the wintry decorations around, like you – as a celebration of winter rather than Christmas ;-)
    I’ve just read your excellent post about winter gardening over at the Co-Op – you are totally inspiring! This year I really want to get to grips with my vegetable gardening and i’ll certainly try a couple of winter crops too. Thank you for sharing :-)
    Denise x

    Reply to Denise @ A Bun Can Dance's comment

  11. Annie on January 10, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    I observe the 12 Days so I don’t take mine down until 12th Night also. I don’t put mine up until Solstice anyway, so it doesn’t seem like they have been up forever, as some people complain, right after Christmas.
    I refuse to participate in the corporate Christmas that says you put your tree up right after Thanksgiving. Bleh.
    I also keep a few ‘winter’ decorations up until signs of spring.

    Reply to Annie's comment

  12. mamaraby on January 10, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    My children can hardly wait for Christmas so we tend to put ours up early. For us it’s less an issue of corporate Christmas culture and more a sign of the beginning of Advent. We typically aim around the first Sunday in Advent, and ended up with the first week in December. I always intend to leave the tree and the decorations up until Epiphany/Three Kings Day, but we don’t typically make it that far.

    We made it to January 3rd. We were doing our post-Christmas sort through the kids rooms and toys and it just seemed like the right time to do it. It also helped with my son’s disappointment. He wasn’t too happy that his sister would have a tree up for her birthday, but that he wouldn’t.

    Reply to mamaraby's comment

  13. Jennifer Fisk on January 10, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    I took my tree down last Friday and burned it. The vacuum cleaner smells so good now. I won’t turn off my Flowering Crab Apple for another week and the window candles will probably stay until it is no longer dark at 4:30. Once it is still light at 5 or 5:30 the window lights are no longer needed to boost spirits.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  14. melissa on January 11, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    Hey, there’s my card!

    would you believe all of my Christmas stuff is still up? >_< I normally have it taken down right after New Year's Day but I was in England until Sunday night and have been sick since, so it may very well stay up another few days. Whoops!

    Reply to melissa's comment

  15. M A on January 13, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    I see our card on your stair garland! How cool is that! I’ve tucked yours in to remind me to write to you next year. Thank you. Happy New Year!

    Reply to M A's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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