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Goodbye Christmas, Hello Winter

January 6th, 2012

We love having our Christmas tree, the glow of the lights sets the perfect mood for a relaxing evening. I’m always dragging my feet to take down in January. Our tree is still pretty fresh, so it will stay up a few more days I think.


I’m not the only one that will miss the tree, Dexter will too. He’s our Christmas cat, every year he camps out under the Christmas tree from the day we put it up until the day it comes down.

When does your tree come down?

27 Comments to “Goodbye Christmas, Hello Winter”
  1. Judy Meade on January 6, 2012 at 5:28 am

    When I know no one else is visiting in January. When my son was in the Navy, I kept it up til I knew he wouldn’t be home on furlough. Our daughter is going to be up in about a week, hopefully & we’ll celebrate Christmas. It just doesn’t seem the same getting presents at home without Christmas decorations about. If I find out she can’t make it, then the tree comes down & I’ll mail her gifts.

    Our cat, Tootsie, didn’t even wait for us to finish the tree. As soon as the tree skirt was laid, she was curled up under it!

    Reply to Judy Meade's comment

  2. KimH on January 6, 2012 at 6:29 am

    That is so sweet about your kitties camping out under the trees.. and great pic of it too..

    My tree usually comes down around New Years Day but we did it the day before this year. I was ready for it…

    Reply to KimH's comment

  3. Jennifer Fisk on January 6, 2012 at 7:32 am

    Mine stays up until the mood strikes to remove it. It will probably be at least another week. I love turning it on first thing in the dark of 5AM and I turn it on again in the PM as soon as it starts to get dark which is about 4:30 now.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  4. Kathi Cook on January 6, 2012 at 7:47 am

    Usually right after New Year’s day,but my outdoor greens and lights stay up for the month of January. I am still waiting to see them covered in snow.

    Reply to Kathi Cook's comment

  5. Rhonda on January 6, 2012 at 8:59 am

    Mine usually comes down around the first or second week of January. It just depends on how much work I’ve got going on. I’m a self-employed graphic artist/marketer and I take off work while my twin girls are off for Christmas break. I’m usually playing catch up during the first part of January.

    My cat, Karma, does the same thing. She always sleeps under the tree. Also when I have a fire in the fireplace, she’ll plan herself right in front of it until the fire goes out.

    Reply to Rhonda's comment

    • Susy on January 6, 2012 at 9:08 am

      As a self-employed person I completely understand the craziness that is January, though I’m sure your friends as mine, think we sit around & eat bonbons all day :) Our lives have been crazy catching up from the few days we took off around the holidays and tax season is coming up soon so it’s not getting any better!

      PS, we’re occasionally looking for graphic artists for various projects we work on, I’ll add you to our list!

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • Melissa on January 6, 2012 at 9:29 am

        Glad to know I’m not the only one who has friends that think I do nothing all day! I think self-employed people work harder than others sometimes– It’s all on you and if you don’t get it done, there’s no one else to pick up the slack!

        to Melissa's comment

      • Susy on January 6, 2012 at 9:36 am

        I think most people just don’t realize that we do it all and how much time it takes to do it all, we’re HR, accounting, payroll, marketing, customer relations, housekeeping, maintenance, IT, manager, secretary, president, etc. We have to know how to do it all and find time to do it all.

        Plus we have to earn enough to cover the overhead/taxes/fees/equipment/etc. Many people don’t realize that the profit margin on being self-employed is not super high. Thus we have to earn at least twice as much to make the same amount in order to pay the overhead!

        to Susy's comment

      • Rhonda on January 7, 2012 at 10:35 am

        YES! I always get the old “I’d love to be able to work from home, it would be so relaxing” People don’t realize when you work for yourself, from your home, you end up working so much more! It does have MANY benefits though like not having to wear “nice” clothes and just throwing your hair in a ponytail with a ball cap. :-) My usual “do.”

        Thanks for adding me to your list! :-)

        to Rhonda's comment

  6. Songbirdtiff on January 6, 2012 at 9:09 am

    By the time Christmas comes around I’m tired of all the Christmas clutter and put it away a few days after the holiday. We’ve always had fake trees (something I want to change next year) so there’s no benefit of leaving it up. However, I think when we do have a real tree, we will probably leave it up with lights only until it’s ready to go. They are so pretty and still very wintery with lights only!

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  7. daisy on January 6, 2012 at 9:42 am

    Awww, your kitty looks so peaceful there.

    We’re taking ours down today, as a matter of fact. Lil’ Guy wanted it up a few more days.
    Have a great weekend!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  8. Annie on January 6, 2012 at 9:54 am

    I take mine down on Epiphany, but then I don’t put it up until Solstice so it doesn’t stay up but 3 weeks maybe. I always hate to see it go. My cat is actually sleeping under the tree as I write this. She has always loved the tree and will be disappointed that I remove it today.

    Reply to Annie's comment

  9. Allison on January 6, 2012 at 10:17 am

    I agree; It is always sad to take it down. It adds such a nice ambiance to the room. Ours will probably come down this weekend.

    Reply to Allison's comment

  10. Rebecca on January 6, 2012 at 11:08 am

    My family has always taken our tree down around Epiphany too. But now that my husband and I have our own tree too (we visit family at Christmas) I tend to leave it up longer. Maybe another week… its so pretty :)

    Reply to Rebecca's comment

  11. Melanie J. on January 6, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    Alas, we usually don’t put up a tree, because we spend the holidays traveling (a habit I hope to remedy next year when we live closer to family)…but we enjoy the soft light of christmas tree lights around the apartment year-round :)

    Reply to Melanie J.'s comment

  12. Donna B. on January 6, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    Dexter looks so sweet! What a wonderful place to perch…
    I buy live “tree’s”, this year was a female yellow-berried holly~
    It was put back outside around December 28th – we were having really mild weather so I waited for a chilly day!
    Thankfully it rained too, so the poor thing drank that right up! It’s being planted this weekend in my front yard~ Can’t wait to see berries!

    Reply to Donna B.'s comment

  13. Rick on January 6, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    That’s very funny, our cat did the exact same thing. Any time we wondered where she was all we needed to do was look under the tree. She got very grumpy with us the couple of days before Christmas when the space under the tree got filled up with presents. I’m sure she’ll be really disappointed when we take it down tomorrow.

    Reply to Rick's comment

  14. goatpod2 on January 6, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Ours is still up too but it’s an artificial tree.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  15. Mich on January 6, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Took all the decorations down on Wed, stripped the tree of all its pretties….it then sat there in its naked glory until this a.m when it got taken out of the house. Why the delay? It has been blowing a dreadful gale here for last few days; i didnt want to open the patio doors!

    Reply to Mich's comment

  16. Liz J on January 6, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    We put up our Christmas tree the first week of December and traditionally take it down on New Years Day. This year my family is celebrating Christmas here this Sunday, so the tree will come down on Monday. I love the glow that the little white lights give the room and have been contemplating getting a small tree so I can put lights on it to get a similar effect…we’ll see.

    Reply to Liz J's comment

  17. Carrie on January 6, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    I’m loving all the properties you’ve been posting on Pintrest! It makes me want to move to Maine in a really bad way. Land is so cheap! 95 acres for $85k?! 95 acres in North Dakota would be $500k+. And gorgeous historic homes? Jealous!

    Reply to Carrie's comment

  18. Pearl on January 6, 2012 at 1:45 pm

    My dog loves to sleep under the tree too. At least until the gifts crowd him out!
    My tree is in the process of being taken down. I have an artificial tree.
    I was tempted to get a real one again until a lady in my church had praying mantis eggs hatch on her tree after it was brought into the house. A Praying Mantis can lay 100-400 eggs!!

    Reply to Pearl's comment

  19. deedee on January 6, 2012 at 7:01 pm

    growing up we took it down on new year’s day. now nick takes everything down when we get home christmas evening because he wants to make room for all of the things the kids got. this year the oldest begged him to wait a few days, so that was nice:)
    i think dexter under the tree might be one of the cutest things i’ve ever seen! i would have to leave the tree up for as long as possible just for that!

    Reply to deedee's comment

  20. tj on January 6, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    …We used to have a cat that slept under our Christmas Tree every year. Her name was “Mama Kitty”, she came with our home when we purchased it and she quickly became a beloved pet. As a matter of fact, we used to say this was Mama Kitty’s house. ;o)

    …Do you have a grapevine garland thru your tree? I see what looks like it in the photo but wasn’t sure. Your tree is pretty, I wouldn’t take it down until it’s ready. :o)

    …Peace & Blessings

    Reply to tj's comment

    • Susy on January 7, 2012 at 7:14 pm

      It’s actually a grapevine bird nest that I put in the tree.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  21. Sierra on January 6, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    That is so cute that your cat loves the tree. Ours is already resting in the woods behind our house. Walter would have kept it up longer but I’m always eager to have it out of the house–not sure why.

    Reply to Sierra's comment

  22. Maybelline on January 7, 2012 at 1:18 am

    It never went up.

    Reply to Maybelline'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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