I will try to work on it this Sunday....I have a lot of stuff on the dining room table....awaiting boxing....but the big tree still stares at me....I like the wreaths and they will stay a while.
Linda C

All of the indoor stuff is put away, but outdoor is still out. We went for a drive last night and it was beautiful - the people that still have their lights up - as we have lots of snow.

That's funny Linda. I do the same thing. I accumulate it all on the DR table before I box it. We get a real tree and always get it right after Thanksgiving, so by New Years day or the next, it is ready to go. They usually last that long pretty well though. I just water a little every day with hot water to keep a sap plug from forming. (I don't know if that makes sense, but it seems to work for us!)

Stacy

It's all done. It was all put away by Jan 4th.

I do the same as Linda and Stacy; I gather it all up throughout the house and put everything on the dining room table and dining room floor then we just start packing it up.

After xmas is over, all the decorations feel like clutter so I can't wait to get it all out of here.

We keep them up until Three Kings also so spent this week de-Christmasing. OY! LOL! Got some great after Christmas sales at Ace this year so added a new bin! Today will be polishing, sweeping, vacuuming...

My son loves the holiday so much - he is heartbroken.

Probably most people will do it this weekend unless they are having a snow storm.

January always is such a buzz kill and depressing sort of month to me.

Now the problem is finding all the stuff I hid before I decorated...

I have a few large items that need to go in the upstairs store room but other that that it's all put away this week.

My granddaughter was so upset that the nativity that held baby Jesus was put away...and more upset that Target didn't have the Christmas trees anymore.

We solved the issue of when to take down the Christmas decorations by not putting anything up this year! First year we've not even done a tree...not even a lousy wreath. DH is still recovering from the Sept. car accident & I didn't want him hauling the heavy boxes down the pull-down attic ladder & then heaving everything back up. Also, our family had some chaos this holiday season. Our DS & DDIL moved from MA to ME the day after Christmas so they didn't want a big meal with leftovers to deal with & my oven went kaput & wasn't fixed by Christmas. (Actually, it wasn't even fixed by New Years!).

Normally, we spend New Years Day taking down decorations. By then, I'm sick of them & anxious to do a deep cleaning.

/tricia

As soon as possible.LOL! When Matt was little I use to keep them up until after January 6th, but not any more. I would have taken them down between Christmas and New Years but since we had guests coming for New Years day dinner I left them up until January 3rd this year.

Ann

Hey Maggie, you know what we do? We put the everyday decorations in the xmas boxes that are unpacked for decorating. Then when we take the xmas stuff down and get the boxes to put it away, all the other stuff is right there.

I've always believed it's bad luck to keep them up past Epiphany so away everything goes on January 6 without fail! I can't stand going places and seeing everything still up in February. At work last Monday I realised no-one was going to pack the tree away before this weekend at the earliest, so I did it myself :-)

I didn't put up much and it came down yesterday. I had a tiny live tree which is on the patio well watered and awaiting a proper potting. The evergreen wreath on the front door went in the dumpster.

I'm a holiday minimalist!

Shaun, thanks for the "A-HA" moment! Great idea!!!! Better than finding picture frames in my bedroom closet a month from now!

I do that, too -- find stuff later that I took down to make way for Christmas decorations. Funny that I don't miss them.

My outside lights came down yesterday since it was still daylight when I got home from work. I thought I had taken down everything from outside but I noticed that there's still a wreath on the garage door.

The deco-packing project has expanded into a basement clean-up. I am tossing a bunch of deco's that are very tired and repacking some.

I am using a different method. Instead of all lights in one box, I am making a box of fence lights and ribbons, a box of mantle deco's, a box of kitchen deco's etc. Who knows, next year I'll probably change it again.

The tree gets kicked to the curb this weekend, too. I do leave the artificial wreath on the front door until the end of Jan, just to chase away the gray doldrums.

My insane neighbors put their lights up two days after Christmas and they will probably be there until the Fourth of July.

January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings. I'm very traditional! This year, though, there was very little to put away. We spent Christmas at my daughter's house in Connecticut, so we didn't put up a tree. I think next year we will, at least a small one; it seemed strange to come home to an un-Christmasy house. As if the season only lasted the five days we were away. Of course just not being home for Christmas was very strange!

Another who takes everything down on, or the day after, the Feast of the Epiphany depending on the timing. It's what my Mom did and it's what I do.

Come to think of it I don't think my kids know that's what I do and why I do it. I need to spend more time explaining the traditions we follow and why we do. Also need to walk them around the house and make sure they know what is what and why it may be important, Christmas ornaments,jewelry, dishes, pictures, figurines.....the stuff is just there and I don't think they really know what it means to them.

I do digress but I just had my own Epiphany!

Sharon, not just for Christmas items - but in general, take pics of your special possessions and write their history on the back - also you can write who gets what - Meredith or Chris. Maybe not as important with just two children, but with 3 of Ken's children vying for one particular piece of furniture and a couple of pictures, its a good idea and nobody has to fight over it.

We usually leave everything until the Epiphnay, which is Howard's birthday, but this year it was all down and put away a few days after Christmas. It was so nice to have the house back to normal!

I have been at this all day. In the process of taking the tree out, I caught the tree stand (which I remove outside) on the metal threshold of the door and yanked it loose. I had to spend an hour repairing the threshold. While it was up I saw a big gap so I stuffed it with insulation.

I'm trying to consolidate items, toss those that are too tired and generally get it organized. I am very tired of running up and down the stirs. I keep my decs in the basement now because it's too hard to get in the attic.

I think I will convert. A simple menorah would be wonderful.

Our tree is still up, lights, ornaments and all but the other Christmas decorations that I scattered throughout the house, as well as some new things I picked up on sale after Christmas, are all collected on the pool table in the great room ready to be packed away.

I've had several surgeries in the past month and haven't been able to do much, so things are slow to happen right now. We're getting snow tonight, and having the tree lit is still kind of nice even though the thing is as dry as shredded wheat and we're headed towards Valentine's Day!

seagrass

the only decorating I did was set up the tree and I unpacked exactly THREE of the music boxes because Makayla loves them so much.

I never put up decorations outdoors and put the tree up the week before Christmas and I took the tree down on December 26.

Next year I might not even put the tree up....

Annie

I took the tree down Jan 2nd. The outside lights, draped over bushes are still out there but I didn't turn them on after January 2nd. I just noticed the other day that my light up Santa on the mantelpiece is still there though. Maybe he can stay LOL

Annie -- I am surprised to hear that you are not a big decorator. Somehow I thought you would be one to deck every inch. The best thing about not putting them up is not having to take them down.

I have two antique spinning Christmas trees to go. They are fragile and I have to put them away carefully. My great aunt bought them before I was ever born. I really love them.

I put up a tree (agaist the real estate guidelines) anyway but seriously cut down on the rest.
My tree came down last weekend so we could haul it off to the storage rental we recently obtained.
I had a bright blue light bulb in my porch lamp for the holidays and 2 blue snowflake led lights in the upstairs windows and that was IT!!

So to make the transition easier I got myself a red light bulb for the porchlamp and some red cutout hearts and found some of my "red" things and have them out and about...red candles, a red candy dish filled with kisses and a heart shaped dish I have some silk flower petals in.

As for the neighborhood, most folks have it all down now-a few stragglers on each block.

Next year will be different once I am in a new house!!

Cheers!
Susie

dedtired, that's the "old" Annie. I used to decorate everything, indoors and out. I have Christmas mugs and Christmas platters, Christmas dishtowels and Christmas bowls.

Ashley has a huge collection of snowglobes, probably 50 or 60 of them, and Amanda has nearly that many nutcrackers. Amanda doesn't even put them up at her house, LOL, they stayed packed in the basement this year. Ashley didn't get anything out either.

?Several years ago I realized that I just dreaded Christmas, I was learning to despise it with a vengeance, all the commercialism, the glitz, the hoo-rah. I spent so much time fiddling with decorations, baking cookies, mailing cards to people I haven't seen for years that I didn't have any time to enjoy any of the Christmas things I really loved.

So I stopped. Now I watch the Muppet Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Charlie Brown. I bake cookies with the grandkids and I go to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and the family Christmas party.

I even gave up the "Christmas Eve party for 40 family members where I did all the cooking". This year I blew $75 and rented the townhall and everyone brought a dish to pass.

Now with Elery's family I have "Christmas stuff" to do with them too, so I need to have some time for that.

So, now that I have Elery and his family to add to the celebrations and Dad's gone and the grandkids are here and Ashley's mostly gone, things are changing.

What will Christmas eventually become? Darned if I know, but every year it changes just a little bit.....

Annie

Annie, you may have the right idea. I definitely did not drag everything out this year. Sadly, the manger scene never saw the light of day. It really is better to concentrate on what you enjoy and not run yourself ragged.

A lot of my decorations belonged to my great aunt, who was like a dear grandmother to me. I think of her as I take them out each year. Same for some of the ornaments that my sons made when they were little. I have an ancient formerly fuzzy Santa on top of the tree that my former MIL gave to me, and I think of her.

I just came back from Mom's house. She is also slowly packing things up. I helped her for a while and she had a story to tell about almost every piece. Made me choke up a little, since many of the people associated with them are gone.

She and her group of friends used to make decorations. They had such a good time with "the girls." Now they are gone, or have dementia or just can't get out. My mom is the last one still capable of getting around.

Yes, Annie, it really does change a bit every year.

Mine comes down a little at a time. My real tree came down last week but all the others are still up and decorated. I have a fairly large pre-lit tree in the living room that is too heavy for us to carry out (my DH has emphysema) and I just take the ornaments off and scoot it into a corner and leave it. I have a family reunion at my house each year and when I decided I couldn't take out the tree, I hung old family pictures all over it and "dubbed" it "the family tree". They come off after the reunion. I have a mini-forest on my sunporch with several good sized trees, some decorated, some not and part of them with lights. There's a fishing tree, for my husbands favorite pastime, a birdhouse tree etc. Then I have small trees and/or other decorations everywhere. It's a monumental undertaking ...putting it up and taking it down. It's okay with me if I'm called eccentric...I'm old enough not to care. There's just the two of us and we were both involved in crafts for many years and also I had a retail gift shop with a friend so I accumulated a LOT over the years.
The family loves it because they can enjoy it and not have to do the work.
jude