I'm doing the same thing today. It's not that the beautiful colors are gone, it's that come January 1, it seems so barren outside. Bleak. No big holiday to look forward to, except tornado season come March. Then backbreaking gardening. lol.

I did receive some decorating items for Christmas though, so that should help a bit.

Wanna come paint a room for me since you feel the need? :)

I felt this need even before Christmas. In fact, I started painting our tiny powder room on December 22. It's still sitting undone. Good thing we didn't have "real" company for Christmas! (Just my dad.) I am trying to muster the energy to finish it tomorrow. Painting such a tiny room is a huge pain.

We're doing the same today in our house - much earlier than usual thanks to our crispy Christmas tree. :(

It totally gives me the blahs. In past years, it brought on a spate of painting & re-decorating. However, we're currently leasing so trying to find inexpensive, non-permanent ways to liven up the house and chase away my January blues.

I want to paint this house over so bad, I'd buy it! The entire house was done in what I assume they thought was a taupy-beige but actually reads as beigy-pink. Emphasis on the pink. I love pink but not all over every wall in a non-descript kind of pink. :)

Anyway...happy painting to you that can! I am green with envy.

I know what you mean. Remember that I am the one that could not get in the spirit to decorate? lol That's why I am basically keeping the house as is for a while. It's not my usual holiday tradition to leave it up long after the day. My mom use to say it was bad luck to leave it up after the new year. I'll have it down by the weekend, though.

I was so uptight about "getting it right" for company before Christmas, that I now want to enjoy the decorations for a bit longer. We had 12, including an 18 month old. :)

The tree is still in good shape, although I quit watering it Christmas day. I've put a few Christmas knic knacs away, and the poinsettias and paper-whites have just about had it, but the tree, mantle, Santa collection and dining table are staying until Saturday or Sunday. Same for the outside, except that I did bring Santa in today.

Hope it's OK to share my decorated dining table photos here. It's different than the previous dining photos I posted before Christmas. Also, my homemade window wreath...all dining room decor done last minute on Christmas Eve day. :) Of course, all that's left now is the center piece and wreath.

Table after finishing...whew!

Window Wreath (I used an old gold frame, fresh greenery of white pine, magnolia, and Frasier Fur. Faux berries and a Poinsettia)

Close-ups

Nightfall before guest arrive

As seen from kitchen (before pulling in red breakfast room chairs for more seating)

Candlelight (after the guest have gone - the 18 month old baby didn't use her seat)

NHB, that is really, really lovely!

I'm ready for the tree to come down. Kittens, acting exactly as I suspected, have knocked off ornaments almost daily for a game of ornament soccer. There's glitter in the grout, the tree skirt is a mess, and I'm over it. I was going to do it today, but I don't feel like it, because it will involve vaccuuming and mopping, which I hate.

I have many, many projects planned for the new year, so I'm ready to get busy! Our weather is alternating warm and cold, dry and humid, so any of my painting plans are on hold.

Newhomebuilder - thanks for sharing. That is really beautiful.

I do tend to do my painting/decorating around January. In fact, I painted the family room today! Yippee! It feels so good to get that old horrible turquoise color out (what was I thinking?), and I love the smell of fresh paint!

I always leave everything up until Epiphany, so I have another full week+. Used to take everything down on the 1st, but waiting until the 6th gives me that extra few days to enjoy.

It's staying till the Epiphany here too. Didn't go up until the 9th.

I've already started transitioning from holiday thinking to what's going on outdoors. January is a slow month, but plenty to do. Trees to prune and fertilize, ornamental grasses to trim, perennial & veggie seeds to order for the kitchen garden and flower beds.

NHB - that is simply beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Would you mind sharing the green color of your dining room walls? I keep vacillating between a bamboo color and more of a golden/burnt orange/brick and just can't decide. I love how the green looks in your dining room, though!

NHB: Wonderful table and decor -- so very bright and festive! :)

Yes -- thanks to reading this thread earlier in the day -- I did put away my few-and-far-between Yule decorations! :)

I decided to leave out my lighted small outdoor tree on the front porch until Twelfth Night! Just seems so dark out there without it! :)

And I will leave out my newly-made potpourri in old wood bowls (made it myself for the very first time ever! LOL!)

NHB, that has to be one of the most inviting DR's I've ever seen! I also like the green on your wall. What type of light do you have behind the plant?

I got around to a tiny bit of decorating today with gifts I received for Christmas.

But first I wanted to share a picture of the LR on Christmas Eve. I was walking out of the room, turned back and just stood there at how peaceful it looked so I took a picture. I do have to laugh at the man on the tv though!

We had a big fire going but it had died down. I am going to miss this. :(

Here's the desk in the LR this morning:

{{!gwi}}

Here's what I did this afternoon. I received some Jim Shore (!!!) and more pictures of my grandbabies, Henry and Elizabeth.

Home made potpourri sounds interesting! :)

I believe that I will leave the outdoor wreaths and lights up until Epiphany.

binsd - The color is Wethersfield green by BM.

We keep the lighted reindeer up through January. They're in the back yard, so no one sees them except us.

If I didn't look too wacky, I would leave my tree up until Valentines Day! This is the first time in 20 some years I worked through the Holidays with the exception of T-day and Christmas day off. I feel like I hardly saw my pretty tree! Which was the only decorating I did other than a slap-dash buffet table for entertaining on Christmas. I an in awe of nhb and oakly's holiday decor. I am getting my decorating thrills through all your decorating!

okay, I know this is going to make me sound really lazy, but do they make something similar to a big garbage bag that I can slip over my Christmas tree? I was thinking about putting it in the corner of my garage (decorations and all). I found all kinds of fancy ones online, but most of them squish the tree a little and I don't think they're meant to keep the decoration on.

Laurie

msrose, don't know if you will find any this late but they have the big white bags that you can use to dispose of a real tree. I use to use them so the needles didn't get all over when I had to drag it out. I did use it one year for my artificial tree because the box broke. I had it in the garage but every time I went in there it scared me because I would see this big white thing out of the corner of my eye.

I'd buy two cheap sheets and sew them together and then wrap around the tree for storage.

oakleyok - The up-light is a cylinder type that I bought at Lowe's.

Love your room. It is very peaceful looking!

Ahhh, it helps to know I'm not alone.

I grew up with a mom who believed it was baaaaad luck to have Christmas up when the new year began. SO it always comes down by the 30th here (her birthday--it's an inside smile just for me to remember her.)

I leave a few sets of white lights on the bushes near the front porch. These are my 'winter wonderland' decor and will stay up until Valentine's day. It's just too darn dark out there.

I was thinking today, that I needed some sort of something as a winter wonderland thing for inside. Not icy or too piney, but unique. I think I'll wander over to Hobby Lobby tomorrow and see what kind of trouble I can scare up. Instead of big poinsettia blooms on the mantle, maybe something plum or gray-purple. Wintery, but with a punch of color.

Anyway, it's a plan to get out and do something different.

thanks for all the encouraging words and beautiful photos!

My dear Mum (90 years young and a Scot) would always say that is was VERY bad luck to still have decorations up past Twelfth Night! :)

Looking forward to Hogmanay/Hogmany (Scots version of New Years Eve!) LOL! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: wikipedia -- hogamanay

I wouldn't dream of taking down my tree before New Year's, and it will probably be up for much longer into January than that. I just love having this natural green beautiful lighted entity in my LR when the world outside is cold and grey.

The rest of the decs will get put away soon but the tree stays. The tree, and fresh oranges, are what get me through winter.

Good thing I'm not superstitious.

We brought out our 18" tree and put it up Xmas eve on a small table so we could put gifts around it. Could not access stockings, so I bought 2 gift bags with pics of stockings. Luckily Santa found them just fine for the boys. It went down the next day. Bsmt living through the reno is not exactly Norman Rockwell-ish...lol.

After the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I tend to go into nesting mode, so I think I will just enjoy my decorations through most of January. The wreath on my front door is very "winterish" - pine with cones and a big red bow (not ornaments or santas or anythng too Christmasy) so I will leave it up until time to do the spring one. I have simple wreaths with red bows on the windows - they will stay through January at least. I have a new tree this year, it is not in my way, so I will leave it up for while longer. My vignettes (on the hutch and entertainment center) are fairly classic with lighted garland, whites and gold floral picks, hurricane globes with candles and beads, etc so I will keep them up also.

I'm just going to turn my lights on on the tree and garlands at the end of day and enjoy the shimmer and relax.

Tuesday

Wow, I must be the only Scrooge on the board. I love putting the decorations up and I also love taking them down! After a while it just starts looking like clutter and I am really clutter phobic.

We put things up Thanksgiving weekend and take them down on New Years day.

okleyok,
What a beautiful room! It does look so peaceful and tranquil.

We are buying a house with a vaulted living room ceiling and will be installing hardwood floors. I'm trying to talk my husband into doing a little darker stain on them rather than just the "natural" red oak. Do you happen to have a daylight photo of your beautiful room that you might be willing to post showing off your beautiful floors and wall color?
Pam

happyintexas - Was your mother Scottish, too? Like teacats mother, my grandmother was a Scot. It's funny that we were all brought up to believe it was bad luck to have Christmas decor up past New Years. However, I have never heard of Hogmanay/Hogmany. lol My grandmother made shortbread, hot cross buns (mostly for Easter) and a fried cookie called Schiferli (sp). It was a flat piece of sweet dough, that was twisted and tied in a bow, deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The frying made the cookie puff up. SO GOOD! We have the recipe, but I have not been able to find anything on the net about the cookie. teacats, has your mother ever heard of it?

We keep our tree and decorations up until the Epiphany. One way we extend the Christmas season is by using this week to entertain. We're having a dinner party tonight for 8 people. I find people are much more relaxed after Christmas! I hate putting away the decor. We've still got all our outside lights on, as well as the window candles.

My DH and I have always taken this week off from work (except me this year....I could get only 1 day-today!) and have hung out with the family, just having fun. Last night we went out to dinner and got to sleep in today. Ahhhh, love this week!

newhomebuilder: No -- never heard of that cookie -- but it sounds simply scrumptious!! :)

Around our house at Christmas -- homemade shortbread and a crystal tumbler of the "guid" (good) Scotch was left for Santa or Father Christmas on Christmas Eve! LOL! Of course on REALLY bad weather nights -- he got a glass of brandy!! My mum would say that he needed "a bit of a warm-up" by the time he reached our house! :)

I have seen a few out there. They are way more then what I paid for my tree though. :(

Here is a link that might be useful: decorated standing tree storage

I also leave my tree and decorations up until
mid January; I still enjoy the look after Christmas
but definitely know when it is time to take it all
down. My wreath on the front door will stay up through February.

Another one here whose mom taught me it was bad luck to have holiday decorations up for/after New Year's. I used to be pretty rigid, and got the tree down and everything put away the day after the holiday. I've mellowed and this year didn't do it till Tuesday ;).

Ann

I grew up Catholic and we never took down the decorations until after Epiphany (Jan 6). Gotta leave everything up for the Wise Men.

Now I am atheist and decorate for Solstice just to keep my sanity. We have an annual Post-Holiday Bash the Saturday following New Years to keep the celebration going a little longer. All here are welcome of course. We take everything down the day after the party.

Then I go insane and want to shoot myself for a couple of weeks, especially if the Carolina Hurricanes and/or the Baltimore Ravens aren't doing well. No worries about that this year- GO RAVENS, GO CANES! Then over MLK weekend I do continuing education in Orlando, which is difficult to beat in terms of curing winter blues.

Unfortunately I come back from Orlando just in time for my birthday (Jan 30) and tend to be very introspective and solemn at that time. But birthdays are just another reason to throw a party, so usually that's what we do. But this year we are going the NHL All-Star Game so that will cheer me up. We hope to have a couple of Canes in the game, but even if not, it's way cool to go to the game.

I always have projects for this house. In the winter I focus on indoor projects, so hopefully my obnoxiously huge office cabinet will get done; maybe even the matching bookshelves. I also stared a wall-mounted necklace storage unit (I have 70 necklaces) to hang in the bathroom. The main box is done but it needs hooks, doors, and trim.

The most important thing is to stay busy and focus on 100 or more things at a time. I am also planning on buying the animal hospital where I work, or a significant portion thereof depending on what Boss Owner and Son decide to do.

Must keep busy enough to not notice the cold, dark, dreary, dead everything around me...

Catholic to athiest? Must be some story!

Great. Now I want shortbread.

^^Hee. I was just thinking the same thing about the shortbread: Now I want shortbread, too!

I received a copy of a recipe from a friend just before Christmas whose Scots friend gave it to her. I've been wanting to try it out. New Year's Even day sounds like a good day to try it out!

NHB - thank you for sharing your DR color.

oakley - your decor does look peaceful & inviting. :)

Newhomebuilder, my mom made those - in English they are called Bowknots, or in Swedish (my heritage) they are called Fattigman. Yum!

Our decorations go up the week before Christmas, never sooner. So we leave them up well into January, to help hold off the grey and gloom of the winter here in Chicago. I love sitting in the LR with just the tree and window lights on. Very peaceful. My boys come in and we sit and have coffee and conversation, which a mom of 24 and almost-20 year old sons always appreciates! :-)

I am also an atheist, so perhaps I am less tied to any particular dates, except the secular Dec 25 celebration of Santa!

Oh Les, I miss having my two boys here at home. We'd sit and drink coffee together all the time! sniff sniff.

Pam, here's a picture I have in the daytime. The flooring is Hickory.

I understand the feeling of "let-down" as we take down the decorations, etc. Our decorations came down a couple of days ago except the small tree in our bedroom which will come down this weekend. Once Christmas is over, I am usually ready for the decorations to come down, then again, we usually decorate Thanksgiving weekend.

Also, we don't have the long gloomy winters many of you have, i'm sure that would affect one's outlook. As I stated in an earlier post, my husband and I enjoy time off from work until after the first, so that makes it nice too.

I look forward to a "new" year. Last year was not a good year for our family so I am particularly hopeful about this new year. I also look forward to events in the future. Our anniversary is in February and we always plan something special. We have vacations in April and May. We love outdoor activities and look forward to again taking the boat and/or camper out. And, yes, gardening season is a happy time here!

Happy 2011!

tina

My 20-month-old has been having a gay old time with the Christmas tree ornaments, so I am happy to be undecorating here! :)

When DD was little I always had the tree down and put away before we went out for NYE. Then, I softened a bit and had a few years where the tree was up until late January.

Last night I started to pick up some of the holiday decor and that motivated me to dismantle the tree. Happy that it is all but put away. I do have stragglers in my DR, but will get to that today. For some reason, this year I wanted all of the Christmas decor put away to start the new year.

I do continue to decorate with pine cones, greens, etc. through January.

The house does look a bit stark this morning!

Happy New Year!

Thank you so much, okleyok! I do love your floors. :)

Bowknots - I looked it up and it seems that Bowknots are made in every country with a different name. Still cannot find MY Bowknots.

The past 2 years I feel like I get Post Christmas Decorating Blues a lot less since I started decorating and de-decorating the Martha Stewart Set way. I didn't intend to do so on purpose but it's just evolved that I decorate in stages and take it down in stages. I'm enjoying it all so much more!

Because my home is so tiny the tree was in front of the iguana cage which is in the living room, so it was added incentive to take it down the day after Christmas.

I'm thinking that for the cost of one of those tree storage bags, you could probably hire a local kid or one of your own to put up the tree?