We didn't even buy a tree until the 23rd ... after dinner, no less ... and we decorated it Christmas Eve (which is how my family did it growing up). It will be up until New Year's Day. I do recall one year when I finally took it down on Valentine's Day, but that was in a living room that was closed off by pocket doors and not heavily used.

I will keep the pink and gold christmas balls in my urn on the center hall thru Valentine's Day, since they are the right colors.

So glad it worked out for you. I want to take ours down before we leave for the New Year's weekend. Unfortunately, I apparently want to shop and surf the web more! But the great thing about a Reusable Tree is that you can leave for New Years and not worry you're going to burn the house down while you're gone.!

On the topic of not burning the house down with a reusable tree:

Every time I left the house, I turned the lights off. Old habits die hard. Is it safe to leave them on for limited periods?

Out side lights are staying up until it is humanly possible to bear the cold and take them down. Looks like they will be up for at least a week.

We don't typically leave them on when we leave the house, but they stay on for much of the day. We're north facing, so the living room is dark.

Guess I'll be taking the tree down tomorrow. It's starting to droop, so it's time. Will leave other decorations up till the weekend, then replace the white lights on the door garland with Mardi Gras lights and ribbon. Mardi Gras comes early this year, so they'll only be up for a month.

I didn't say earlier that although I leave my artificial tree up to enjoy longer, I do remove other Christmas decor on New Year's day or eve.

It is so bizarre how we celebrate BEFORE and when Christmas comes we are DONE. Once upon a time nothing was decorated until Christmas Eve. With school out I have a break now so time to take everything down--but it is officially TOO SOON. I am usually pretty ready--I decorate every room every corner and when we had kids it all started to close in about now. With just two of us--I haven't gotten that feeling this year. I will most likely take everything down this weekend but it will not be something I enjoy. The bright side is I have snowmen in the wings waiting for their January to shine!!

"I have a friend that as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are washed, out comes Christmas and a LOT of Christmas . . . it stays up until the day after Christmas when she takes it all down."

Jim, where do we know each other from? We have always bought a tree on Thanksgiving weekend and I've always decorated it within a few days. The other decor might take a week or so but everything's down by New Years Day since by that time it's been 4-5 weeks. Long enough and my mother always said the tree should be gone for a fresh New Year's start.

This was a weird in-between year; I hosted book club in December so decorated the house complete with tree and household trimmings. But we celebrated Christmas at our new vacation/retirement house so I brought some things down to holiday it up, and got a really sweet little white artificial tree with multi colored lights already on it. It was only $26 on sale at Walmart and pretty darned cute.

Then today I had to go to Miami to get my daughter to the airport for her flight back plus it was the housekeeper's day to come so I made sure that before she showed up and I left to come back the tree was down and pitched out. Future me will be very happy when I come back next Monday and the house is neat and clean. Didn't have time to put all the decor away but the tree and ornaments are always the most labor intensive process. I need to go through and cull my holiday decorations anyway, so that can wait till after life gets back to normal and I'll pace myself a box a night to sort through.

I'm ready to put everything away but will leave it up until after the new year because the kids are still very happy about all of it. Having a small tree in the living room this year I think is helping me feel less suffocated at this point in the season. We have five trees in the house all together and a few other patches of Christmas sprinkle throughout.

The tree we have was picked up TG weekend and it is about done. We decorated it last week after I brought it home from my office and we will take it down Saturday. Since TG was so early, the tree is nearly 5 weeks old. It's pretty dry.

I put my decorations up at home the second weekend in December - I don’t do much. Put some decor out at the cabin this year for the first time along with my first tree in many years. Decor a week before Christmas and the tree the Saturday before Christmas. Neighbor is watering it for me so we can also enjoy it over New Years weekend. We’ll take it down on New Year’s Day before we head home.

DH’s family always put the tree up Christmas Eve so we were kind of like that this year. About two to three weeks of Christmas decor is all I need and I don’t do much. All the Christmas stuff is so over done with things appearing in stores before Halloween and Christmas music played everywhere before Thanksgiving. I truly enjoyed my quiet get away from the commercial, material onslaught this year.

We usually put the tree up about two weeks before Christmas and take it down New Year’s day....although it usually takes a few days on each end to get it all done, even though I dont really put out a lot of decorations.

I don’t put up a tree. My only decorations this year were 25 stockings for family members and 7 for family pets. I don’t have a mantel so I string them across the stone fireplace wall. I still have space for additional stockings for in-laws, babies, and pets, as the next generation grows. The stockings were put away yesterday.

I do put candles in the windows, which is traditional and very popular here. I keep those in the window well into January since I enjoy adding light to dark, winter nights. I’ll take them down when the sound of the timers running finally drives me crazy (they are loud, especially when multiplied by 2-3 in every room).

When we were first married, I did put up a tree. The 26th was a Sunday, my husband left for church, and I thought that tree is too dry, it’s coming down now. When my husband returned from church he said my parents are on their way over to see our tree. Oh. Well, it’s right there on the porch, waiting to be dumped on the curb on pickup day. I didn’t know they had a tradition of visiting each other to see the trees. It wasn’t a long visit.

I have a question for those who have a tradition of putting their tree up as late as Christmas Eve:

What about the build-up and anticipation, esp. if there are kids in the family? I always thought the anticipation was the best part of Christmas. The presents slowly increasing under the tree. Day-of was fun, but by then it was all over.

It just seems that without a tree in the week or two before Christmas, it isn't quite Christmas yet.

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I always thought growing up we had the best trees at my house. I dug through some old photos the other day and found one that was a sprayed-white (and possibly flocked) Monterey pine covered in angel hair. It was truly a fright. It looked like a yeti.

Took mine down the day after Christmas and got everything back to normal. My parents always left their's up until Epiphany and I always feared we'd have a fire as a child.

Growing up, everything Christmas appeared on Christmas eve, except the presents, which we never saw even a glimpse of until Christmas morning. It is shorter but intense. There is enough build up in the world around you to make it feel Christmas-y. But, it is a lot of work. My DH likes to get a tree the week before, on his birthday. But sometimes we are away that day and also I find it dries out.

My mother's family always celebrated and opened presents on Christmas Eve. When we were kids my brother and I got to open one present (our choice) on Christmas Eve. Now that I'm the family elder and we're all far-flung, I'm appreciating Christmas Eve as the best part of Christmas. The waiting of Advent is about to end.

I want to take mine down too. I like the house with less stuff. And I'm allergic to the tree so I kind of want to get it out of the house. Hopefully the kids won't mind.

I usually wait until New Years Day. This year I think I will start gradually putting away some of the decorations. I put away some Christmas pillows today. I will leave the tree up until New Years Day. I like a fresh start and I like to put out some winter decorations. I will put faux white amaryllis (from Pottery Barn) in a cream colored jug on my dining room table. This year I did not put out my Snowbabies collection for Christmas so I think I will put those out for winter. I will take down a wreath I have in my dining room and put up a winter picture of skaters on a pond.

Interesting to hear all the different viewpoints. If my tree were a potato it would be a 'loaded' potato. Over the years, as I accumulated increasingly special ornaments, handblown, antique, etc. and as it took longer and longer to decorate the tree, I began to put it up earlier and earlier as it is soooo much work and I want to enjoy it long enough before the laborious process of dismantling it all. So for some years now Thanksgiving night or weekend is the new tradition. Even though I enjoy keeping it up into January, at least I'm not like the house I once visited in March and they still had their tree up.

This is probably a repeat story from me but here goes. One year as my birthday present to my sister, I removed the decorations and boxed up her Xmas tree. Her birthday is in mid-April. The tree was in her formal living room so not in the way and easy to ignore for four months. In hindsight, the work required for dismantling that overloaded tree probably led to my disinterest in putting up a tree at my own house. :-)

Our artificial trees go up the first weekend in December and stay up through Epiphany, usually taking them down the weekend after. This year I will be out of town so it will be a few more days. Love having the trees up past Christmas, it is the time when we really get to enjoy the tree, it always so busy before Christmas. Also, we have friends over for New Years Day and it is nice to have the house still so festive. I would not feel comfortable doing this with a live tree. Our fresh garland is only in place Christmas Eve through New Years Day.

For me, today (Friday) is the Fifth Day of Christmas. And, as I mentioned in my earlier post here, it’s these days from Christmas Eve through the Epiphany that I enjoy the most because I’m not finishing any last minute shopping or decorating, and not madly cooking, baking, prepping or cleaning for our big gathering here on Christmas Day . That said, about this time every year, I am so over the Red & Green decorations, and even my 2 sets of Christmas dinnerware! It’s now I bring out my cobalt blue and white dishes and silver decorative pieces. Things more evocative of Winter. If it wouldn’t be completely disruptive, I’d take all the ornaments off the tree now and just enjoy it with it’s tiny white lights until the 6th. But, it would be (sigh)! I’m in the process this year, though, of downsizing my Christmas decorations drastically. Around the 10th, I donated 4 large bins of them to local charities, and packed another large 2 bins for my daughter to take. I agree with Linelle in that taking down Christmas decs should not be a huge, depressing chore. I’m so working on that myself now!

I don't find it depressing. Not exciting like putting it up, of course. I ask my husband to take a batch down til it fills the dining room table. I pack til the table is empty, then he continues. I really like all the boxes labelled and each room's decorations boxed together. The only way that will be done is for me to pack it. I listen to some kind of exciting audiobook, and I move faster.

Anytime I have an otherwise repetitive chore, I do it to an audiobook. I moved all my summer clothes to their winter storage closet yesterday, plus bagged donations and emptied and cleaned the entire closet, thank to an audiobook. :)

Oh, I am so jealous of y’all that have your tree down & everything put away! I am a Dec 26th-get that dead bush outta the house-kind of girl usually, but dh had a surgical procedure scheduled for the 27th, and had all these pre-op tests on the 26th...and now he isn’t supposed to lift anything until Monday!

And you might ask, “well Nini804, are you not woman enough to get the tree out yourself?” And I would reply, “No, I am NOT!” :) Even with my two athletic teenagers helping...no. Our tree is 14’ this year and weighs a gazillion pounds. I am 5’2” on a good day...the tree could EAT me! Dh won’t let us attempt it without him, lol. In hindsight I should have taken it down Christmas night but that seemed a little over anxious , even for me, lol. I will live vicariously through y’all with your freshly cleared out homes!

14 feet, Nini? Nope, you need help with that giant.

"Over the years, as I accumulated increasingly special ornaments, handblown, antique, etc. and as it took longer and longer to decorate the tree, I began to put it up earlier and earlier as it is soooo much work and I want to enjoy it long enough before the laborious process of dismantling it all."

This year has got me rethinking my own very similar pattern. It was a bit surprising how cheerful and fun my 'secondary' tree looked compared with my 'primary' tree. Secondary was the $26 Walmart white artificial complete with multicolored prestrung lights. Put a selection of fun nautical ornaments on in a few minutes and presto! a magic nautical holiday tree; I enjoyed looking at it and the large extended family all exclaimed how cute it was. As compared with my very styled, has-to-be-real large tree at home with only silver and while ornaments and miles of only white lights that took hours to set up and dismantle, had to be watered, shed needles etc etc.

When we get home I'm going to do a serious cull of my holiday stuff; it's gotten out of hand and while I"m not tossing ornaments (yet) I am going to really sort through all the various bric a brac, pillows etc and simplify before I put everything away.

I did that a couple of years ago running. Lots and lots of stuff went to Goodwill to be rehomed. It was liberating!

Lynn, I find it backward that Blue is the liturgical color of Advent, but it seems to fit more with post-Christmas. I'm getting ready to put away the Christmas, and bring out the blue and white, too. Most years I have a little evergreen forest that I decorate in different ways for Christmas, then till Valentine's day it shelters little snowmen and forest critters (fake, not real).

Linnea, what are some good audiobooks you've listened to? "identical Strangers" helped me paint the garage!

I meant to cull my holiday stuff before the holiday, but "surprise", i did not get around to it. I have things I don't like and should just let them "re-home" as someone said.

Although, I always thought it was bad form to take stuff to Goodwill after the season. Like people dropping off all their snowsuits in May, or bathing suits in October. No?

And I went to HG yesterday to kill time while me kids were at the movies, and bought more xmas stuff, LOL!

Good point about when to donate. Maybe just put donations in a box to bring at the appropriate time?

Since my tree is basically a garland that doesn't sit in water to stay fresher it goes up a week before Christmas and comes down the day after. I'd rather keep it up until New Year's but during the day can see how sad it looks. Maybe if it happens to be a cloudy/rainy week it will stay up longer as lights could be on during the day.

Tree has gone from moving furniture into other rooms to make room for a full tree to half tree to wall tree. Now I just need to take down a sconce cover and put up a fabric backdrop for the 'tree' to cover the sconce innards. Last year as we put ornaments away I sorted out ones we didn't like as much and this year ornaments that didn't get put on the tree are being donated. I did figure out my much loved crocheted snowflakes make a terrific drape on the mantel so they are staying!

We just decorate front door, tree, china cabinet top and mantel. Still cannot put the usual stuff in the Christmas box which would be ideal but there is plenty of room elsewhere in the house to stash things now.

Interesting to see that many of you decorate for "winter" or other seasons. I've never done that. (Halloween outside a bit, that all; maybe a seasonal wreath on the door). I have to box up my regular decorative objects to make room for Christmas, and when Christmas decor is put away, I bring them back out. The tree and Christmas Village take up the most space. I have to move furniture for the tree.

Maybe if I did other seasonal decorations, I wouldn't have such a hard time letting the tree go.

I heard my husband rustling around in the living room just now. I actually went racing over there to make sure he wasn't taking it down. But all he was doing was arranging things to take a good photo because overseas relatives had asked for one. The cat also ran over and climbed into the tree to protect it.

This year I bought my first artificial tree. I haven’t had a tree in years because the real ones dry out so fast here. I wasn’t sure I was going to keep the faux tree and was seriously considering returning it... until one day it SNOWED outside - all day. I broke it out of its box, turned on the Christmas music and had a blast. That was probably less than a week before Christmas. I added a layer of decorations each day and it was finished by Christmas Eve. So I am not tired of it yet. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I love the tree, and I love looking at my collectible ornaments from years ago. I get up before sunrise, turn on the Christmas Tree lights, and do yoga. The dogs love sleeping under the tree.

I may take the tree down on New Year’s Day, or just take off a layer of decorations each day until it’s a bare tree with lights. It has a variety of branch styles and pine cones, so it looks good bare too.

I had spent most of December struggling with a mantel design. Those decorations will stay up longer. They are more Wintery than Christmassy, and I may change up the design a time or two before Spring when I will go back to hanging my summer painting.

EDIT: Regarding donation time, I think anytime is fine to donate Christmas decorations. The Salvation Army store near me has a section devoted to Christmas, and people buy the decorations all year round. The agency could also opt to store them in a warehouse so they could put them out at certain times of the year. Customers will buy the good stuff anytime because it’s so inexpensive.

I went through my Christmas stuff last February and donated stuff I didn’t want. It felt great! All my decorations now fit on two shelves in a closet. (That’s before I got the tree - that may be stored in the garage.)

I'm startied downsizing my decorating this year by sneakily going a little smaller to see if I could get away with less. I left the nutcracker collection (approx 75) safely in their storage containers. I did worry that the grandkids would notice and be disappointed.

After numerous dinners, get togethers, parties and a full house on Christmas Day no one noticed that they were not being surrounded by wooden men.

Not one person.

When the family was all here last night for a family birthday party I asked if anyone thought anything was missing. After a pause, I had to point out that the nutcrackers weren't out.

I plan on having the kids and grandkids over early next Christmas season so they can pick the ones they want to adopt.

bpathome, I get Playaways at the library. Unlike an audiobook on a CD (what I use when stationary, working in my studio or sewing) a playaway is a self contained audio book, smaller than a deck of cards, that you can wear on a cord around your neck. I detach the cord and put the unit in my pocket. You use your own earbuds. These are really good for working around the house or yard when you are moving a lot. I know many of you probably download books to your smartphone, but I don't have one (resisting getting one).

For working around the house I choose some kind of thriller or police story that doesn't require 100% attention because my task requires a bit. If I lose track they are easy to back up a bit. Favorites recently have been Louise Penney's series about a Quebec detective.

Maddilee, that is crazy! How can someone forget about 75 nutcrackers. OTOH, put them out if they make you happy!

Since Sat was supposed to be the last "warm" day for awhile in the high 40's, we took down the tree. It was DRY assuming it was well over 5 weeks old, although it held up better than we anticipated. Having it in the kitchen was great because we just had to slide it out the french doors to the deck and then down the steps. Easy cleanup with the needles compared to the living room.

We left the archway lights and a couple more decorations for a few more days. I'll need to wash the Christmas shower curtain and rug from the bathroom.

My oldest daughter was born on Dec 27th, so the tradition started then, of Christmas coming down the day after Christmas, so her birthday could be the focus. I am a " the party's over" type anyway and with any holiday everything gets put away the day after. I do like the idea of winter decor, and think I would like to try that. I have several of those huge sugar pine cones I could use.

"gsciencechick

Maddilee, that is crazy! How can someone forget about 75 nutcrackers. OTOH, put them out if they make you happy!"

Ha! I was very happy not having to display them. Very happy. Now that there are few little kids visiting the nutcrackers have lost their appeal. As I age I realize that 'less really can be more'.

Ladypat's "the party's over" is exactly how I feel about it. There's enough buildup to Christmas without it staying too long. I feel the same about birthdays. What's with people who enjoy celebrating them for a month?!!

Birthdays.....mmmm. I don't feel I am exactly celebrating for a month, but I usually go out with DH on the day, then I usually do a friends lunch or dinner. So, I guess those with lots of friends/relatives celebrate individually with all of them.

Ladypat, I share that feeling as well. Sometimes I think a Christmas tree after the holiday reminds me of a partier in her best duds the day after the festivities-a little sad, a little silly ;).

Linnea, I use Playaways, too, when there's a good title available. I use earbuds if I'm walking, but a speaker if I'm inside. Actually, now that DH works from home I stopped listening at home, maybe I will start using earbuds at home. And, I can continue the book in the car, now that I discovered the Aux input on the dash!

bpathome, I never used the Aux input before. But that's a good idea. I have a cable for it. I usually leave an audiobook on CD in the car for long drives. I find I like certain kinds as "car" books and others as "working around the house books". Lately it's been non-fiction in the car, or a really good author that needs more attention from a certain part of my brain.

The earbuds while walking around are great. No wondering if you've missed something. The ones from my library come with neckcords. But I don't like the unit swinging. I wear something with a pocket, or put it in my phone holster at my waist. I wrap the middle of the wire of my earbuds around as much as needed, and clip it to my shirt with a binder clip, so I don't snag my wire on anything. That way I can bend over as needed, dig in the garden, etc.

Check out your library. Mine is always getting new ones, and I can borrow from nearby libraries in the same system as well.

Our library Playaways don't come with the neck cord, that could be handy, just tuck it inside the jacket when out, or sling it over the shoulder. Thanks for the tip about using a binder clip to keep the cord out of the way.

I use my whole library system, there are quite a few good libraries in the surrounding towns. I guess I could get on board with the downloads (no overdue fines!) but I like being able to pick it up and hold it, know what I mean? I wish our Playaway cases looked more like CD boxes, but they are all identical and just have a bit of the book cover on the front. I'm kind of a visual gal so I like having a cover that conveys the book, if that makes sense. I especially like memoirs; if you miss something it's not that big a deal. Julie Andrews' Home was delightful, enhanced by her lovely voice. And Billy Crystal's were lots of fun.

Last day for our tree today - taking it down tomorrow before we head back home. Enjoying it and a cozy fire for NYE.

Yay! Dh and ds got that big boy out to the curb today! I literally could make a new tree with all the needles that fell in the process, lol. My house feels fresh for the new year, hallelujah! :)

Nini, save the pine needles and stuff a pillow! No kidding, in my parents' basement I found a souvenir pillow from, oh, maybe 1941? And it still smells of pine!