When Do You Take Your Christmas Decorations Down?
Every year, I usually ask the question: “When do you start decorating for Christmas?” and receive a ton of responses from folks on every end of the aisle. This year, though, I’m asking you this question:
When do you actually take down all of your holiday decor?
Because we put ours up the day after Halloween, in an effort to celebrate our favorite season as long as possible, by the time Christmas comes and goes we’re so over all the holiday decorations that we immediately take them down the day after. Yes, come December 26th, almost everything in our house returns to normal so that we can begin the new year with a blank, clean slate.
I know a lot of people wait until today, January 6th, Three King’s Day, to take theirs down, with this article from the UK explaining how it might actually be bad luck to take them down beforehand:
“In the past pagans believed tree-spirits lived in the greenery – such as holly and ivy – which people used to decorate their homes. While the festive season provided shelter for these spirits during the winter, they needed to be released outside once the celebrations were over. If this custom wasn’t followed, greenery would not return and vegetation would not grow as a result, causing agricultural problems.”
Personally, I’m not superstitious, so I don’t believe in all of that, but I can imagine that if we waited to put up our decorations to begin with, we would want to keep them up a little longer. In any event, they’re all down now and it feels great!
When do you take yours down? Do you pack them up immediately after Christmas or leave them up a bit longer?
