# Too early to take down decorations! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450 "2013-12-30T01:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/41 "2013-12-31T00:17:15Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > My wife took everything down this morning while I was still asleep, and doesn’t understand why I am nonplussed and deflated. Anyone else with me on this? I just wanted to wait until the first week of January–even Jan. 2 would be fine. Tell your wife that Christmas isn’t over yet, it lasts until Epiphany (which is on the 6th of January). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/42 "2013-12-31T01:20:02Z")
Before electric lights, chemical dyes, and color video, winter used to be pretty grayscale- white, black and gray. The traditional Christmas colors of red and green were the colors of plants that were exceptions to the bleakness of the winter landscape. Leaving them up for awhile helped people get through a northern European January. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/43 "2013-12-31T01:20:12Z")
Traditionally Christmas decorations should be taken down on [Twelfth Night](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_%28holiday%29), the evening of January 6th (or 5th, according to some). I believe someone even wrote a play about it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/44 "2013-12-31T02:30:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The traditional Christmas colors of red and green were the colors of plants that were exceptions to the bleakness of the winter landscape. Leaving them up for awhile helped people get through a northern European January. Weren’t they rotting by then? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/45 "2013-12-31T02:51:28Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Weren’t they rotting by then? Holly lasts for quite a while…the leaves are tough and the berries are pretty solid, too. They’ve evolved to last through winter snow as evergreens. Hanging in a house is practically a vacation. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/46 "2013-12-31T03:53:13Z")
Taking down Christmas decorations? Is it Valentines Day already? ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/47 "2013-12-31T03:58:29Z")
Our celebration isn’t done until Russian Orthodox Christmas on the 7th so they stay up until then. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/48 "2013-12-31T10:08:01Z")
I’m with the Epiphany crowd, but the problem is the bin men aren’t! You’re allowed to put your tree out for two days after New Year’s and then you get fined if you leave big stuff. Also, our decorations only go up after St Nicolas, so only after the 6th. We may not be as tired of them as other people who put them earlier. Yesterday was my birthday, and there should definitely still be a tree on my birthday! My birthday presents are always under the tree (people just do them all at once), they might get thrown away by accident if someone clears the tree… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/49 "2013-12-31T11:21:00Z")
Don’t put them up, you don’t have to take them down. Same with daylight saving. Unless you have Alzheimer’s and cannot remember that time has been shifted, why bother changing all those clocks? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450/50 "2013-12-31T11:53:24Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Weren’t they rotting by then? Nah, people take quite some time to decompose, 'specially in the colder weather. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-early-to-take-down-decorations/677450.md?page=2)