Everybody seems to have a different “tradition” as to when you put up and take down a Christmas tree (usually more likely to have a “taking down” one, as “putting up” is more and more “whenever we get around to buying it”).
I put mine up on the day after Thanksgiving and (taking a cue from the Rocko’s Modern Life Christmas special) take it down on December 26. Yes, I admit that’s a little early on both ends.
What are your “usual” dates for this sort of thing?
We usually put ours up the week before Christmas (fake tree). When we got a real one, we put it up Christmas Eve.
(When my mother was young, Santa Claus would bring the tree and decorate it Christmas Eve)
Take it down on January 6, Epiphany.
Normally we put our tree up on Thanksgiving night, and leave it up until the rugrats are back in school.
This year we haven’t gotten it up yet, due to leaving both of our trees behind when we moved. Now we have to get a new one, and haven’t managed to yet, and may not get to, due to money issues.
I think that’s a fine day to take it down. We’re skipping the whole tree thing this year. What a relief.
I’d say the weekend before Christmas and have it thrown out by New Year.
I’m always surprised at how many people have lights up the day after Thanksgiving. I suppose if you go to all the trouble of outdoor lights you want to enjoy them but DAMN, it isn’t even December yet.
The Christmas tree goes up on my birthday, December 3.
It gets taken down while watching the Rose Parade, (usually) January first.
~VOW
The tree goes up the first weekend in December, and goes down shortly after New Years.
I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to put it up on Christmas Eve and take it down January 6, but I think the kiddo would feel left out, because we live in an area where lots of people have decorations up before Thanksgiving.
The trees (all artificial, we put one in our living room and in our dining room) go up no earlier than December 1st, but there’s no tradition beyond that other than when we get around to it. When we take it down depends on whether we’ve seen everyone to give them their gifts yet and/or after the annual near-but-not-actually-Christmas party with friends, which has been as late as Jan 21st. It’s usually down sooner than that (early to mid January), and I don’t think I’d allow myself to go as far as Feb 1st!
I am the kind of guy who would never get around to taking it down. Knowing this about me, I don’t put one up.
Besides, it is just me and the dog and she doesn’t celebrate.
I don’t bother with a Christmas tree, but my brother and his family have an elaborate one and many, many decorations beside. Their tradition is to have a party on the Saturday following Black Friday. Everyone eats Thanksgiving leftovers and helps to put up the tree and decorations. Then, they have another party on New Year’s Eve, and during the course of the evening, they take down the tree and decorations. It seems to work well.
Few days before Xmas; beginning of January. What’s it supposed to be? 12 days?
Up: usually around 3rd Sunday of Advent (11 Dec this year), or on that weekend sometime anyway.
Down: Epiphany (6 Jan) or thereabouts.
Up: as soon after Thanksgiving as I have the time and energy. In past years, this has been a very flexible date, but now that the Firebug is old enough to express an opinion, I expect there will be less flexibility: he’s very pro-tree, and I doubt that’ll change over the next several years.
Down: the weekend after New Year’s.
The liturgical Christmas season is 12 days, with Christmas day itself being the first of those 12. So that would be Dec. 25 - Jan. 5.
The secular Christmas season begins the moment the Thanksgiving dinner dishes are cleared from the table, and ends at the stroke of midnight preceding the first working day after New Year’s Day.
The Xmas tree usually gets put up Xmas day or eve, and taken down a couple weeks into January.
If you live somewhere that has a thanksgiving custom, perhaps. That ain’t the case here.
I aim for putting the tree up between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day…there have been a few years where that did not happen until Christmas morning. And then, if I have managed to put the tree up, I aim for getting it down by…well, Easter is really my limit. And one year…June.
I have this metal reindeer I bought at the after-Christmas sales last year sitting on my bookshelf. Just the other day I thought about trying to find a box for it to pack it away until…oh, wait…now.
I work retail. Christmas as a family holiday with decorations and parties barely exists for me. If I’m lucky, I get to go to one party each season, usually the choir Christmas potluck at church. I find my Christmas spirit after the midnight candlelight service on Christmas Eve, as I drive home alone and look at the lights and generally cry.
I never have any indoor decorations, but I put lights outside the house.
I put them up on the nicest day before Thanksgiving, but don’t turn them on until Thanksgiving night. I turn them off for the year on January 2, and then take them down on the first nice day.
I used to go out and buy a ‘real’ tree about mid-December. And what a JOY it was to finally have Christmas OVER, and I would haul the thing out to the curb on January 6 and commence cleaning house…
I never take down my christmas tree, but I only turn it on when I have company over between Thanksgiving and New Years. Not putting it up and taking it down saves me hours every year and frankly I have no other use for my living room.
We have an 18-inch tall artificial tree which fits inside two paper grocery shopping bags (circa 1986) when in storage. When put up, it sits on an end table in our living room.
My sister gave this tree to us in 1986 or so when she was visiting our home during the Christmas season and noticed that we did not have a Christmas tree. Many of this tree’s ornaments are home-made family ones from the early 1970’s. Where one would normally find an angel or star ornament at the pinnacle of the tree, we have a “Bud Light” beer can (drained from the base) with the pop-top still intact–a gift from a very good friend.
I put up the tree and interior lights every year on the day after Thanksgiving. We do not do exterior lighting.
As our association allows no holiday decorations more than 30 days past the holiday itself, we put the tree away (with lights and ornaments still attached) in its paper bags on the weekend prior to January 25th. If it weren’t for that rule, I don’t know when we would get around to taking it down–pretty sure we wouldn’t leave it up year-round, though.
Leaving the ornaments and lights still attached during put away makes the next year’s set up a snap–just a few minutes including the time it takes to re-attach the few ornaments that have fallen off in storage during the previous year.