De-Christmas-ification

I have little ones and I can't wait to take the decorations down! I don't wait til new years-- I take it down the day after christmas~ lol. Just me I guess---

I've always been a 'can't wait to get the Christmas stuff down' person. I can handle it for about 2-3 weeks max and then I can't get it down fast enough. I enjoy looking at the lit tree at night but I can't stand it after a few weeks.It's in the way and I want my house back to normal!!!

December 26th is the day for all the stuff to go back into the crates and I get my sparkling house back!! I prefer to start the new year clean and organized....so I am thrilled to see it go :)

I've never taken mine down as early as I did this year. Mine came down on the 28th. I actually like it being down and away.
In the South, many people leave their decorations up until Old Christmas, which is usually the Saturday closest to Ephiphany.

I guess it depends... this year we hung lights inside and snowflakes from the ceiling and I loved how happy the house looked. And we got our tree a little later, so it wasn't like the house was done up for a month.

I was sad to take it all down because it meant the end of a really lovely holiday break. But it did give me a chance to reorganize and clean, so it's a nice way to start the New Year.

I'm always ready to take it down and for my household to return to some sort of normal. I know my kids like the decorations and are already asking when we are putting out our Valentine's stuff.

One of my favorite children's books is The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widman. It's about a little girl who visits her aunt. The aunt brings out a large jar filled with lemon drops once a year. The lemon drops are to invite the sun into the home. To help us pass the long Midwest winter, I bring out our lemon drop jar after Valentine's Day. We read the story and enjoy our lemon drops. They love this little tradition and happily tell vistors about it. Although it's not full blown Christmas decorations, it is something special that comes out only once a year.

Maybe you can find your own little mid-winter tradition?

We leave everything up until the middle of January. I like the lights and color, and our main theme is snowmen and snowflakes, nothing religious, it's more of a celebration of Winter. I hate taking it all down, the house seems empty. Often I will leave a few snowmen and candles up until springtime.

I think it is both~ However, good news! We can bring the spirit of Christmas all year longer :-) Get together with our families more often..break out the games, spread good cheer, reminisce, light the fire, pop a lil' champagne, have the neighbors over..
I think in the US we build up one day to be the pivotal day in our lives, when truly we can spread it out through the year....At least that is what i feel.

I used to feel exactly like you do! When the tree came down it was barren and sad! Guess what i did? I bought some tree's that i light all year around..put extra lights around my house. It really changed everything.
I even have a tiny small tree, that I am painting and adding adornements
too. It's adorable!
I am such a LIGHT person, that I truly feel a bit depressed without
light and comfort.....

I have even thought about lighting my tree's outside..

Give me LIGHTS! :-)

Looking forward to taking it down! I enjoy doing some re-arranging in my house every 2-3 months to keep things fresh.

I hate taking stuff down.

My stuff is still up. At this point, all I see is a weekend full of de-Christmassing everytime I look at it. I usually leave it up at least one week into the new year, so I'm on schedule, for now. If it's still up in 2 weeks, I will have broken my New Year's Resolution of Not Procrastinating!

After 4 weeks -- I was thrilled this year when the moment came to chuck the tree out the door and pack away every last slow globe, angel, snowman, bell, and candle.

But I did enjoy every single minute of the glow from the tree and the lovely piney scent right up until Sunday morning. But now that the de-christmas-ification is complete, I am equally thrilled to have a large, decluttered living room again.

all traces of Christmas are gone in my house by Jan 2 come hell or high water

Thrilled! It actually stayed up a couple of days longer than I wanted it to...I am so ready for normalacy!

Mine will come down this next weekend but I truly will miss it. It's the first Christmas we've had since we remodeled and our house looked so pretty this year. <3 We are blessed.

Well, my 8 month old kept trying to climb up on the tree this year,so year I was happy to see it go. Other years I keep it around a bit longer.

I cannot wait until it's DOWN!

We take it all down a little bit at a time. The window clings are gone, and the gingerbread house is trashed (I couldn't WAIT to see that go). The linens get put away as they are washed, that sort of thing. The last stuff doesn't go down until the Christmas season is completely over. Remember the 12 Days of Christmas? You have until Epiphany, January 6, to get it all down! Free license to enjoy it, just a little bit longer.

But, I am also looking forward to getting some of my space back.

BOTH!

I love the ambiance of Christmas... the lights, the smells, the feeling...

But I HATE clutter, and inevitably, with Christmas, comes unbearable clutter, from bags of gifts still needing wrapped consuming every inch of available space in my tiny house, to the present mahem that unsues post gift-exchanges and the visit from Santa.

While I do hate to see the season go, by New Years, I'm ready to get it all put away, de-clutter the house, do my *winter* cleaning and reorganizing, etc.

By New Years Day, I'm happy to have my living room back. So I guess it all kind of works itself out.

SO SAD to take it all down....my daughter was just telling me how she didn't want to go back to school yet because we had such a wonderful christmas vacation with relatives from out of town and just the fun of the season. The house looks so empty when it's all put away :(

It's a little bittersweet. This year we cleared out the tree earlier than ever, and it was a great cleansing feeling. I hate having it linger there for weeks (or, yes, even months) on end, cluttering up the start of the year.

But I do have to admit, the living room looks pretty empty now. Although maybe it would help if we got some furniture in there. lol

This year my stuff was down by the Monday after Christmas, before New Years! Usually I leave it up til the Epiphany or Three Kings Day (Catholic holiday jan. 6th), but this year I just wasn't feeling it. Also I had my stuff up early the weekend before Thanksgiving so I felt kind of tired of it. Its been a rough couple months and I guess I am just ready to be in to the New Year---plus hubby was off work and able to help me take everything down. =)

I feel like my house always looks better somehow when it's all decorated, so I hate to let that festive atmosphere go! I always leave everything up until January 6 (Epiphany) - just a tradition in our family - the house always looks SO bare when it all gets put away!

I'm ready to take it down! Right now the only thing left up is the actual tree (fake) because I need to go to the store and purchase a storage container for it (the old box totally fell apart this year)

I too hate to see it go ...

The house feels so sad when the holiday decore gets taken down.

I think it's both...I want my house to return to "normal" (whatever that is!), but I love having my trees and mantle garland lit at night. I love seeing the ornaments that mean so much to my family, and I love all of the nativities we have placed around our home...such good reminders. I don't, however, love that my dog is constantly running in to a tree or that if I don't take my outside lights down within the next day or two I run the risk of being "that" neighbor! ;) I definitely cannot seem to decide what I want this time of year!

I jump at the first second to get all of the Christmas stuff down. I am not a Christmas person at all...it just seems like clutter to me.

I'm the opposite. Before I had kids the tree was up a week before Christmas and down New Year's wknd.
Now.......the tree and decorations go up the wknd after Thanksgiving and taken down sometime in January.
The kids LOVE the tree, the lights, the cards from family and friends and all the little snowmen all over the house. My oldest son has asked me to leave it up all winter......I won't let it go that long, but even this morning the first thing he did was turn on the Christmas tree lights :)

Definitely mixed on this one... our little one LOVES the decorations, music, lights and festivities, but the clutter is getting a little old. I will be decorating a little bit for Valentines Day and over-the-top for St. Patrick's, so we'll keep it festive through Easter.

Happy New Year everyone!

We take ours down a little bit at a time too...This year the tree came down on Jan 1st but mostly because it was drying out and taking up the 'play' area that my kids usually play at in our living room!! We don't really have that much decorations up so it's not like it takes a long time to take down. But the kids (ages 1 and 3) were a HUGE help taking the ornaments off the tree and not one was broken! We rearranged our living room a different way and then got out a bunch of the new toys and played with them so it was a fun day!

im saddened, i look forward to christmas as soon as the weather gets crispy. Luckily my daughters bday is early feb, so it works out

I usually wait until after the new year too, but this year, after my 3 and 9 year olds had opened all of their gifts and the house was so trashed, I wanted it G.O.N.E.!! We have to rearrange furniture to put up the tree, so it had already felt cramped, but add the new toys that don't have a "home" yet, plus the crampedness, I went crazy and put it all up on the 29th. Now my house is just trashed with the normal things. :)

My hubby and I were talking about this last night as I put away the few decorations we put out at this point (our dd is 16 now, and i do home childcare, so much of my house is for work..we just don't spare the space for a big lovely tree or decorations that might get wrecked by small children, etc...just a few well placed interesting things we like, etc).

We decided, here in MN, there must be a big let down for people and a big contributor to the "we hate winter" thing, with the holiday clean up at this time of year. It gets so busy, with the end of summer, school starting, into Halloween, then a month later is Thanksgiving, another month and its Christmas, just a scant week later is New Years for those who do that up fun, then BOOM...its time to put it all away, send kids back to school and for many here, hibernate, complain about snow and cold, until the first bulbs pop thru in spring and its time to prep for Easter. Its a LONG stretch until then, whereas, the other holidays and milestones I mentioned happen in a quick succession to keep people on their toes.

Personally, we use the time to do indoor home projects, organizing and if we have the money, we go on a big snowmobile trip to the mountains (last year hubby went without me, and this year we are doing some bigger cash paid house projects...so probably just some short more local trips if the snow supports our mountain sleds). So we get out and attempt to enjoy the snow and cold (we went snow tubing on New Years day..brrr..it was cold..but so so fun!

So my few items are put away...all but the scented pine cones and small decoration bulbs that fill my glass bowl on the entry table (mostly cuz I haven't decided what to change it to!)...and I am OK to see it go!