Over the past few snow days, different teen guys have been in and out of the house. When not just one, but two friends asked my sons privately why their mom still had her Christmas stuff up, I started feeling a bit self conscious. I know many of my perfectly wonderful Type A friends who took it down the weekend after Christmas because they needed their order and simplicity back and keeping it up was messing with them. Well, that’s just not me. I wish it was…sometimes.
I love the white lights. I love the mood, even in January, but I don’t love putting it away. I wish I was one of those who can take it down and get it all away in one day, but that’s never happened. It lags over a few days, and I know some of you will go crazy when you see my stuff just sitting in spots where it shouldn’t sit.: )
So when I confessed on my Balancing Beauty and Bedlam Facebook page that I was still taking my Christmas things down, I thought I was being brave, bold and showing a bit of my bedlam moments. Alas, I was relieved to find out, I am not alone.
Yes, tucked around the corner in my sitting room, some of my regular decor waits patiently for me to bring them home again.
I repurposed the Groupon meat packages that I bought. Now they house my Clearanced Dayspring Nativity Hurricane set. (Yes, the sale is still going on with some great 80% off items.)
And about those boxes? Just put them away already. I know. I will, I will…today.
So tell us….
Are you a ‘Putter right away kind of person or do you still have some things up? What’s the latest you’ve ever kept your Christmas stuff up? Has anyone hit Valentine’s Day? I’ve heard V-Day trees are all the new rage.
Ahh OK I confess. Our indoor decoration just came down this week. Our outdoor decoration are still outside. LOL we are THOSE people in our neighborhood. The plan was to take it all down the same day but with all of the winter weather that we’ve had it didn’t happen.
How funny! We JUST took the rest of our decorations down this morning, then I read your article! Good to know that we are not the only ones.
My decorations are still up and will most likely stay that way until the end of January. I’ve never let it go this long but I didn’t put as many out this past Christmas so it doesn’t feel nearly as ‘cluttered’ as it has in the past. I’m really enjoying the ambiance it gives. Besides, with 3 kids, work full time and a single mom to boot, it’s hard to get it all done. Who says i have to even take it down? LOL
@Shelia, Exactly, Sheila – you keep it up as long as you want. I love the lights so much and miss them already and they’ve only been gone one day.
OMG! I am so glad you posted this. We have been hosting a foreign exchange student from Costa Rica for 2 1/2 weeks. He was supposed to fly home last Wednesday, but is here for several more days due to the 20 inches of snow outside. My Christmas tree is up and fully-decorated! He asked me why is there still presents under the Christmas tree… I just haven’t had the time or energy to put it all away. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one 🙂
Still up….had an excuse until this past Monday—had to get our addition finished for inspection, which we now passed. So several days have passed now, and still up. Now it’s just bugging me. Doesn’t feel Christmas-y, just feels all wrong. It helps to see I’m not completely alone : )
Does “in the process” of coming down count? It’s bugging me too. I’m looking around wondering what goes up next though….. I’m feelin’ that decorating let down in my 129 yr old home.
That is so funny that you posted this today; I just finished putting away the final Christmas decorations yesterday! (And I didn’t even put very much out this year.) I wish I was organized enough to just do it all at once, but whoever has that big of a block of time? [Hubs and the boys are supposed to put the Christmas bins in the attic, so they will probably be living in our ‘man cave’ for another couple of weeks…]
There’s a house a few blocks from us that always has a ton of stuff in their front yard (year round). I don’t think they took down their giant-sized light-up Feliz Navidad sign until March last year. And when I was a kid, I went to my flute teacher’s house for a lesson and saw the tree was still up; Easter was the next weekend.
I say as long as it’s not a gigantic eyesore for your neighbors (or a fire hazard, like a four-month-old tree), you can take stuff down whenever you’re ready.
You all are funny. I have to force myself to not do it the evening of Christmas Day. I am SO ready to be back to normal by then.
It USUALLY comes down on New Year’s Day. Ya know, something to do while watching the Rose Parade and the HGTV dream house that I try for and never win. This year, we put everything up very early (due to a snow storm that kept us at home with nothing else to do), so we also took everything down a little early. I put up VERY little this year, so it was a quick transformation.
January always leaves me itching to do deep cleaning. I have gone through my drawers in my bedroom so far, with a HUGE list of other to-do’s. I’m sure I’ll get about 1/2 of it done…..by NEXT January! 🙂
Some are in boxes (in the living room)… the faux tree awaits. There are some odds and ends scattered about.
But, last Sunday was just the end of the Christmas Season in the liturgical year. So, really, we’re only a few days late. 🙂
Nope, no Christmas decorations up here… but that is because we never put it up. We ended up spending a couple weeks at my parents’ house, so we didn’t have time for decorations at home. We did help put up and take down the Christmas decorations for my mom though, because it was a crazy busy Christmas for her (she is an OBGYN and delivered like 7 babies on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). If it was up to Mom, she would leave decorations up until the end of January, because she really loves Christmas decorations. They bring a wonderful feel to the house. Can’t say that I disagree!
If we did put up Christmas decorations at home, we would have to be on the ball about taking the outside ones down. Our nasty, picky, spying, and rude Homeowner’s Association does not allow ANY decorations to be up for more than 2 weeks past the New Year. They will fine the homeowner 20 dollars (or maybe 30, I don’t remember) a DAY until they take the decorations down. We have a neighbor who last year took down everything, but missed one string of lights on the side of his house. They weren’t plugged in anymore, so they were not very easy to see. The nasty old woman in charge of the HOA fined him a ton of money and didn’t even bother to warn him. This is the same woman who literally walks around the neighborhood with a ruler to see if your grass is under the restricted height. She got us cited for a single weed (no kidding) near the fence that was above the height. We will NEVER buy a house with a homeowner’s association after this. ugh. /rantoff =P
A little of both. It’s our enclosed front porch that I cringe at. There is a stray Halloween witch under the bench and some pumpkins mixed in with in winter decor.
Luckily, we didn’t put up any outside decorations this year. Our inside decorations are still hanging around. It’s actually beginning to stress me a little because I want to get some semblance of order back in my living-room. My hubs hates for me to go into the attic because I’m somewhat accident prone so I have to wait for him to pull all of the plastic tubs down for me. He’s promised me we’ll start soon but we’ve all felt like crud around here lately. So, the crud is lingering and the stress of no order is building. I just might explore before the weekend is over. Then the hubs can clean up the Christmas decorations AND the other mess! 🙂
My tree at home is still up! And I’ve been plugging it in almost every night because I really like the glow of the lights. It’s only a little tree. About 5′ and maybe 18″ wide. But so cute! My work tree is also still up. We’ve decided to take the decorations off of it and put little hearts on it for Valentine’s day.
I haven’t even wrapped the kids’ Christmas presents yet!! I will admit we have an excuse. We were out of town until January 3, then moved straight in with my parents while my husband remodels our single bathroom. Our tree sits in the midst of all the bathroom rubble, collecting sawdust. The presents are shoved in a corner, unwrapped. Sad. It’s so anticlimactic I think we might just forget the presents and put them up for birthdays. I’m ready to get that mess cleaned up.
I have a built in deadline–my birthday is Jan 7 so my rule since childhood has been “no Christmas on my birthday” therefore the latest for me is Jan 6. However, I find the dark days of winter depressing and I, too, miss the white lights so…this year I am keeping a basket filled with pinecones and white lights in my living room. That works for me 🙂
oh! I like the idea of a basket of pinecones and white lights!
Mine is all down, but many people here in Mobile, AL (where Mardi Gras originated) keep theirs up but just change out the decorations to make a “Mardi Gras” tree! Purple, Green and Gold.
We’ve still got ours up – and even still have our Christmas lights on outside! So what if we’ve got Christmas spirit? 🙂 I like our lights and decorations – the house always feels more empty without them!
~Chelsea
Don’t worry, I just hauled the tree to the basement last night and still have a pile of remnants in the living room waiting to be put away.
Normally, mine come down the day after Christmas. This year we didn’t do it until the 27th.I don’t like all the clutter! Besides a tree without gifts under it looks sad to me. I will however, usually put up Valentine’s decor about three weeks in advance and leave it up until the week after. I guess it doesn’t bother me as much since there is so much less of it. Another HUGE reason we clear out our Christmas decor so quick is because we always have a live tree and it is usually ready to kick the bucket by 26th!
I still have two of my Old World Santas out along with two primitive country Santas and a vintage cast iron Santa still in my living room (on mantle and speakers).Plus, I still have candy canes in a jar and Starlight mints in an apothecary jar on mantle. I suppose I should put them away now. But they are some of my fave Xmas decorations.
We’re supposed to take the decorations down??? Hmmmmm…
Okay, the live tree is down and no, that was NOT me that decided it needed to go last Saturday night and was dragging it out to the curb for recycling pickup at 1 a.m. Sunday morning. It really was a shame, too, because it was still so fresh even after being in the house for nearly a month. But no, that wasn’t me AT ALL!
Everything else is still up but it will be put away this weekend, as long as it doesn’t interfere with prepping for and watching my Ravens kick the Steelers out of the playoffs. I didn’t put out as much this year so it doesn’t look as bad as it could.
Are you SURE we need to put it away?
Everything got put up New Years weekend.. My house is small but it still takes a good full day to get it all done.. We ever got all the wreaths off the outside windows.. It was cold but it was dry and it was going to start snowing nonstop the next day.. That convinced honey to get’r’done! 😀
I always keep my Christmas up til the first week in Feb. One year it stayed up til the weekend before Valentines (figured it was time to put away before another holiday ).
I have a friend who keeps her tree up all year and decorates it for each holiday.
I’m all done! Of course that’s because my only child lives out of state now so I didn’t even bother with putting any Christmas decorations up this year. I love the Rubbermaid totes shown in your top photo. You need some of the new red and green totes with christmas designs on them. 18+ years working for Rubbermaid and I still buy more from the company store.
Still up & I have a live tree 🙂 … I have a HUGE job to get done here & I just have really not had ANY time…. maybe this weekend… : )
My dept 56 village usually stays up thru Feb. It takes SO long to put up, that I call it “Winter Decorations”… 🙂
UHHH…I am waiting to buy some tubs to put stuff in so I can get rid of boxes 🙂
I had plans to take our Christmas decor down last weekend, however, on the way home from work on the 7th, an F150 pick up truck decided he wanted a bright shiny new 2010 Silver Honda Insight as a hood ornament. Well it’s been a week of recupping from bums and bruises but luckily nothing’s broken, so today’s the day to get it done! Thanks for such a great blog to encourage, equip and empower me to get up off my bruised bum and get to it! Blessings!
oh Lori – NO….I am SO SO SO sorry to hear that. Glad you are ok.
We still have our live tree up! I’ve never taken this long before, but with the flu taking up residence just after the new year and the plain fact, I still love the lights at night, it’s still there! My plan is to have the tree down before wednesday, my oldest’s birthday!!
Whew! I feel SO much better now. I just might get our tree down this weekend 🙂 I did put away most of the other decorations and knick-knacks around the house.
But I’m like you. I love the white lights greeting me each morning when I come downstairs.
I just took my decorations down two days ago and it took me two days to do it….and then another two for my husband to move all the boxes to the garage….which is about 5 steps from the living room. I almost always leave the tree and decorations up until Jan. 6th unless the tree is in really bad shape. This year it went until the 11th…ooh boy! I love the way the house looks all done up for Christmas and would leave it until February if I could! One thing I do is I accidentally (on purpose) leave at least one thing out when un-decorating and keep it in the living room all year as a reminder that pretty soon my living room will look like Christmas again!
Oh and the tree is still up in the living room, just not decorated. We have to wait until Tuesday to put it out….if I had known that…I would have kept it decorated until today!
It all comes down on the Saturday after Christmas! With two under two, life starts to feel cluttered all over again and I want the excess stuff put AWAY! That being said, we apparently still have Christmas lights on the railings outside. Guess I missed those… 😉
I started to take mine down yesterday. But only a few small things. Then I plugged in the tree and just sat and watched it. I was gone most of December and the beginning of January.. so I’m not ready to take it down yet. Maybe next week. 🙂
My husband finally moved our tree (still decorated) into the garage when we had company coming over yesterday. I had taken most of the other decorations down and put them up…but the tree was too much to do in one day. So maybe this weekend I will get into the garage and put the ornaments up and take the tree down (it’s fake)
Christmas decor has to come down in stages,as it causes much crying from the 5 year old. He doesn’t do change well. I just took down the upstairs tree last night. The rest has been down and stowed since Thursday. A little late for me, but I felt like this holiday season was very short, making it more challenging to enjoy the special ornaments and twinkle lights.
You aren’t alone, to be sure.
LOL! My husband is taking the tree down at this very moment! (I finished undecorating it yesterday). Normally I like to take everything down on the 1st, but this year I feel like December was such a blur that I wanted to take some time in January to actually enjoy the decorations. Or something like that. 😉 Glad to hear I am not alone!
We usually leave everything up till the kids go back to school. All the decor is down but the boxes are still in the living room. Several are packed. Other decorations and the artificial tree are in piles around the living room waiting to be packed. We didn’t put everything up this year and I’m packing those things now to give away. I’m very particular about how I pack the decorations, every container has to have a label and all breakables wrapped in tissue.
I love to keep the Christmas deorations up throughout the month of January, but took ours down last Thursday. I miss the cheerfulness of the lights on these dark January days. I have been thinking of putting something up with soft white lights just for the glow. :o)
I still have some up too. I have had pneumonia, so I do it when I can. The outside will be up for a while too. It’s too cold!
My hairdresser reports to me that in some countries, tradition indicates that Christmas decorations are to be kept up until the end of January to rid the home of any bad karma remaining from the previous year.
Additionally, in some Christian countries, Christmas decorations are kept up until February 2nd, which is the traditional ending of the Christmas season. Feb 2nd is often called Candlemas Day, the day the baby Jesus was presented in the Temple.
December is often so busy with parties, family events and religious celebrations, that January is a great time to relax and really enjoy the holiday decorations, and time to include friends in that enjoyment.
Yes, we keep Christmas decorations up thru most of January. And it is a joy.