Just packed away christmas

All gone today - so refreshing!

All done today but I am loathe to take down any warm white fairy lights, indoors or outdoors. It is such a dark gloomy time of year and I would be happy to see fairy lights outside until the clock changes to BST.
I am with you keeping them up for January at least Grandmagrewit and haven’t removed any from the back garden and may not take them down at all, equally pretty on a late summer evening.

I’ve taken mine down gradually this year so the house doesn’t look too bare all at once. The tree still looks lovely though and hasn’t dropped a single needle, might put it in the garden room till it looks tired. Everything else but the crib scene will go on 12th Night. The crib scene will stay out till Candlemas. We’ll light candles all winter and keep some warm white lights up. I love winter because of all this.

Because they like the decorations and want them to be up as long as possible! Every year I say, I am going to do it earlier from the first week in December, but they didn’t get put up till the 20th because there were other things I needed to finish first. Although I think it’s ridiculous when people put them up in November and now people are putting Halloween decorations up about a week or more before the day, which is a load of crap anyway. Halloween has gone too far American commercialised crap.

We have just finished taking all of ours down. We now have a much late living room .
Anyone fancy making us a cup of tea please?

I have taken down the tree and thrown it on the front lawn

I've left some fairy lights up though as they cheer me up

Nope, no till Thursday. We like to observe Twelfth Night.

What we used to do was to take out the tree out on 12th night, but then balance it up in the garden and then we gave the birds a new years tree. We used to put a fat ball on, and my sister and I used to put strings of peanuts out and sometimes half a coconut etc and it was a halfway house which helped us to not miss all the ornaments being put away but we knew the next day we would be adding things on to it outside. This year didnt even have a tree and couldnt find any decorations . Ah well next year something better

Usually happy to tidy it away around now but this year I don’t feel I want to everything looks so pretty.

Didn’t bother putting any decorations up this year, so nothing to take down, thankfully.

As the weather’s so grim am leaving it all until at least another week or two to pack away.
The lights and glitter are really welcome.

Can’t decide whether to pack away as quickly as possible or do the thorough sort out like GrannyGravy13. It will depend on my energy level when I get round to it 😁

Our decorations, including 2 trees, start to go up 1 December and we take a couple of days to get it all down by Jan 6th. Both trees now artificial so no recycling to do there.
Like Georgesnan, we buy Spring flowers so the place doesn't look so empty. Candles and tealights are of the wintry season rather than Christmassy so they stay.

Always the 6th January for us.

My tree and decorations will be coming down on Twelfth Night but for some, in the Catholic tradition, the Christmas season lasts for 40 days, right through until the beginning of February. Our outdoor fairy lights (and some indoors too) will be staying up for January as I think they brighten up what can often be a gloomy and depressing time of year. We started doing this after Christmas 2020 when the country was still in the grip of the pandemic/lockdowns and things seemed very bleak. I found it very cheering to look out of the window and see lights twinkling outside many of the houses in our street for most of January. I wish they could become more of a winter tradition rather than just for Christmas.

I’ve made a start, things like cards, wreathes and ornaments, but the trees will come down on 12th night. Starting to look rather bare again 😊.

Nothing comes down until Twelfth Night. Christmas isn't over until the Wise Men have been. I remember when schools never went back until after 6th Jan because most went to church on that date.

I didn’t put up a lot this year, just a door wreath, cards on gold ribbons and lots of fairy lights. It was so easy in comparison to previous years but I was bored with my tree decorations although they are lovely wooden toy types along with baubles. I’ve now taken down the cards and door wreath but going to enjoy the fairy lights for another day, they add a bit of glow to a dark miserable day.

Mine are down, but I am mid sort-out so the house looks like the inside of a skip.

We decorated and refurbished downstairs before Christmas, and the finishing touches only happened on 23rd, so there is still a lot of organisation to be done. I hate it and find it stressful (probably ADD), but it will be worth it when I finally get there, I hope.

Packed all away this morning, but I'm sure I shall find something I've overlooked before long.
On the other hand , perhaps not, as I've just found a Very unexpected post card on the doormat, thanks to the postie.
It bears an Italian stamp, and is from my grandsons who have both written on the card telling me about their lovely holiday by the lake.

I'm delighted to receive it, but would have preferred it to arrive last August, ~*which is when they were on holiday there*~!!

It's been my first Christmas in my "new" home, my old house sold in September 2021 so last year I was living in a friends house (Jewish, no twinkle lights) while everything I own was in storage. So it's been 2 years since I've seen my "pretties". Bits I've had for years, snowglobes, bows and bells etc. Although I was on my own for most of Christmas these things go up for me to enjoy. Some came down before New Year, but mostly not before 12th night, instilled in my by my Irish mum. From storage they went into the drafty damp garage, and cardboard boxes were disintegrating, so now got plastic storage boxes ready for the big pack-away. Mine go up the first weekend of December, so up for around 5 weeks. I love the dark evenings by fairy lights .... Guess I'm never going to be a minimalist.

I'm going to take down my cards, but leaving the rest up until 12th night, I don't put them up early

I love it once its all gone
Minimalistic just like I like it

Ours come down at the beginning of the new year but I always find things after they’re packed away. So now it’s a game when the grandchildren next come around for them to scour the house to find things, always baubles or other tree decorations that have rolled somewhere, forgotten snowflake stickers on windows or an unopened cracker. They are rewarded with a left over chocolate treat (not that there’s many!)

My big grandson and I got in our live 6-year-old Christmas tree in its tub on the 22nd. It will stay indoors until 12th night.