Christmas decorations... [Matthew's Journal]

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[Poll #1507466]

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There are 31 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

We had a twelfth night party when it fell on a weekend a couple of years back. We had a present raffle where everyone could exchange unwanted presents - this ended up being swapsies in the end. And I did a twelfth night cake with a bean (well almond) and who ever got that bit of the cake was crowned Lord of Misrule and permitted to run the raffle. Only I got the almond and everyone said it was a fix.

I was thinking today it was a shame we don't really mark it anymore, I guess New Years Eve has taken over somewhat. I'd love to start it up again.

So for me you take down the decorations after twelfth night.

Everything should be gone by the evening of the 6th because in Bavaria, there's the tradition of "drinking strength" (Bockbier, extra strong beer) and it wouldn't be safe to do it then. ;o)

It's always been traditional for us to do it on 6th Jan, but on TV people often seem to say it should be done on 5th Jan, so we've been wondering about this lately - though I'm reassured to see that in your poll lots of people do the same thing we do :)

Yeah, that's the position I'm coming from too. I think I may leave mine til tomorrow after all.

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I'm mildly inconsistent and I don't care. And I don't have any decorations other than cards this year sadly.

I've always left them until the weekend immediately following my birthday (which is the 6th).

fwiw, my birth family usually left them up until 2nd Feb.

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The only decorations I put up these days are the handful of cards I get. Sometimes I leave them up just to prove that somebody sent them to me!

Oh we're students and the tree didn't come down till Easter last year! I might take it down at the end of the week, when we're a full complement again.

When I was growing up, we used to leave them at least until my father's birthday (8th) and sometimes to my mother's birthday (21st)

But I live in my own house now and I was looking around yesterday and thinking "about time we tidied this lot up really". But it's only cards and a tiny tree this year.

I'm slightly surprised that the answers to the first two questions are not consistent with the answers to the following four questions...

Christmas is the twelve days from the 25th December to the 5th January inclusive. Epiphany is the first day after Christmas. Traditionally one puts up one's decorations a few hours before 00:00 on the 25th (i.e. on Christmas eve) and takes them down a few hours before 24:00 on the 5th (i.e. on twelfth night). If you leave them up until Epiphany they will have been up for 13 days which is unlucky.

Although I was planning on leaving them up until next weekend because although I know I _should_ take them down tonight, we will be having not-Christmas-dinner with Crackers (snow permitting!) so decorations seemed a good idea. Although maybe I should take them down and put them up again. Or maybe not-Christmas-dinner doesn't need decorations...

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Keep them up until Candlemas then :-)

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I agree that this sounds about right if you adhere to the above schedule and reasoning (i.e. keep them up for the 12 days no more no less), and I certainly wouldn't knock anyone for choosing to do so. (I recall my grandma was very particular about this, her decs her choice).

OTOH, if you are a person who puts them up before Christmas Eve, then that largely avoids the 13 days problem. I've never found 13 unlucky, personally, so I don't really care, for myself :)

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I took my tree down on the 28th - it was in the way.

I would take them down tomorrow, but as I'll be travelling, I'm doing it today/tonight instead.

Noting some redundancy in the options here.

Twelfth night (evening of January 5th) at the latest. Any time after midnight at the end of December 25th is acceptable, though in the UK where we celebrate Boxing Day, taking them down on the 26th would be a bit odd!

…so this is probably my Santa-ascii-duck userpic's last outing for ten or eleven months, then. (-8

My family traditionally took down the tree, removed decorations and ate the gingerbread house on Jan 1st. Nobody had to go to work or school and it seemed to be the end of the secular season. The lights strung up outside stayed up until it was warm enough to remove them comfortably.

I assume that Twelfth Night is the 6th, so that's a perfectly good time to take them down. (Though of course any time is fine.)

However, the absolute correct time to take them down is the morning of Jan 8th. This is because it is

mostlyacat's birthday on the 7th, and it's nice to have decorations still out then. Cards should be taken down on the 6th, however, to make room for his birthday cards. ;-)

Incidentally, Trinity think Twelfth Night is tomorrow (6th) - I'm going to their Twelfth Night Feast then.

Russian Christmas is January 7th, so you can't very well take them down before then. That said, we generally take ours down when the tree begins to seriously shed, and as we got the tree early this year they're down already :)

I took mine down on the 31st, because I wanted them gone before my kid's birthday.

I'm going with "other" on the comments because I'll be taking some decorations down today. I want to have everything gone by tomorrow night and while I would typically take everything down after the 12 days of Christmas are done (i.e. take them down on the 6th) I'm not going to have time to take everything down tomorrow. Plus I need Adrian's help to take down the ceiling decorations. I quite like the idea that there is some history to them coming down today, because then I'll feel less guilty about taking them down now.

If you have a nativity scene, should that not be up through Epiphany as well?

I was wondering this! In fact my question to Emp (which may have sparked this poll) was 'if you take your christmas decorations down on 12th night, when do the wise men get to be with the baby Jesus?'

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My crib will stay out until Candlemas and that's my only really decoration (my springy thing fell down).

Wise men always arrive on Epiphany. Which reminds me, I need to move them a bit nearer now

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Imbolg. And they are Yule decorations. :)

Candlemas!

I think Candlemas is at least a respectable alternative to Twelfth Night, since Epiphanytide can be understood as a continuation of Christmastide.

As a matter of family tradition, we've always taken them down this evening, but we won't this year, as we'll be in the middle of a cocktail party.

It's never occurred to me that there's a "right" time to do it, though of course when we go to the US, we don't really put up decorations.

My mother, however, leaves her outside tree up and lit until at least Easter, and later if I don't return to shame her into agreeing to have it done.

Long-standing tradition in my family that the tree (which I love beyond reason) stays up until after my birthday, 8th January. Since I'm usually the one who puts up and takes down the tree it's not hard to enforce. *gryn*

That said there was one year when my flatmate and I left the tree and decorations up until August. In our defense, our flat was dark and brown and ugly and the tree did an amazing job of cheering up the place; we couldn't bear to lose it.

October