Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Confession Wednesday: Cleaning Up

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So.........how long do you leave your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/etc decorations up after the fact?

I know plenty of people that have that stuff down the day after Christmas. It's like they just can't wait to put it all away, say so long to the holidays and move on with their lives.

My mom isn't like that. I remember years when the Christmas stuff was still up until February. We once had a Christmas tree that posed a bigger fire threat than dropping a burning cigarette into a can of gasoline.

When I was roommates with Emily, I sold my soul to the devil bought an artificial tree because our apartment was feeling a little lacking in the holiday spirit. I honestly can't remember if our attempts at Christmas cheer extended beyond that tree and the few baubles we hung from it's plastic branches, but I actually sort of loved those four feet of fake evergreen goodness.

I went home to California for Christmas and came back sometime around New Year's and we left the tree proudly displayed atop the corner table I used to make it appear taller than its 48 inches.

And then school started and the tree stayed where it was.

And then the end of January approached and Emily and I got to talking.

"Why don't we just leave it up?" I said.

"We could make it a Holiday Tree," Emily suggested.

We talked about it and thought about it and hatched a plan to decorate it for all the holidays, year round.
  • January: Martin Luther King, Jr Day
  • February: Valentine's Day President's Day
  • March: St. Patrick's Day
  • April: Easter
  • May: Memorial Day
  • June: Arbor Day
  • July: Pioneer Day (What? We lived in Utah.)
  • August: ...uh...
  • September: Blueberry Popsicle Day (It's real. Look it up.)
  • October: Halloween
  • November: Thanksgiving
See? It's perfect.

I took the tree down the next day.

In general, I like to leave Christmas up until sometime around New Year's Day. Earlier feels somehow disloyal to my favorite time of year. Anything more feels like I'm just being lazy.

What about you? When do you like to put things away and move into the new year?

Want to play? Grab the button up above and link your confession down below!





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Posted by Karen Peterson
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at 12:00 AM
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30 comments:

  1. I like to put all the Christmas decorations away right after New Year's Day. But since we're confessing, one year I left my tree up until February 6th (at that time we had an artificial tree because we traveled home for the holidays). Oh and one year I left the Christmas dishes in the cupboard a little longer than I should have. Imagine my emabarrassment when my husband threw me a surprise birthday party and we were still using the Christmas dishes - on February 27th.
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  2. With five kids and 2 cats and a dog pawing at the tree for a month, by the end of December, it's in pretty bad shape! So, I admit, I take the sorry thing down a couple of days after Christmas. :)
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  3. Traditionally the tree would come down on New Years Day. This year I told Julia she couldn't decorate for Valentine's Day until the tree was down. Tree came down, Valentine's Day stuff (about 3 decorations) went up. She was very excited to un-decorate. Very strange.
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  4. Normally, we take the Christmas decorations down the weekend after New Year's Day. (Not on New Year's itself, because who wants to be doing cleaning on a holiday.) However, I've been a little busier than usual this January. The decorations are still up. And no sign they are coming down anytime soon.
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  5. I take mine down when I have hubby home long enough to be a pack mule, staple puller and heavy item lifter... which is the weekend after Christmas as a rule lol
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  6. I'd love to take everything the day after Christmas because it's been up a month already and it gets to be a bit much for me. But, Josh wants everything up until New Year's Day, so it stays up. And I have an artificial tree, I love it! :-)
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  7. You totally need to read The Tree That Stayed Up Until Next Christmas, aka My Favorite Childhood Book EVER.

    Don't mind the crappy pictures. It's oooooold.
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  8. I've always strictly adhered to putting the tree and decorations up the Sunday after Thanksgiving and taking it all down New Year's Day.

    Until this year.

    It's still not put away. Hopefully we get to it this weekend! Otherwise, I guess we'll have a year round holiday tree!
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  9. Oh- and for us, August would be a State Fair Tree. Or My Birthday Tree. Or a Back To School Tree.
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  10. I can't do mine past New Year's. I need to put everything away and start out new and fresh.
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  11. We took everything down the day after Christmas. Bah-humbug I guess. :)

    Actually I got tired of finding ornaments in the refrigerator (thank my 2 year old for that) and other random places.

    Happy Wednesday Karen!
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  12. I laughed all the way through this post. HILARIOUS! The holiday tree thing is totally something I'd suggest.

    We haven't taken ours down yet. I meant to do it last Sunday, but then there was a football game on in the afternoon and I just couldn't be bothered. It's fake, so at least it's not posing a major fire hazard. I think the cats are ready for it to come down though because they have done a pretty good job at removing most of the ornaments for me already. I think I'll shoot for this weekend. :)
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  13. Traditionally my family takes down all the Christmas stuff on January 1st. I don't think there's ever been a year where we've left it up through January. Josh's family does the same. He says it's bad luck to leave it up after the 1st... never heard that one before...
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  14. I usually take the decorations down on New Year's Day, but this year that didn't work out for me. They are all still up, but I'm planning on having them down by the end of the week.
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  15. First of all I love your new profile picture! Secondly - my confession is that I took my tree down the day after Christmas but just now got around to putting all boxes of decorations up in the attic.

    Have a great day!
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  16. I normally like to take it down the week between Christmas and New Years. That way I feel like I'm starting the New Year fresh and clean. But this year I have slacked because I have had ZERO energy lately and therefore it is still up (hangs head in shame.)
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  17. I used to leave the tree up til New Year's Day...because I was always told it was GOOD LUCK to leave it up for the New Year! But once the kids all left home, somehow they took the Christmas magic with them along with my superstition to leave the tree up. SO, the tree is outta here! I wanted to take it down Christmas night, but Dennis said, "NO!" So, the 26th, bright and early...tree GONE! (and all the other little decorations with it!)
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  18. I couldn't wait to get all the X-mas stuff down this year. We took everything down last Sunday. Usually around New years. A few days after.
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  19. My mom loves Christmas decorations but in lies the problem that I don't like sharing my December birthday with Christmas, and my dad doesn't like sharing his January 6th birthday with Christmas....so usually she takes it down right after New Years...but we didn't do Christmas decorations this year.

    You had me going for a moment, I thought that my roommate Emily might have beeen your roommate Emily because her family has a tree up all year and decorates it for each holiday. And I make fun of them all the time because of it!
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  20. We generally take our decorations down right after New Year's, although this year I had to remind Tim that our CC&R's say that the Christmas lights on the outside of the house need to be taken down within 2 weeks of the holiday. That lit a fire under his butt.

    My kids really wanted to leave the Christmas lights up in the house, just randomly placed in various rooms. I was tempted...
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  21. BTW, love your new profile pic!!!! You hot thang you!!
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  22. August could easily be sunflowers - or plastic veggies? LOL
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  23. I've known people who left their tree up year round. Seems like a lot of work! I know even more people who say in January "I'm going to leave my tree up year round" and they don't make it past Valentine's Day! It's hard to find ornaments, I think? I think January could just be snowflakes, then hearts in February and Shamrocks for March...

    I take mine down after New Years. I'm told it's good luck to leave it up through New Years Day so that's what I do, but as soon as I can after that it's down. Usually by January 2nd it starts to feel like spoiled milk and I have to get it down!
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  24. I just put my stuff away this evening, however, I didn't have that much up in the first place. My apt is waaaaay too small for holiday decorations. LL
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  25. Okay, I want you to know, I posted my confession, and it was a big ordeal because I did it once and then LOST it! AAAGGGHHH
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  26. We are guilty of taking the stuff down 2 days after Christmas. I do have to confess, the fire hazard that was our wonderful tree is still laying in our backyard right now. The gardeners will LOVE us this Friday!
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  27. We still have ours up. Shhh!

    You could have a beach theme in August and football in September. Those are totally holidays.
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  28. I still haven't taken down my Christmas tree this year, but I plan on doing it tonight. Or, I could follow in your footsteps - maybe I'll consider.
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  29. I finally asked the Hubs to drag the tree out last night.

    Since I kind of love having a real tree in the house (like a giant air freshener) and I feel a compulsion to squeeze my dollars worth out of every purchase, I keep the tree out until it looks limp. The rest of the decorations got packed up after New Years.

    Stopping by from SITS.
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  30. "it's real, look it up". You crack me up!!!
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"You know what they say. If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."

~Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias

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