Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for December 29, 2018

The worst job at Christmas.

And what’s wrong with Christmas in March??

Too much of anything wears it out.

You just took it down too soon. It isn’t even March.

Aren’t you going to leave it up until Twelfth Night?

Nobody ever helped take it down. That’s why I have a small fake I leave decorated in a garbage bag. Three minutes to set up, two minutes to put away!

What is she doing???? She’s supposed to wait for the wise guys. Now they’re going to get lost and badabim badabum… the wise men! the wise men! not the wise guys…

Christmas tree stays for fortnight, untill Three kings, at least ! What are you doing ?

She has lots of boxes and piles of tissue paper. Luddie should be there at a minimum.

Well I can tell JJ has not been peeking in my windows yesterday. Too soon to remove the tree for me. But the sentiment is there. I still cherish the put up and put down if the special ornaments. Some are almost 60 years old, and others just fun memories

She should wait until Little Christmas (1/6). Then Arlo would be stuck with the chore.

Bloody Hell, it’s not even New Year’s yet! We always left ours up until epiphany (Jan 6), which would cause us to miss the boy scouts picking them on Jan 2, so we’d toss the old tree out back for them to pick it up the next year. It’s become a tradition: we’re always a year behind. Mind you, I wonder if the scouts are ever amazed how scraggly and brown our trees always are…

It’s nice to know everybody else thinks it’s only proper to leave the tree up until Epiphany!

When my dad had a parish in Roxboro, NC, everybody took down their decorations on New Year’s Day – some even the day after Christmas! – because it was bad luck to leave them up. My parents would make sure to have their wreath on the door until 1/6.

When I found myself putting up the tree by myself and taking it down by myself, I did not put any more Christmas tree up ever again!!

And this one reason why I never decorate.

When I was just a girl, we never set up the tree until Christmas Eve and always took it down on 1/06. My parents put the tree up, but everyone participated in the taking down. There were “edible ornaments” on it that we kids loved to get. There were apples hung up by their stems, cookies with holes in them for strings to hang them by, and foil-wrapped chocolate candies made to be hung on the tree. We were poor and living in Germany at the time and those are some of my best Christmas memories.

It’s always exciting when the tree goes up but kind of sad and a letdown when it has to come down. We use a tiny tree, too, and I love it! But we do remove our ornaments every year.

It’s a variation on “Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”

the only post christmas tree even I remember was about 55 years ago the city of parma ohio collect all the old chrismas trees and put them in a pile. over one acre and one hundred feet high. right after dusk they light the pile.the glow could be seen for miles.

Our local waste management finally figured out that some people actually leave their tree up ’til 12th night, and arranged two tree pick-ups: one for the early birds and one for the traditionalists.

Victory has many fathers. Defeat none.

Veritas

Several years ago I realized that the taking down of the tree was a post-holiday-blues trigger for me, so I invested in a quality artificial tree and it stays up for the rest of the winter, which, here in NH, can easily run in to March! It makes me happy and the lights lift my spirits, especially during week after week of dreary, gray winter weather. One of these years I just might leave it up all year and change out the ornaments for the seasons! My tree, my rules, my therapy!!! ;)

This happens to me but it’s nice not to have to dispute over where each ornament goes. I know where they all go and it’s gets done quickly.

My only helper is Freyja, the kitty I found in the middle of the road last November. I guess she remembers the decorations going up shortly after she was rescued last year. She spent most of last year under the “tree” and now loves the Christmas decorations. Other than her, I get to put up and take down by myself.

Could be worse, Janis. You could have one of those aluminum jobs and have to take all thr pieces apart…

Having six cats, I no longer put up a tree…

Bet if she had the Christmas stockings on Arlo would be helping her.

We actually took our tree down today. It makes the room look so much larger. We do have a few Christmas touches still out.