Packing Away the Christmas Decorations

[Florence]

I usually leave my decorations up until New Year's Day but I think I will start taking them down a little each day. I have 5 plastic tubs that I store everything in and I store the tubs in the guest room closet. What is your system for taking the decorations down and how do you store them??

[Lainey]

I actually downsized everything to one tub and it's stored in the garage. I leave them up til about New Years Day also. When I was growing up as a Catholic back East, it was common to leave decorations up til January 6th, Feast of the 3 Kings.

[CathyA]

We have an artificial tree that has about 50 branches that come apart. :(
We store it in a big moving box under a table in our computer room/library. Would love to store it elsewhere, out of the way, but I don't want it in an outside shed or in the attic (gets waaay too hot).
The christmas decorations go in boxes in a coat closet in the utility room. I got rid of about 4-5 boxes of old christmas bulbs this year......sent them to Goodwill.
I'm thinking about getting a much smaller tree for next year.
We leave our tree up until the beginning of January. When I take it all down, it feels so good! :)

[Miss Cellane]

I put the tree up a week or so before Christmas and leave it up until January 6. I have one big plastic tub for tree decorations. I have a couple of smaller boxes with other holiday decorations. They all get stored in the basement.

What I usually do is take a weekend afternoon and take down and put away all the non-tree decorations. Then I clean the house--dusting and vacuuming.

Then, on the 6th, I plan to undo the tree after work, if it's a weekday. I make mulled cider and listen to Christmas music for the last time and put everything away carefully--a lot of my ornaments are from my parents or grandparents or nieces or nephews made them for me. Then I take the box down cellar. Come back upstairs and put all the furniture back where it belongs and dust and vacuum the living room.

Then I sit down and make belated New Year's resolutions.

[goldensmom]

Jan. 2, usually while my husband is at work, I begin to de-decorate. Ornaments off the tree into a tote, wall hangings, misc. decorations collected placed on the dining room table then into a second tote. When my husband gets home from work he folds up the tree and puts it in the box. He then takes the tree and 2 totes to the store room until next year. An easy ritual we've done for years. Then I am ready to hibernate and tackle my winter reading list and seed catalogs; to make plans for the next summer's garden and house/farm/yard projects.

[catherine]

Since my decorations go up relatively late, and we actually don't decorate the tree until the kids are down (which was Christmas Eve this year), I leave it up for at least two weeks--usually until about mid-January.

I have about 4-5 tubs that we keep in the garage. I threw out a lot of old tree lights that no longer work. I need to throw out some more things, or give them away. Some stuff I haven't used in years, but hold onto it "just in case." I think it's time to realize that moment of need is never going to arrive.

[IshbelRobertson]

I follow UK tradition by leaving decorations up until Twelfth Night, 6 January.

[Yarrow]

I leave my decorations up until New Year's Day, then I slowly start putting them away. I have very little now, as I pared down so much after my divorce and downsizing into the little cottage I live in now. Just a little artificial tree which I decorate with my most loved ornaments, a few snowman figurines, some lovely smelling red candles, and a wreath on the front door. Actually, I usually leave the wreath on the front door through all of January. It's such a nice touch of color on these cold and gloomy winter days.

[redfox]

Our ficus will stay decorated till tomorrow. Solstice altar will also be put away. It takes about 30 minutes & one box. I love simple.

[rosarugosa]

It takes me less than an hour and one box, and I did it yesterday. I echo Redfox's sentiment on the simple part!

[herbgeek]

I am now de-Christmased. Took under a hour as well. 4 wreaths, 1 garland, 6 candle lights, one tabletop tree, Christmas cards and various Christmas linens packed away.

[frugalone]

My tree is still up.
The tree itself and the tree topper (which I am proud to say I made) stayed up All Last Year. Why? Because we just never got around to taking the tree apart and packing it in a box and putting it in the attic. I did put the decorations away but they never made it to the attic. The tree is one of the pre-lit types, and I doubt it will fit in the box in which it came. So we bought a plastic bin at Home Depot, but never tried to disassemble it and put it in there.

Why the procrastination? I don't know. I guess because it's like pulling teeth to get anything done around that house.

[iris lilies]

I forgot to put up the fresh wreath I purchased this year. I think it is still sitting out in the snow.

Fail. haha. Don't give a fig.