Taking down the decorations…
Ah, it’s a sad task but the Christmas decorations can’t stay up all year.
I mean, I’d love the magic and spirit of Christmas to be with us always, but it wouldn’t be so special if we saw Christmas trees everywhere and lived with tinsel around our houses all year.
So it needs to come down, be packed away carefully and stored until next December.
But when should they come down?
I have heard many times that it is bad luck to still have them up on/after the 6th January, and others say it is bad luck to start the new year with the Christmas decorations still on display.
The twelve days of Christmas ends on the evening of January 5 – just as Christmas starts at night fall on the 24th December (traditionally, days ended/started with the light, not at midnight.)
Traditional decorations were mostly ivy, which were believed to hold the spirit of the trees. Taking down the decorations and putting the ivy outside releases the tree spirits back into nature; leaving the tree spirits trapped in the house for too long would prevent plants growing and the arrival of spring (obviously not an Australian tradition!)
When do you take down your decorations? Do you make it fun or is it just a task to get done quickly?
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Tags: christmas, decorations, january 6, spirit, take down, twlefth day
January 16th, 2008 at 9:07 am
The hardest ones to take down are at school – they have to come down before I leave for Christmas holidays so they aren’t still there when we get back in late January!
It feels sort of wrong to pull them all down before Christmas and almost as soon as the kids are out of sight.
I’d love to make a tradition of taking them down, but it isn’t fair on the kids to do it on the last day of school when they’re building up to Christmas!
January 29th, 2008 at 7:38 am
My son’s birthday is on January 14 – so we make sure they are down by then. Generally the day chosen is one when the kids are bored and need something to do!