Christmas Tree

[mickey1952]

For those who celebrate Christmas, when do you put the tree up, and when do you take it down? There's obviously no right answer, but it might be interesting to see what kind of responses we get.

[mickey1952]

I usually put mine up the first weekend in December ahd almost always take it down the day after Christmas. I'm usually ho-ho-hoed out by then.

[joann414]

Mine will go up this weekend.  I have my family for Thanksgiving, so I put my tree up.  I don't see some of them for Christmas, and I'm a sap for Christmas:P

[Cia]

For us, it's usually about 2-3 weeks before Christmas and it comes down sometime between then and New Year. That depends on how fast it dries out. Living in Washington state, we have lots of tree farms to go cut fresh ourselves. I always make cocoa and we roam around the lot before picking our fav tree and bringing it home. The hubby does the stand, I do the lights, and the kids do the ornaments and the candy canes, then the hubby does the santa on top.

[Breeze]

I don't do Christmas anymore, but when we were kids, the tree always went up about two weeks before Christmas. It came down on my Mom's birthday...January 2nd. In fact Mom still does it that way.

[Dark]

As a kid, we put ours up after thanksgiving, usually while mom was out shopping on black friday.  It was an event with us kids and dad.  The tree came down over New Year's.  Some years we did it earlier, depending on where the holiday fell, because the tree had to be down and put away before we went back to school.

[Suvitar]

I don´t have Christmas tree every year but when I do I get it in day before Christmas Eve and it goes out day after Epiphany. That´s the traditional time to have a Christmas tree in my country.

[Thorn Wilde]

We bring the tree inside on the 21st or 22nd, usually, and decorate it on the 23rd. That's traditional here. My mum tends to leave it up until it dies, which can sometimes be pretty late in January because she's good at keeping the tree alive. At the very least, it's left up until after the 7th of January, which is Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar, since my mum is Eastern Orthodox. If it grows fresh shoots before it dies, my mum plucks them off and uses them to make schnapps. 

 

Yes, I realise that my family's a bit eccentric. 

[TetRefine]

Ours goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving. It usually gets decorated the same day it goes up, and then generally comes down a couple days after New Years. 

[Slytherin]

When I was a kid we brought the tree inside on December 23rd and we threw it out on January 13th.. The last few years when I lived at my parents house my sister and I used to look for the ugliest tree we could find - the uglier the better !  And them trees where very cheap too

 

I don't have a tree anymore - I am to lazy !   

[Celethiel]

Well, when i was young we used to get a live tree...

I don't remember much the whens...

When i lived with my grandmother during highschool she'd have me putting up decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving and taking it down the weekend after christmas... I may add this was a major project, as her whole house was a christmas wonderland of blinking lights and garland...

Myself I put it up the weekend after Halloween, and take it down sometime in January... (the season is JUST too short )

I used to like christmas a lot more until my dad died christmas morning...

Also had more room...

[Red_A]

The tree is lit at dusk on Christmas Eve, and extinguished after as the last wassailer leaves on Twelfth Night( Epiphany Eve).  It is never in the house after twelfth night.

[Thorn Wilde]

I usually put mine up the first weekend in December ahd almost always take it down the day after Christmas. I'm usually ho-ho-hoed out by then.

 

See, this is so weird to me... To me, that sounds like an advent tree rather than a Christmas one. Christmas starts on Christmas Eve (technically Christmas Day, actually), so tossing the tree out on the second day of Christmas just sounds really odd. 

 

It's really interesting to read about all these different traditions, though. So far, the only sensible ones have come from other Nords and the British.

[Aditus]

Around two weeks before Christmas we meet at one of the tree farms and walk around with mugs of hot chocolate and choose a tree after a lively discussion of course. I am the host of the family get together this year, so I will have the tree up on the weekend before Christmas Eve. It's a large tree and it will take me a while until all the lights and decoration will be in place. The tree will be up until Epiphany Day. For the weeks before Christmas Eve we have the Advent wreath. It has a candle for each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Oh and then there's the Advent Calender, 24 doors to open until Christmas Day. I'll be never too old for that.

[colinian]

Doug and I and my brother Chris and his boyfriend Steve live in a small house in Berkeley. We moved here when we started our junior years at UC Berkeley to save money. Every year we "put up" two table-top size decorated artificial trees in our living room and a wreath on the front door. That's it, because we all go home to our respective parent's homes usually the weekend before Christmas and return on the day after New Year's. When we get home we put our two little trees and the wreath away.

 

Colin

Edited November 23, 2013 by colinian

[Mann Ramblings]

I haven't been putting up a tree over the last few years as working in retail sucks the holiday spirit out of me. However, when I do, it goes up Thanksgiving weekend and comes down some time in January when the hubby finally bitches enough for me to take it down. I like the lights. And my tree is artificial so I can have it up as long as I want. I would love a natural tree, but the cleanup and upkeep are a deal breaker during a stressful season for me. LOL

[FrenchCanadian]

We usually put up christmas decoration around the first week of december and remove them right after the new year.

 

That being said, for the last few years, I lost most of the holiday spirit I might have had when I was younger. :S Therefore, I've kept the decoration to a minimum, no trees, just a mini christmas town and fake snow on the coffee table.

[CassieQ]

I bought a new tree last year and I usually put it up around Thanksgiving weekend, since it's a long weekend for me and I have the time.  It usually comes down around New Years, even though I don't stick to an exact date.  It's just me at my house, so I can leave it up as long as I like, and take it down when I get tired of it  

[Ron]

I am not a Grinch,  <- or that guy but I am tired of the fuss of putting one up and taking it down. Additionally, I get a little anal particular about the lighting and decorations.  I do get many compliments on my tree each year   and yet I would just as soon not do it. My partner is coming home   on the 23rd for Christmas this year so I will get a tree. I usually buy one and put it up two weeks before Christmas because if I wait any longer the good trees  are all taken. The thing will be gone on the first pick up of recycling after new year.    

[Thorn Wilde]

Around two weeks before Christmas we meet at one of the tree farms and walk around with mugs of hot chocolate and choose a tree after a lively discussion of course. I am the host of the family get together this year, so I will have the tree up on the weekend before Christmas Eve. It's a large tree and it will take me a while until all the lights and decoration will be in place. The tree will be up until Epiphany Day. For the weeks before Christmas Eve we have the Advent wreath. It has a candle for each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Oh and then there's the Advent Calender, 24 doors to open until Christmas Day. I'll be never too old for that.

 

We have advent wreaths and advent calendars as well. This year, my mum got me a tea advent calendar. A new little thingy of tea, enough for one pot, every day, and what you get it a surprise. When I was a kid, my mum used to make me a gift calendar, with tiny little things, cheap toys and the like, most days and then a bigger gift on Christmas Eve. (According to Scandinavian tradition people tend to celebrate on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day; that's when we generally have dinners and open gifts and all that, which is kind of weird.)

[rustle]

We don't have any hard-and-fast schedule, but Christmas doesn't figure into anything until after Thanksgiving. After that, about the first weekend in December, the tree goes up and gets decorated. It comes down again the first or second weekend of the year.

[Sasha Distan]

second weekend in december. for nearly a decade now i have decorated the tree while listening to The Last Goon Show

[scotty94]

Mine isn't going up this year, I'm not spending Christmas at my flat I'm spending it at my mums house and beside I lost mine in my move earlier this year, so I'm in desperate need of getting a new one but with Christmas round the corner and unexpected bills I cant afford one.

[Graeme]

We've got no fixed schedule. We don't get a tree too early because with the traditional hot Christmas weather, it would die too quickly, so sometime one or two weeks before Christmas is when the tree goes up. It usually stays up until sometime in the New Year when my wife decides she's had enough of it shedding pine needles

[Fishwings]

My fake christmas tree has been sitting in the living room for oh, idk, 4 years or something LOLOL

 

We just redecorate it every year.

 

Don't follow* my example. (lawl i typed in family)

Edited December 6, 2013 by Luc Rosen