Are your holiday decorations down?

[Rich Riddle]

Moment of honesty. Are your holiday decorations down and where they are typically stored? All of ours are down with the exception of my grandmother's small ceramic tree. She used to keep it up as long as there was a potential for snow. It's really a nightlight more or less. The rest are stored away here. Has Santa's helper taken down your decorations?

One of my neighbors will keep lights up all year long and not only keep them up but keep them lighted. We live in a park, so it's a bit festive. My wife says it's, "redneck."

[Joe Angrisani]

Your wife is right.

We take ours down on Epiphany every year.

[Rich Riddle]

Your wife is right.

We take ours down on Epiphany every year.

She takes them down on Epiphany as well, except for the small ceramic tree. I didn't know others used that date.

[David G Baker]

Yup, mine go down on the 1st of January.

[Biff Johnson]

You bet! I love Christmas and all the decorations but by the time it's over, I'm ready to be back to situation normal!

[Richard Ehlers]

We took the outside lights down on the 4th but the tree is still up in the house. SWMBO hasn't been feeling well and I will be severely chastised if I take it down and not get the decorations stored in the right boxes :D

Richard

[Dale Coons]

The lights stay up until it's warm out--but they don't get turned on. Inside is a different story. It'll be Christmas until "Valentines eve". My wife loves Christmas, and all the nativities (I've lost count, but 100+ is a good round number) and other decorations stay up until then. We're able to cut fresh trees within a reasonably short drive--and the tree will still have it's needles by then!

[Myk Rian]

They never went up this year.

[Chris Kennedy]

We aim to have ours up by the first or second weekend in December and down around Epiphany. Ours is down and everything away.

On the other hand, when I was in grad school, the city used to have white lights in all the street trees downtown that ran from around Thanksgiving through March or so. Part of it was holiday, part of it was just to have diffuse light. It was really pretty nice in the snow.

Cheers,

Chris

[Jerome Stanek]

Well since yesterday was my birthday and Orthodox Christmas ours are still up.

[Gordon Eyre]

We went out of town this Christmas season and never put them up. Our usual schedule is to take them down on New Years day.

[Charles Wiggins]

Yep. Of course we didn't rally decorate this year. I do still have to take things down at Mom and Dad's. Maybe this weekend. Maybe Easter break.

[Ted Calver]

Took the tree down today...almost an all day job. Big 12' fresh cut live tree this year that drank almost a gallon of tree saver laced water every day and was still holding needles well. Darn thing got sap over everything and still haven't figured out what will clean it up, tried Goo Gone and mineral spirits so far. Outside lights are still up but with temps forecast into the 60's for tomorrow, they will come down too. Wife's family always took their tree down after Little Christmas (Epiphany).

[Joe Angrisani]

....got sap over everything and still haven't figured out what will clean it up, tried Goo Gone and mineral spirits so far.....

Don't know if you'll be able to use it where you got sap, but vegetable oil (or any oil as far as I know) just dissolves sap. When I get it on my hands, I wash my hands with vegetabe oil to easily remove the sap, then wash with soap to easily remove the oil.

[Rich Riddle]

They never went up this year.
Wish I could get away with that.

[Ted Calver]

Thanks for the tip Joe. I'll give it a shot.

[Rod Sheridan]

Indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations come down this weekend............Rod.

[mike holden]

Ours stay up through epiphany, we also exchange small gifts on epiphany in remembrance of the three wise men. The decorations are almost down now. Always feel as if I should play Christmas carols backwards while we de-decorate, but never figured out how.
Mike

[John Aspinall]

This week is the last week the town garbage pickup will take trees. And today, as it happens, is garbage day on my street.
So everything came down last night.

[Eric DeSilva]

I'm still finding Halloween decorations around.

[Jim Rimmer]

Ours are down but not stored yet.

When I was a kid my Mother didn't put many decorations around the house and Dad never put lights up outside. The tree was down and out for pickup by the end of Christmas day.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Wife wouldn't let me take them down.... Might just take them down and carry them into the house..... Look honey, a pile of lights....

For some reason, that reminds me of a joke.

Q: "does this dress make me look fat?"
A: "Does this shirt make me look stupid?"

[Rich Riddle]

Andrew, the next few days will be quite a bit warmer and safer to remove the lights. It might be damp, so be cautious.

[Michael Koga]

I'm one of those crazies with computerized lights. Probably 15k or so. Takes me 2-3 days to put up, another 1 or 2 to test all the connections (160 different channels).

Used to take me another 2/3 days to take down and put away. But over the last few years I've developed a system, and totally amazed myself this year. 7 hours to take down, test (better now then when rushing to put up), and stored. Only have 3 items out that need fixing at my leisure.

On the Christmas forums I read about people leaving their lights/ext cords out all winter. Buried in some weird thing called 'snow and ice'.

[Michael Moscicki]

Still have them up as do quite a few other houses around NYC. Then again so long as our churches are decorated so is our house. We don't take them down until the priest blesses our house for the new year.

[Rich Riddle]

Still have them up as do quite a few other houses around NYC. Then again so long as our churches are decorated so is our house. We don't take them down until the priest blesses our house for the new year.

I miss just about everything about Brooklyn, a great place to visit.

[Jeremy Milam]

All inside our down. Outside is usually down by now but have been snowed over. Warmer weather this week and 60 on Saturday will let me get them down.

[Myk Rian]

Wish I could get away with that.
I've had them up all year the last 3 years. Some of them wouldn't light up last year, so they weren't turned on. We weren't home that much anyway.
We took them down this summer. I had strings of lights tucked under the siding edges so they weren't really visible when off.