January 27, 2016

Why Our Christmas Tree is Still Up


Growing up, we put the tree up in mid-December and took it down right after New Year's.  It was the 90s and early 2000s and people were still regular-achievers then, not the overachievers you see on the internet these days.  So I have no background in leaving Christmas trees up until March. That's a tradition and accomplishment I've begun all on my own.

The first Christmas we were married, Scott was deployed.  I got a tiny pre-lit tree super cheap at Fred Meyer and just stuck it in the living room.  I didn't even have any ornaments, except for the personalized one I got at a craft fair that fall.  Since our family had sent presents for Scott and since I had bought presents for Scott, I stuck them next to this two-foot tree and we had Christmas again in February when he came back.

The year after, we were moving in February, so I packed up Christmas ASAP.  I'm hyper about purging and packing when it comes to moving.

The year after that, Scott deployed in December and I swore we weren't doing Christmas.  This meant that I, obviously, put the tree up in mid-November and left it up until March.  It was just me living there. And we had two living rooms. The tree was nicely lit and decorated in the living room we didn't use.  The benefit to this was that I could take it down in March and be all Now Christmas is over but hey! It's March! Deployment is a third of the way over!  -----sometimes you have to play mind games with yourself to get through things, you know?

The next year we were prepping for a move again so the tree came down pretty quickly.

In Missouri, our house had no place for our 7 foot tree so it came down rather quickly too.

Last year, I left it up for awhile I think.  I don't really remember.  (Which is weird because I remember everything...I've blocked out a lot of 2014-2015 I believe.)

This year, the tree is still up and I don't really have a reason.  The boxes for Christmas decorations are in the basement and I don't feel like hauling them upstairs and then hauling all that back out to the shed.  It's cold out.  And Scott doesn't know where I like the boxes to go for easy access next year.  Plus he's busy.

The only reason why I can think of that I leave Christmas trees up foreverrrr is because of that first year and it just seems natural now.  Like, why wouldn't you want to look at twinkle lights for a few months instead of a few weeks?  And living in northern climates, spring isn't exactly around the corner.

Do you take your tree down ASAP? Given that it's artificial, of course, I don't think there's anything that's stopping us from leaving them up year round (there's an idea...).

11 comments:

  1. I take mine down usually the weekend of New Years, simply because if I don't I won't have the motivation to take it down any other time-haha. I love Christmas lights, they are so pretty, so why not leave them up for awhile?

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  2. We buy a real tree. Growing up in Oregon, next to Christmas tree farms, we didn't have a real tree because my little brother is allergic to them. Insert sad face. My husband, also from Oregon loves real trees and Christmas. We buy our tree after thanksgiving and keep it up until end of December or first part of January. This year when we returned from a week in Paris, I was less than motivated to water it. So it came down before New Years. Christmas lights are my favorite and I'd keep them up year round if hubby would let me. Estherdavison@gmail.com

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  3. We have 5 Christmas trees in our house and the last one just came down a week ago. The one in our master bedroom is the last to be taken down because I just love laying in bed with the light of the tree on. I honestly think I could leave it up all year!

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  4. i've had some ins and outs with our tree like you. sometimes I leave it up for months. Sometimes (like this year) it came down immediately (and I'm forever thankful to the person I was on dec 31 with the gusto to take it down--not knowing for sure what was coming, I'm glad now in the aftermath of losing my dad, I'm not also left with taking down christmas). I like my tree and the lights though. I want lights up year-round.

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  5. I've got one up on you here. I didn't even put a tree up! haha! But I did actually put up lights on my porch this year, and that made me happy. They are still up (but I don't turn them on). It's too cold to go outside and take them down!

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  6. I have a little pre-lit one that sounds a lot like your first one. I just took it down on Monday because I was off from work and felt like it was time. Even though I like the cozy feeling of the twinkling lights, I like to try to take it down right after Three King's Day.

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  7. soooo my mum always put the tree up early december i think. but then, after school finished (or on the last day) we went down to melbourne to be with family for our christmas / summer holidays for like 3-4 weeks. my nana had a tiny tree in her house. when we came back to sydney, our tree was gone. i never put 2 and 2 together, my mum would take the tree down before christmas so it wasn't sitting there for her to do when she got back (with 3 kids and a car full of crap). so, long story (not very) short, i take my tree down immediately, like christmas day / boxing day immediately. but i like to think that is my reason lol.

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  8. This year was weird for us - I put the tree up Thanksgiving weekend like we always do but without ornaments. I think a part of me was hoping we'd get the condo on the market so I'd have to clean it up anyway. Then the weekend after new years I took it down with the for sale hope again so I usually keep it up longer but not this past holiday.

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  9. We took ours down a few days after the New Year, I was ready for it to come down.

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  10. We always take our tree down around my Birthday (2nd January). I don't mind it being up for my Birthday but my mum likes to try and separate Christmas and Birthday celebrations so takes the tree down, plus she likes to have it down before she goes back to work. It always goes up on the first Saturday of December.

    Hollie | hollieshighlights.blogspot.co.uk

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  11. I try to take it down on January 1st especially in this house because it takes up a lot of room. It is so pretty that I hate doing it. One year when I was living with roommates, I left the tree up until July. I did it out of spite in January because they didn't help me decorate or clean up so I took off the ornaments and said they could handle the tree. They never touched it so I started decorating it for each holiday after that: valentines on the tree, shamrocks and green lights, etc.

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