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...).
