Taking decorations down is very sad and it takes me forever to do it too. Some do end staying up all year like these on the mantle that have had a two year run now. This year I didn't put up a live tree. I just have this fiber optic tree and a fiber optic wreath. Last year I did have a live tree so when I took it town I put it outside. It didn't have roots, but I just stuck it down in the ground anyway so it looked a real tree growing outside. It was out in the flower bed where nothing was growing anyway. It stayed pretty and green all the way to Spring so it got to live out its greenness and pretend it was a still a live tree. I do have three trees outside that were originally Christmas trees with roots from many years ago - a norway spruce, a blue spruce, and a frasier fir - they are big trees now.