When is it too late to still have Holiday decorations up?

[CellarDweller]

and for those who are wondering, the turkey forms look  like this.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I decorate for holidays when it's darker  earlier.   I will put out lights (orange, green & purple) for Halloween, with a light up jack-o-lantern and bat.   For Thanksgiving, a set of orange lights goes up, with light up turkey forms.   Christmas gets multi-color 'twinkle' lights and a tree and wreath.  February gets a string of red lights, and heart forms in the windows.   St. Patrick's Day gets a strand of green  lights and shamrock forms.   Finally, Easter gets pink lights, and a set of egg forms.

At that point, it doesn't get dark until late at night, and I'm in bed by 10:00, so there's no point to put up lights, to only have to turn them off an hour or so  later, so no red, white and blue lights for Independence Day.

I still can't get over how big Halloween has gotten for decorating. I remember when it was cardboard cut-outs and a jack-o-lantern. We never decorated for Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day or Easter, except for spring flowers set around the house and taken to my grandparents. As a kid of course I got an Easter basket, but Easter was always primarily a religious thing, not a reason for decorating.

[CellarDweller]

Mom was a big decorator in our house, when it came to the holidays.   She still is. 

We always big red hearts and cupids on the windows and doors for Valentine's Day,  big green shamrocks on the windows and doors for St. Patrick's Day,  eggs and bunnies for Easter,  turkeys, pilgrims and cornucopias for Thanksgiving.


Here is what I remember for October and Halloween.

[CellarDweller]

We also had what I called "popcorn" decorations.

different colored pieces of plastic put together into holiday images.


Here is Halloween.








Thanksgiving





And Christmas.  (and no, I don't know why there is a jack-o-lantern in that pic)







Oh, they had Valentine's Day too.

[CellarDweller]

As of Thursday (January 4th) my apartment has been "de-Christmased". 

Tree is down, ornaments packed away, flag and lights are boxed up.

The windows will unadorned until the last week of January,  when I put up the Valentine's Day flag and lights.

[Jeff Wrangler]

My mother always made Christmas go away on New Year's Day. I did her one better this year; I made Christmas go away today.

Or almost all of it anyway. ...

When I was a very small boy, my grandmother had one of those 1950's aluminum trees, the one with which you used a "color wheel" because you couldn't put lights on them. That tree horrified me. I mean, a Christmas tree without lights? WTF?  (Well, I wouldn't have said that in 1963.  ) I suspect I would have a greater appreciation for that tree now, but, anyway, a few years ago I discovered that the Vermont Country Store catalog had "tinsel trees" that actually had lights on them. I bought the 24-inch version. I've been using that tree ever since. It's the perfect size for my condo. This year I have a gold star on the top (too big for the tree, actually, but I don't care) and smallish red balls on the branches (I'm partial to red and gold Christmas ornaments, especially on a green tree).

I'm finding this tree so cheerful that I'm going to leave it up at least until Epiphany (this coming Sunday), and I might leave it up even longer. We have a very long Epiphanytide this year. Ash Wednesday isn't until March 6, and I'm guessing Easter is as late as it can possibly be, April 21. I won't leave the tree up that long, but maybe I will until the days are noticeably longer, until it's still light when I get home from work; that's roughly February 10.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya Jeff!

I was like you this year.  I had no plans for NYE, so I went home, made myself some dinner, and after relaxing a bit, I took down and packed away all of my Christmas stuff.   By 1:00am it was all boxed up and put into the closet for another year.



I took it a step further today, I went through cabinets and my utility closet and found stuff I wasn't using and decided the stuff was no longer needed, so I ditched it, so I have slightly less clutter for 2019.

[Jeff Wrangler]

With some regrets I took down my little Christmas tree today and stowed it away in my storage cubicle in the basement until next Christmas season.

I had a slightly larger tree stored in the basement. I was sure I was never going to use it again, but I hated to put it out for the trash because it was in very good condition. Fortunately, our Front Desk attendant said he could use it, so I found the tree a new home. I feel glad about that.

[CellarDweller]

Well, that's good, finding the tree a new home.

When I was driving to my parents' place to do my laundry, I saw a few people out on their lawns, taking down the holiday stuff.

[brianr]

I took mine down yesterday (Sunday 6th - Epiphany). Putting the 4 ornaments away in the cupboard took less than 5 minutes, removing the Christmas plastic table cloth as well as the wreath from the dining table and folding it took a bit longer.  I ate my Christmas lunch there, it had not been used for a meal since I had a visitor staying in November 2017. My sister will be visiting in March so guess we will use it again then. I have used it for morning tea with guests.
Putting the cards away took longer as I had to reread the letters people had included. I wrote an email to one and have some others sitting beside the computer waiting for me to have the necessary inspiration.