Christmas Tree, Staying
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Homemaking on Thursday, January 20, 2011 9:03 PM
“Tree? All gone?”
Blaise was confused this morning, pointing to the spot in our living room where our Christmas tree was standing until we took it down yesterday evening. He misses it, although he’s mollified by my promises that we’ll have another next year.
January 19th is our personal record for the latest we’ve left the Christmas decorations up. Usually we take them down after the Feast of the Baptism on the Sunday after Epiphany (which, I found out a few years ago, is the official end of the liturgical season of Christmas) but this year we were still enjoying the tree, and so we let it stand. We only decided to take it down because it was starting to shed needles, and because we’re planning an organizational spree next weekend. Putting away decorations will give us a good start.
We got our tree on December 8th and took it down yesterday, so it was up for forty-two days, or six full weeks. I think that’s nearing the limit for a real evergreen with shedding potential, although an artificial tree would be more forgiving.
I know families who leave their decorations up until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd, which I hear may have been the end of the Christmas season in the old calendar? I’m not sure, but anyway, these families don’t usually put their trees up before Christmas Eve, so I guess theirs are up for about six weeks as well.
And then there are the people - I don’t know any personally, but I’ve heard of this - who like the evergreen as a year-round decorating statement. Hearts for Valentine’s Day, shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, stars and stripes for Independence Day. Whatever the occasion, they trim the tree for it. (Obviously this would only work with an artificial tree, unless you were tenacious enough to drag a new tree in from the forest every other month.) I don’t have room for it in my own house, but I find this idea kind of charming. The first Christmas trees, by legend, were St. Boniface’s adaptation of a pagan tradition - why shouldn’t we adapt traditions of our own?
It seems like most of the Catholic families I know leave their decorations up to celebrate, at minimum, the twelve days of Christmas. But what about you? Do you itch to get the clutter cleared as soon as possible? Does your tree twinkle on for weeks after Christmas has officially passed? Do you have a record for the longest you’ve left the tree up? I’d love to know - please share!
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