So here’s my diatribe. The 12 days of Christmas are meant to signify the time it took for the wise men to get to the stable, so they start on Christmas Day and go through January 5th(epiphany). I don’t take down Christmas decorations until then.
This year, we never got around to setting one up. But in years past, since my roommate and I both inherited one from someone or other, we’ve been known to get a little silly
We have tree-attacking pets, so it goes up last minute, and comes down quick. On the other hand, we leave all pet-safe indoor decorations up until Groundhog Day is over, and outside decorations technically stay all year, though we stop turning them on after Groundhog Day.
Last year i was really sad (my mother had died a year ago at Christmas) so i didn’t get a tree. On the 21st my husband went out and bought us a live tree (in a big pot - about 3 1/2 feet tall). After Christmas it moved to our back porch. It survived all year despite my benign neglect.
Christmas eve this year he brought it back in and it currently has lights and some starry garland and 2 ornaments (because i couldn’t motivate myself to find the ornaments int he basement).
It’ll be up and in the house until Epiphany i guess - January 6thish. Next year… next year it’ll be better. Every year it gets better, or so they say.
@inanna
I am so sorry you lost your mom on Christmas, I know that makes it hard.
It does get better, hard to believe now.
My fifth without mine and Christmas was OUR time. Many of us understand because we have gone through it and everyone else will understand too.
Mom’s are the rock.
If that tree could survive unkept, it is meant to be.
This is just a thought…hope I am not being nervy, just want to help. Sometimes I need help and find none.
After Epiphany, you might want to plant it as a memorial to her. Make it that Special tree. Have a sweet ceremony for her.
You could decorate it, yearly with things that meant a lot to the two of you. And watch it grow.
My mom lived with me and that last Christmas, she was so happy with the house and I do it for me but for her too. She is with me as are, my dad and brothers. Christmas was always good at home.
So thinking about you and hoping for some peace for you.
Many moons ago, when we lived in England, we went out and bought a really fresh tree (as in pick which tree gets cut down). I drilled 1/4" holes in the bottom and threaded wet paper towels into the holes as “roots”, then made my own tree preserving solution of everything from sugar, aspirin, miracle-gro, detergent, and probably a couple of other ingredients. We kept it near a sun-exposed sliding glass door in our living room and kept it watered (I think over a gallon per day). Christmas and Epiphany came and went. The kids named the tree. At the end of January, we finally took all the ornaments away, but the tree was still perfect. We kept watering the tree, which had become a fixture in the living room, and was being decorated for Valentines Day, etc. Then it started to put on new growth. The neighbors and co-workers started to come over to see our tree. Spring rolled around, and I noticed that the tree was about 6" taller and was sprouting pine flowers. I also noticed I was really allergic to pine flowers. In late April, we were slotted to go to Europe for a few weeks, and between my increasing allergies and the knowledge that the tree would die without its daily gallon of water, we decided to send it to recycling. We were so bummed out.
@Pantheist@canuk@moondrake Yeah, it never grew roots. We seriously considered getting a tree-sitter while we were gone, but the allergy situation was getting out of hand.
Besides, I can’t even spell denouement, much less write a good one.
One year I put my tree outside on an uncovered patio that was fairly shaded. Didn’t water it besides the rain water and natural moisture it pulled from the air.
After several months we got rid of it afraid that the landlord would complain. It would of probably survived until the next Christmas. Should of kept it.
I still have mine from last year… I’m too afraid to take it off the balcony and walk it through the apartment to the garage because I’m certain things live in it, at this point.
We usually take ours down at MLK day - because it’s a holiday that’s “celebrated” around here. (Aka, everything’s closed, nothing to do, and it’s the dead of winter, so might as well take down the tree.)
I have a door I hide my tree behind. It stays up 24/7/365, but I close the door after my mid January Christmas shindig with the friends and open it up around Thanksgiving every year.
@RiotDemon I built a little hutch around it. the frame goes in the corner of the living room and the door is the multi-segment door style used in closets that just wraps around the rest of the way. I just open that door when it is time.
The top of the tree peeks over the hutch all year but noone notices unless it is pointed out.
i usually leave ours up until the superbowl, and then i put a tree bag over it and shove it out the kitchen window.
we just got our tree so it’s still fresh. the one we got this year is looking a little less bushy than the others we’ve had from the same place so if it does start to dry out before then i’ll have to let it go. but if it’s not shedding needles and becoming a fire hazard, i like to keep it around. once christmas is over the winter in boston is long and bleak and boring. i always like when people leave their lights up and whatnot as it makes it a bit less depressing, imo.
@jerk_nugget I have a lot of winter decorations and lights in my house at Christmas, I leave up to brighten the gray days. Helps me too! I have all my lights on now. Old gray cold day.
@Calabama yup! it’s going to be in the low teens for a week here and today is sunny but yesterday and i’m sure the rest of the week the lights will be on starting in the afternoon. we have warm white string lights around the perimeter of our living room that stay up year round. they’re just as nice on a summer night as they are in winter, but they really help in the colder months
@djslack In my classroom I would leave the tree up all winter, kids made decorations for winter, Valentine’s Day, kept the room bright. People would come in and exclaim, you still have a Christmas tree up, I would say no! This is a winter tree!
/image redwood tree
We’ll pretend this is my tree since I didn’t have one this year. it will be up for the next 1000 years or so (well unless Yellowstone blows up or something).
So here’s my diatribe. The 12 days of Christmas are meant to signify the time it took for the wise men to get to the stable, so they start on Christmas Day and go through January 5th(epiphany). I don’t take down Christmas decorations until then.
@mtb002 seconded. My tree doesn’t go anywhere until, at least, January sixth.
Yeah, that’s uh, exactly why I don’t take mine down until March.
@mtb002 @aetris Ditto to both. Our Christmas tree becomes a winterscape decoration and usually makes us take it down at the beginning of spring.
@mtb002 that’s how my family always did it, too.
@mtb002 This! Three Kings Day marks the end.
It is still alive
Still growing out from the ground
Needs no work from me
I find it disturbing that so many people are using artificial trees. Do they know how many trees are cut down every year to make them?
@hchavers
[I’ll play along:]
No, I don’t know – how many?
@hchavers
But first:
Do living trees grow on trees?
Nope.
This year, we never got around to setting one up. But in years past, since my roommate and I both inherited one from someone or other, we’ve been known to get a little silly
I love Christmas trees and have a hard time parting with them, so after the first or twenty-first. So when the needles fall off!
We have tree-attacking pets, so it goes up last minute, and comes down quick. On the other hand, we leave all pet-safe indoor decorations up until Groundhog Day is over, and outside decorations technically stay all year, though we stop turning them on after Groundhog Day.
Last year i was really sad (my mother had died a year ago at Christmas) so i didn’t get a tree. On the 21st my husband went out and bought us a live tree (in a big pot - about 3 1/2 feet tall). After Christmas it moved to our back porch. It survived all year despite my benign neglect.
Christmas eve this year he brought it back in and it currently has lights and some starry garland and 2 ornaments (because i couldn’t motivate myself to find the ornaments int he basement).
It’ll be up and in the house until Epiphany i guess - January 6thish. Next year… next year it’ll be better. Every year it gets better, or so they say.
@inanna
I am so sorry you lost your mom on Christmas, I know that makes it hard.
It does get better, hard to believe now.
My fifth without mine and Christmas was OUR time. Many of us understand because we have gone through it and everyone else will understand too.
Mom’s are the rock.
If that tree could survive unkept, it is meant to be.
This is just a thought…hope I am not being nervy, just want to help. Sometimes I need help and find none.
After Epiphany, you might want to plant it as a memorial to her. Make it that Special tree. Have a sweet ceremony for her.
You could decorate it, yearly with things that meant a lot to the two of you. And watch it grow.
My mom lived with me and that last Christmas, she was so happy with the house and I do it for me but for her too. She is with me as are, my dad and brothers. Christmas was always good at home.
So thinking about you and hoping for some peace for you.
Many moons ago, when we lived in England, we went out and bought a really fresh tree (as in pick which tree gets cut down). I drilled 1/4" holes in the bottom and threaded wet paper towels into the holes as “roots”, then made my own tree preserving solution of everything from sugar, aspirin, miracle-gro, detergent, and probably a couple of other ingredients. We kept it near a sun-exposed sliding glass door in our living room and kept it watered (I think over a gallon per day). Christmas and Epiphany came and went. The kids named the tree. At the end of January, we finally took all the ornaments away, but the tree was still perfect. We kept watering the tree, which had become a fixture in the living room, and was being decorated for Valentines Day, etc. Then it started to put on new growth. The neighbors and co-workers started to come over to see our tree. Spring rolled around, and I noticed that the tree was about 6" taller and was sprouting pine flowers. I also noticed I was really allergic to pine flowers. In late April, we were slotted to go to Europe for a few weeks, and between my increasing allergies and the knowledge that the tree would die without its daily gallon of water, we decided to send it to recycling. We were so bummed out.
@mehcuda67 wow. That story took an abrupt turn at the end there.
@canuk yeah, I expected it to end up being successfully replanted.
@mehcuda67 It didn’t grow new roots? That almost sounds like a cloning solution.
@Pantheist @canuk @moondrake Yeah, it never grew roots. We seriously considered getting a tree-sitter while we were gone, but the allergy situation was getting out of hand.
Besides, I can’t even spell denouement, much less write a good one.
One year I put my tree outside on an uncovered patio that was fairly shaded. Didn’t water it besides the rain water and natural moisture it pulled from the air.
After several months we got rid of it afraid that the landlord would complain. It would of probably survived until the next Christmas. Should of kept it.
I take our two trees to a chipper after Epiphany.
I still have mine from last year… I’m too afraid to take it off the balcony and walk it through the apartment to the garage because I’m certain things live in it, at this point.
We usually take ours down at MLK day - because it’s a holiday that’s “celebrated” around here. (Aka, everything’s closed, nothing to do, and it’s the dead of winter, so might as well take down the tree.)
I have a door I hide my tree behind. It stays up 24/7/365, but I close the door after my mid January Christmas shindig with the friends and open it up around Thanksgiving every year.
Works out well overall.
@infornography is it a closet or…?
@RiotDemon I built a little hutch around it. the frame goes in the corner of the living room and the door is the multi-segment door style used in closets that just wraps around the rest of the way. I just open that door when it is time.
The top of the tree peeks over the hutch all year but noone notices unless it is pointed out.
@infornography would you add a couple of photos of this amazing tree solution, I want to see this
i usually leave ours up until the superbowl, and then i put a tree bag over it and shove it out the kitchen window.
we just got our tree so it’s still fresh. the one we got this year is looking a little less bushy than the others we’ve had from the same place so if it does start to dry out before then i’ll have to let it go. but if it’s not shedding needles and becoming a fire hazard, i like to keep it around. once christmas is over the winter in boston is long and bleak and boring. i always like when people leave their lights up and whatnot as it makes it a bit less depressing, imo.
@jerk_nugget I have a lot of winter decorations and lights in my house at Christmas, I leave up to brighten the gray days. Helps me too! I have all my lights on now. Old gray cold day.
@Calabama yup! it’s going to be in the low teens for a week here and today is sunny but yesterday and i’m sure the rest of the week the lights will be on starting in the afternoon. we have warm white string lights around the perimeter of our living room that stay up year round. they’re just as nice on a summer night as they are in winter, but they really help in the colder months
Around here some people just redecorate them as Mardi Gras trees.
@djslack In my classroom I would leave the tree up all winter, kids made decorations for winter, Valentine’s Day, kept the room bright. People would come in and exclaim, you still have a Christmas tree up, I would say no! This is a winter tree!
/image redwood tree
We’ll pretend this is my tree since I didn’t have one this year. it will be up for the next 1000 years or so (well unless Yellowstone blows up or something).