6 – Take Down the Christmas Tree Day

[vilakins]

If you celebrate Christmas, when do you put up your tree and when do you take it down?

We don't really do Christmas, but years ago I bought an artificial tree because I wanted to make some Dutch visitors who didn't have anywhere to go feel at home for that day. At the time I just hung some wooden apples on it, but the next year, because we already had the tree, bought some nice globes for it. A couple of them resembled planets so I put spaceships in there too. This is it back in 2005: same tree, mostly the same decorations - and even the same terracotta vase beside it, weirdly enough, despite it being a different house.

Anyway, to answer the question, I heard a while back that you get a month if you put it up on 6 December, St Nicolas's day, and take it down on 6 January after the 12 days of Christmas, so that's what I try to do. Does anyone celebrate for 12 days any more?

I'm always a bit sad to take it down, as I did today, because it marks almost the end of the Christmas/New Year holiday, and besides I like the seeing the pohutukawa LED lights flickering on it.

BTW our cats totally ignore it.

Comments

[vera_j]

I put up the tree mostly on 23rd December. This time it is still there because I wanted my grandchildren to see it and take the presents - they could not come earlier. But usually I take it down after four days. Nothing is wasted - I remove the decorations and use the gardening shears to cut off the branches, wrap everything in the cloth I put under it and bring it down to the cellar. The whole dry tree is fed to the fire in the boiler then...How symbolic...

[vilakins]

Such a short time! Is there a Czech tradition of 12 days of Christmas, or perhaps that's just English?

I never liked the idea of killing a tree, but burning it for fuel afterwards makes so much sense as it's not wasted then. Here people grow little trees in plantations for a year, then cut them down to sell, and afterwards people have to dispose of them (often badly). Sadly so many northern traditions just don't suit down here.

[vera_j]

It is customary that we decorate the tree just before the Christmas Eve and then keep it and other Christmas decorations until the Wise men day - which is 6th January. As for trees, firs are taken to ZOOs for animals to eat - elephants LOVE them. But most od the trees has to be collected by services and, which is shameful, some people just throw them elsewhere.

[vilakins]

So also pretty much the 24th to the 6th, like in England - interesting!

It's good there's a pickup service, and I love that elephants eat some of them. Here it's up to people to dispose of them, and of course too many just dump them in the country. And not just trees either - rubbish too because we have to pay for private rubbish collection in this part of the country. Humans are too often crap.

[vera_j]

About us humans - agree.