You Know Christmas is Over When....

Loughc

Similar to when does Christmas start thread for you, when does the Christmas Season end for you?

For me once the decorations come down that's the end of the Christmas Season for me. I usually aim around the 6th of January, or whatever way it falls. I try my best to take them down on a Sunday usually playing Christmas Music as I dismantle everything festive and bright.

irlirishkev

We usually go Skiing after Christmas, the first week after New Year. So we take decorations etc down a couple of days before.

The trip away takes the edge off the post-chrimbo blues

Loughc

irlirishkev wrote: »

We usually go Skiing after Christmas, the first week after New Year. So we take decorations etc down a couple of days before.

The trip away takes the edge off the post-chrimbo blues

Oh wow, I'd love to go on a skiing trip, that certainly would take the edge off the Christmas Blues!

Posy

Nooo... I'm not thinking about it all being over when it's only September!


*covers eyes*

chuckles30

I don't even want to think about it :(:(

.......but probably when everyone else has taken down their decorations and I'm trying to think of excuses to leave them up a bit longer.....

Loughc

chuckles30 wrote: »

I don't even want to think about it :(:(

.......but probably when everyone else has taken down their decorations and I'm trying to think of excuses to leave them up a bit longer.....

What's the longest you've left them up for? I'm always paranoid if I leave them up everyone is judging me haha.

Day Lewin

The 6th of January is the Last Hurrah. Put Kings into crib, eat last festive dinner.

Take all down on the 7th - a painful day. Recycle the paper and update the Card List with all those received - changes of address etc. Chop cards up as Bookmarkers and next years gift tags.

I leave the Crib out for a while longer, and sometimes also a string of interior lights, just for the festive feel and because the house is so drab when they come down :-(

I usually invite some friends over very soon after, for beer and sandwiches and Monopoly, just to cheer up a long, cold, broke month that stretches ahead.
And the next celebration is only a couple of weeks later!

Loughc

Oh my god I love the idea of using cards as gift tags and bookmarks.

cml387

The New Year's Concert From Vienna.

As long as I can remember (and that's a while) the most boring day of the year starts off with this stuffed shirt borefest from Vienna. Now I like classical music and some works in fact can move me to tears but this is just the end of Christmas for me.

freshpopcorn

About the 6th of January. Nothing is taken down until the 7th tough.

xDisneyDivax

Loughc wrote: »

What's the longest you've left them up for? I'm always paranoid if I leave them up everyone is judging me haha.

We finally got our wedding DVD after new year (2 years later on!) so we ended up keeping everything up until like 20th January just because I wanted a bit of festive atmosphere when both families came to watch it!:P

Jude13

First off, bah humbug with the thread!

I know this sounds illogical given how much I love Christmas but it tapers off after midnight on Christmas eve for me, I know! I know!

It really dies when I board that plane back to the desert

Beechwoodspark

After the 6th of Jan for me.

screamer

26th of December for me. There's no Christmastime anymore, just Christmas Day, sadly.

crossmolinalad

When they start talking about saint Patricks day asking them Ohh is Christmas over???

Day Lewin

We allow a kind of tapering-down - because the next festival in our house is exactly one calendar month after Christmas Day - it is Burns Night, the 25th of January.
Celebrating the life and achievements of Scotland's national poet, Robbie Burns, whose birthday it is.
Things like tartan ribbon, pictures of deer in snow, and a string of lights etc all fit in with Burns Nicht (Scottish theme) so they are kept on the books. Plus glowing candles and a homely fire.
Likewise, some leftover Christmas food - shortbread, oatcakes, whiskey, frozen raspberries, Baileys - can all be used.

I love Burns Night, too - it is the only light in the tunnel that is January-after-Christmas-is-over.

DvB

As much as I love Christmas for me 2nd January is the end of it being genuinely the christmas season for me, I know people like to drag the last drop out of it but I find that hard once I'm back to work, at least before the break we have the build up, once its over though i prefer to get back to normality ASAP & bottle the excitement for another 10 months or so when the build up starts all over again.

Posy

I'm the same. I go back to work the end of December and then get another couple of days off for the new year. So by the 2nd or 3rd of January, I'm back at work after Christmas for the second time and the joy is well and truly diminished!
Decorations etc stay up until the 6th though and I have a 'Little Christmas' dinner on that day too, to officially wrap things up.

5rtytry56

When RTE Radio 1 replaces it's Christmas Carols/Songs/Lyrics with side B songs.

StripedBoxers

For me it is when the decorations come down. Last year we left them up until February this year.

Leaving them up until mid Jan this year, if I have my way that is :P

DvB

Bumping this thread.

I could rewrite my post from last year word for word.

But one thing I noticed this year was how quickly some things stopped being 'Christmas' from midnight on Christmas day... biggest one being no more Christmas tunes on radio or any of the music channels etc.
Maybe its tinsel tinted glasses but I don't remember growing up all the music stopping from Christmas day, surely it went on longer? A small gripe perhaps but it seemed to grate this year for some reason.

Loughc

DvB wrote: »

Bumping this thread.

I could rewrite my post from last year word for word.

But one thing I noticed this year was how quickly some things stopped being 'Christmas' from midnight on Christmas day... biggest one being no more Christmas tunes on radio or any of the music channels etc.
Maybe its tinsel tinted glasses but I don't remember growing up all the music stopping from Christmas day, surely it went on longer? A small gripe perhaps but it seemed to grate this year for some reason.

Not just you my friend when I was younger you’d hear Christmas songs on the radio even into the first week of January.

Yeah to me it seems the goal posts have moved. Christmas Season used to be Dec 7th to Jan 6th. Now it feels like it’s Nov 24th to Dec 26th.

For me I’ll always keep to the Jan 6th tradition as I think it’s important to keep traditions going. Luckily the estate I live in is a older estate and older families so most of them still have all their lights up.

mojesius

...when the last of the biscuits in the USA tin start to go stale.

DvB

Loughc wrote: »

Luckily the estate I live in is a older estate and older families so most of them still have all their lights up.

Funnily enough I noticed last night walking home that our estate & the adjoining one had little evidence of christmas left at all. One or two houses still proudly had their lights on & tree in the window but the rest (like ourselves I must admit) seemed to have taken everything down earlier this week. I had been out running the evening of new years day along the same route & they were pretty much all lit up!!

It seems more & more people are not sticking to the old 6th Jan tradition. I agree its sad to see old traditions die off but I can understand the need to move on given, as you say, the season seems to have shifted forward & starts earlier than it did when I were a nipper:D

Flange/Flanders

DvB wrote: »

Funnily enough I noticed last night walking home that our estate & the adjoining one had little evidence of christmas left at all. One or two houses still proudly had their lights on & tree in the window but the rest (like ourselves I must admit) seemed to have taken everything down earlier this week. I had been out running the evening of new years day along the same route & they were pretty much all lit up!!
3
It seems more & more people are not sticking to the old 6th Jan tradition. I agree its sad to see old traditions die off but I can understand the need to move on given, as you say, the season seems to have shifted forward & starts earlier than it did when I were a nipper:D

I have to say I like to get back to normal fairly quick after the 2nd, sadly sometimes I'm even a bit depressed once the 27th comes around, especially this year when I was back to work. I've noticed that for a few years now about the songs and ad's, you can see the retail companies concentrating on the sales from Christmas eve!! songs are definitely pulled back from national radio from Stephens day on. I also thought that the variety of Christmas songs played this year was very poor, all Mariah or the pogues but not much of anything else. didn't hear the power of love once!! had to resort to YouTube for all my favourites this year. but that's for another thread.

dudara

DvB wrote: »

Bumping this thread.

I could rewrite my post from last year word for word.

But one thing I noticed this year was how quickly some things stopped being 'Christmas' from midnight on Christmas day... biggest one being no more Christmas tunes on radio or any of the music channels etc.
Maybe its tinsel tinted glasses but I don't remember growing up all the music stopping from Christmas day, surely it went on longer? A small gripe perhaps but it seemed to grate this year for some reason.

It’s really disappointing how quickly some venues etc get rid of Christmas. It would be nice to see festive stuff remain in place at least until the NY.

This year I heard very few Christmas songs on the radio in the run up period (probably because I was working, travelling etc). I think I only heard “Fairytale of NY” and “Driving home for Christmas” once each.

I’m someone who deliberately doesn’t get into Christmas until approx mid-Dec. I don’t like how the build up starts so early and then it blows over by the 25th. The 25th is the first day of Christmas FFs. On the 23rd & 24th I was playing my Spotify list so I got some good Christmas cheeer then, but after the 25th there was nothing on the radios etc to enjoy.

DJIMI TRARORE

When the bloating goes down and my bowels work without any "assistance",circa the 1st Saturday in January :):):)

lukesmom

When the warm glow has all but disappeared from the faces of many a folk who walk the streets in strides of despair, not knowing which way to go.


Seriously though when the decorations look Sh!t. I honestly feel like there's this unwritten sell by date and you just know when it's time. Growing up mam kept our tree in the 'good sitting room' and a few times we left it up until March. Just because of pure laziness

honeybear

I saw Easter Eggs in Tesco yesterday!

lukesmom

Yes and I saw stacks of creme eggs very obviously piled up as you walk into our local topaz

BuilderPlumber

Christmas this year ends 7th January and should be enjoyed up until then. It should ALWAYS be about more than 3 days or a day and should be all about 4 weeks of trying to do something different. It should last until 7th January and then have some nice things to do to follow it up.

One should respect the old tradition of Christmas and have some nice things to do after Christmas. Some nice wine or sherry on a cold winter's night watching a good film or TV series. Watch something you associate with Christmas after Christmas. I feel Indiana Jones, particular Bond films, Love/Hate, Batman Returns (set at Christmas), the original Star Wars films, etc. all are associated with Christmas for me because I either saw them first at Christmas, they were on leading up to Christmas, got them as a present at Christmas, etc.

On the other hand, there are things that are a real downer being pushed right after Christmas and one has to ignore them. All the diets and fitness industry, that dreadful Operation Transformation, the return of the Late Late Show, the sales and (this year) Trump and Steve Bannon bickering are things that ruin the Christmas spirit. I want to enjoy the rest of Christmas and January so will be avoiding ALL this stuff.

byhookorbycrook

6th of Jan, Nollaig na mBan.

Caranica

I'm a big Nollaig na mBan fan and am looking forward to a nice lunch with the girls and honorary girls for the day on Saturday. Saturday night my plan is light all the candles, watch a Christmassy film with a glass of wine and toast all the wonderful women in my life. At midnight I'll plug out all the lights, blow out the candles and remove a token decoration from the tree before I head to bed. Everything else comes down Sunday.

It breaks my heart to see people taking decorations down early. On the music front I heard Driving home for Christmas on the radio on new years Eve. Made me wish I was, had a lovely restful Christmas with the family.

freshpopcorn

I found that sometime in the mid 2000's people started taking their decorations down early but during the recession people started leaving them up again. It was sort of a mixture of people trying to brighten the place up a little and the fact that little Christmas has taken off again!

BuilderPlumber

Day Lewin wrote: »

We allow a kind of tapering-down - because the next festival in our house is exactly one calendar month after Christmas Day - it is Burns Night, the 25th of January.
Celebrating the life and achievements of Scotland's national poet, Robbie Burns, whose birthday it is.
Things like tartan ribbon, pictures of deer in snow, and a string of lights etc all fit in with Burns Nicht (Scottish theme) so they are kept on the books. Plus glowing candles and a homely fire.
Likewise, some leftover Christmas food - shortbread, oatcakes, whiskey, frozen raspberries, Baileys - can all be used.

I love Burns Night, too - it is the only light in the tunnel that is January-after-Christmas-is-over.

A great idea. I think Ireland needs something like Burns night in post-Christmas January (i.e. sometime between the 7th and 31st). I think we need to retake this period back from diet/fitness peddlars (they can have the summer, where they belong!!) and all that depressing culture and to have a bank holiday celebrating the end of winter. I propose a bank holiday for last Monday in January and for St Valentines day another bank holiday. The latter should be similar in spirit to Christmas, of a time of love and kindness and not having to endure that dreadful Tubridy Late Late junk all about lust and not about love and kindness. 2 extra bank holidays would make the winter a much nicer time.

BuilderPlumber

I think more needs to be done across the year and nicer things happening to keep all times interesting. There are vast period of times when nothing is happening. Here's a review:

January, February, early March: during this period, there is nothing between the end of Christmas and St Patrick's Day. The fitness and diet industry and cynical sales in shops have become the 'culture'. That needs to change. 2 bank holidays needed: end of January and 14th February. Both should be themed similar to Christmas. St Patrick's Day and March 18th should be 2 bank holidays.
March-April/Easter: I think more should be done for Easter. It is a non-event and it is a shame. In Russia and other places, it is massive.
May-August: For me, the summer can go on for an eternity with not much going on. There are bank holidays but no traditions and a lot of things end for that period. Thank god there is a world cup on this summer.
September: Back to school is all one hears. The month needs some kind of harvest celebration to jazz it up especially since it is an extension of our boring uninspired summer.
October: Halloween needs to be done nicer, again bring back some of the nice older traditions.
November: Yes, it is a nice leadup to Christmas.
December: Christmas should be something that lasts beyond this and into early to mid January.

SarahLil

Caranica great post Saturday sounds fabulous, enjoy
Although my tree is down I do usually leave it up till the 6th I had my tree up early this year, my mothers tree is still up I’ll be taking it down the weekend I might get us something nice for Saturday afternoon and stick on a Christmas movie finish the season off
Thanks for the idea 👍

Posy

I think BuilderPlumber should be the next president. Sounds like a mighty fun year!

Plus, think how he would doubly solve both the housing crisis, and the flooding issues.

Postgrad10

Boo , who's idea was this? Christmas is never over !! It's always Christmas in our hearts.