When to take down external Christmas Lights?

De_man

Hi,

What are peoples thoughts on when to take down external Christmas lights?

normally I put them up on the 8th December and take down after 6th January

This year, to try and lift the mood I put external lights up on 1st December but have yet to decide about taking them down....are people considering leaving external Christmas lights on longer given the current environment we're all in?

Loughc

I can tell you for certain external Christmas lights sales were up 300% this year and this year they went up earlier to light up the lockdown.

I can honestly see this lasting a lot longer into January. God knows we’ll need a lift into the new year.

touts

Storm Bella took care of that for me. Some blew down and I just tidied them up and boxed them.

DvB

My external ones are coming down tomorrow weather permitting.

TRS30

At the minute plan is to keep ours lit till the 6th and take them down on 9th/10th.

Going to leave some internal ones up indefinitely to brighten up the house a bit.

sunbeam

I'm leaving most of my internal lights up to a date to be determined. Tree, garlands etc are coming down on the 7th. No outdoor lights.

De_man

Thanks Loughc etal for taking the time to reply,

I put a bit of extra work in them this year and it does brighten up the place

I'll follow TRS30 and keep the externals up until the 10th/11th and see how we go from there

mumo3

I was going to take mine down this weekend, but with the risk of snow think I'll leave them up a little longer... They'll be nice on if it starts snowing 🀗

TRS30

Ended up taking the tree down this afternoon. Has been up since the 5th and was starting to droop so bad that a couple of decorations feel off this morning!

All other decorations up and lit.

DvB

Taking down the external lights today and one set that we had noticed had stopped working couple of nights ago hadn't just had flat batteries but the wire had been cut/broken so they ended up in the bin. We've already made notes for what we need this year so we won't end up buying loads of new stuff we don't need. Internally we're well sorted, but we both agreed we need to up it externally this year.

Tell you what, packing it away in our attic store today showed how our decorations have grown to the point we really can't fit much more in.

Jude13

All my external lights came down yesterday, we also did all internal decorations. We are both back to work today so it would not be until the 9th that we had a window to take them down. The place looks so empty!

Paddygreen

I think it’s a great way to keep a note of the most flagrant climate sinners in the neighborhood. Information that will be useful when the time comes to denounce them.

Paddygreen

Paddygreen wrote: »

I think it’s a great way to keep a note of the most flagrant climate sinners in the neighborhood. Information that will be useful when the time comes to denounce them.

Adds a new meaning to, 'He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty...'

salmocab

Jude13 wrote: »

All my external lights came down yesterday, we also did all internal decorations. We are both back to work today so it would not be until the 9th that we had a window to take them down. The place looks so empty!

Took ours down on New Year’s Day, love the decorations up but love when they’re gone.
Definitely loads more outdoor lights around this year with lampposts especially getting done. My 5 year old had been asking for outside lights this year so we put a good bit in the front garden. Then put the battery ones in the back garden and on a lamppost out front, the built in timers make this worthwhile.

eviltwin

Took mine down yesterday, everything boxed and in the attic and the tree brought for recycling. As much as I love the lights I also love getting back to normal.

TRS30

DvB wrote: »

Tell you what, packing it away in our attic store today showed how our decorations have grown to the point we really can't fit much more in.

This is my concern. We just about fit everything in the specific space in the eves last year and more new stuff was brought this Christmas then thrown away.

Could be an ever harder game of Tetris than last year!!!

salmocab

TRS30 wrote: »

This is my concern. We just about fit everything in the specific space in the eves last year and more new stuff was brought this Christmas then thrown away.

Could be an ever harder game of Tetris than last year!!!

We had our attic converted in January so when the decorations came down last Christmas did a clear out of the bits at the bottom of boxes and bought big plastic containers which we sent to the mother laws house to keep out of the builders way. Put them up into the crawl space for the first time and they sit in neatly although there is a lot of new stuff this year. Good storage containers instead of random cardboard boxes is great.

Day Lewin

Traditionalists here, the decorations stay until the 6th, and the Kings are in the Crib. 7th is demolition day.


But outside lights? Last year we left them up all year, turning them on if there was anything to celebrate.

This year's lights though are very Christmassy-looking, outlining the shape of the porch, etc.

We'll leave them up, but just rearrange to brighten up the hedge and garden for happy evenings.

Loughc

Day Lewin wrote: »

Traditionalists here, the decorations stay until the 6th, and the Kings are in the Crib. 7th is demolition day.


But outside lights? Last year we left them up all year, turning them on if there was anything to celebrate.

This year's lights though are very Christmassy-looking, outlining the shape of the porch, etc.

We'll leave them up, but just rearrange to brighten up the hedge and garden for happy evenings.

All I want to do is to leave my shed lights up, even just through lockdown or until the batteries die... but my wife is a big Scrooge about keeping decorations up past the 6th, she hates it when I try to leave the smallest of things up.

TRS30

salmocab wrote: »

We had our attic converted in January so when the decorations came down last Christmas did a clear out of the bits at the bottom of boxes and bought big plastic containers which we sent to the mother laws house to keep out of the builders way. Put them up into the crawl space for the first time and they sit in neatly although there is a lot of new stuff this year. Good storage containers instead of random cardboard boxes is great.

Ours is converted as well (was a life safer last year as was a home office for most of the year!) so have limited space as well.

We have some of those containers and some boxes so going all containers this year. My job over the next couple of days is finding the right size ones and having them by next weekend so all decorations can come down and be put away by next Sunday.

DvB

TRS30 wrote: »

Ours is converted as well (was a life safer last year as was a home office for most of the year!) so have limited space as well.

We have some of those containers and some boxes so going all containers this year. My job over the next couple of days is finding the right size ones and having them by next weekend so all decorations can come down and be put away by next Sunday.

Ours is a converted attic also, so storage space is limited, hence ours being packed away as neatly in storage boxes as possible, the area reserved for the christmas decorations has grown though. We bought some big bits this year in the Range that had never been packed away with the other bits & when that was added over the weekend it took a full reorganisation of the attic storage areas on both sides to accommodate. Best of luck with it!!

CharlieHaghy

Leaving ours on till the first cut of silage.

salmocab

TRS30 wrote: »

We have some of those containers and some boxes so going all containers this year. My job over the next couple of days is finding the right size ones and having them by next weekend so all decorations can come down and be put away by next Sunday.

Easier said than done at the moment. Got mine in home store and more I think.

TRS30

DvB wrote: »

Best of luck with it!!

Thanks, have a feeling I'm going to need it!

salmocab wrote: »

Easier said than done at the moment. Got mine in home store and more I think.

That is one of the places on my list, is a Woodies and B&Q beside it so will try all three.

Autosport

You can also get storage containers in Tesco/Dunnes too

PaulT21

Autosport wrote: »

You can also get storage containers in Tesco/Dunnes too

And Aldi have loads at the minute for around a fiver. All shapes and sizes:D