You Know Christmas is Over When....

Loughc · 21-09-2017 11:25am #1

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 · 21-09-2017 11:51am

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 · 21-09-2017 11:53am

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 · 21-09-2017 1:57pm

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

*covers eyes*

chuckles30 · 22-09-2017 12:06pm

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 · 22-09-2017 12:11pm

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 · 22-09-2017 6:08pm

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 · 22-09-2017 7:20pm

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

cml387 · 22-09-2017 7:25pm

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 · 22-09-2017 9:51pm

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

xDisneyDivax · 23-09-2017 12:31am

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 · 25-09-2017 8:42am

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 · 25-09-2017 8:44am

After the 6th of Jan for me.

screamer · 25-09-2017 1:26pm

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

crossmolinalad · 25-09-2017 1:34pm

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

Day Lewin · 25-09-2017 1:51pm

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 · 29-09-2017 4:39pm

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 · 29-09-2017 7:02pm

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 · 29-09-2017 7:08pm

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

StripedBoxers · 01-10-2017 1:46am

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 · 04-01-2018 10:41am

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 · 04-01-2018 11:25am

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 · 04-01-2018 11:27am

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

DvB · 04-01-2018 11:44am

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 · 04-01-2018 7:01pm

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 · 04-01-2018 7:06pm

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 · 04-01-2018 7:07pm

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

:):):)

lukesmom · 04-01-2018 7:34pm

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 · 04-01-2018 7:37pm

I saw Easter Eggs in Tesco yesterday!

lukesmom · 04-01-2018 7:38pm

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

BuilderPlumber · 04-01-2018 10:09pm

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.

You Know Christmas is Over When....

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"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year" - Charles Dickens

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year" - Charles Dickens

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year" - Charles Dickens