Is it 12 days yet? and other family Christmas customs

EEK yesterday was January the 6th! Our Christmas tree is still up and the decorations are still out so my aim for the day is to put them all away.

About an hour's work to dismantle. Another 2 hours to pack away!

I love family customs - both my own and hearing about other people's. It is fabulous when you find something that you thought was a common custom may just be something unique to your family,just as it can be quite reassuring when you find a quaint or even eccentric custom is shared by others.

Take Christmas trees. When I was a child the tree was fresh, I think we got our first plastic tree when I was in my late teens. Generally it was put up and the house decorated on Christmas Eve (maybe one or two days earlier) and was generally taken down before January 6th, often earlier if we were heading off on a holiday. I always assumed that the fact that the tree was up for just under a fortnight was because by that stage, particularly in our unairconditioned Australian Summer, that by the time the tree was taken down, it was pretty crispy and Mum was complaining about dropped needles. A little research though reveals that the 12 days of Christmas are actually the days after Christmas and January 6th is Epiphany (certainly for Catholics) - the last day.

Now it seems that decorations go up so much earlier, I am assuming that is inspired by the fact that shops get their Christmas kit on early. We begin to see Christmas lights twinkling in yards in mid-November. Trees are often put up on December 1st or earlier (and with a plastic tree there is no reason why not I guess) I've often heard people say how late they were in getting their trees up when it's still only the first week in December.

I don't let the kids put ours up until after December 5th. Why? That's my birthday and I selfishly don't want to share it with anyone. I often worry that we still have the decorations up on Duncan's birthday on the 30th... but unless he objects they stay until the 6th.

I also don't put on the tree lights after Boxing Day. No reason for that apart from the fact that after Boxing day there seems no reason to!

So off to dismantle the tree and ponder why, once it is all packed away, decorations boxed up and lights wound up, that we always find something we have completely overlooked that helps us keep celebrating Christmas right into autumn!

Last year's decoration escapees - the angels were up all year bestowing faith, hope and charity