The long-suffering members of my immediate family know that I have a bit of a pet peeve about people leaving their Christmas decorations up long after the holiday is over. I am a reasonable person, so I am not aggravated when I see wreaths and four foot tall plastic candy canes festooning homes after New Year’s. People are busy; I get that.
But about mid-February, it really starts to irritate me. And it seems like every year people are leaving their light up plastic nativity sets up longer and longer. In the past week I’ve seen more than a dozen of those giant blow-up decorations in people’s yards. You know the one’s I mean- the giant polar bear holding an enormous snow globe with a working carousel inside it? There is even a house on our street with a Christmas tree in the picture window, and, friends, they are still turning the lights on every night.
Listen, I love Christmas. Love it to bits! But seeing the dregs of Christmas in March- MARCH!- is getting me down. Can we all agree that March 8 is the official end of the Christmas season and spend a little time de-decking our halls this weekend? Pretty please?
I have done my part by having Patrick take the giant wreath down from his parents house across the street today.
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Well, don’t come over. Our beautiful decidedly un-Christmasy tree is still up making a wonderful nightlight/mood lighting in the living room. I’m sort of considering decorating it for all the different holidays, but that seems like too much effort.
I agree with you 100% – it’s absolutely depressing to see any type of “leftover” decorations. I never can understand though how the type of person that would take the time to decorate in the first place would be the same kind of person to just leave the decorations up to rot??!
Social irresponsibility is one of my major pet peeves – this qualifies.
Funny you blogged on this subject today. When I went for a walk today, the first one this year, I passed a tree decorated with BIG Christmas balls. I loved it!!!! It was so bright and colorful. March is my least favorite month of the year. I loved seeing this tree and am glad the Christmas decorations weren’t taken down.
Thank you! It is hard to get in the “Spring-y” mood with decorations that remind us of winter. Think Mud Season! Which after this winter I won’t even mind the mud – give me another few weeks of loosing my boot in muck and see how I feel
My family starts putting up decorations the first Sunday of December, because of an annual Winter performance that sort of kicks everything off. So, we figure might as well decorate at home a little. All of them aren’t up until Christmas and we get the tree Christmas Eve. The tree is outside after 12th Night and the rest are down by the closest weekend. THAT’S IT. We love Christmas, do Christmas and then it’s over. You can really enjoy something when it’s a special thing for just a small part of the year, instead of the normal house clutter.
Heh, guess I should mention that our tree is artificial. We had some actual evergreen branches for the lovely scent, and they got pitched by about Jan 8th…
We leave our decorations up till 12th day/Advent on Jan 6th. Though I agree them being up much past that tends to get ridiculous. There’s someone down my street that still has an inflatable Santa in their yard (not inflating any more at least, but still!)
I do agree with you but admit that one year while hubby was away on a 6 month deployment daughter and i did not have the heart to take down our fake tree. All decorations were off of it but as it was pre lit we used it as a night light when at home…the white lights made us happy. We did take it down by the end of march and none of the neighbors could see it from outside! smile
I’ve been saying the same thing for years !! Is it so hard to take a wreath off YOUR DOOR… ya just open it, take the wreath off and you’re done. I understand decorations being frozen in ice and snow for maybe months… or lights left on eaves until things thaw. But man, when it’s over it’s over.
And I DO love Christmas to bits.. just not 3 months later
PS… I do understand extenuating circumstances though.. I didn’t mean to sound “grinchy”