I finally took them down today--January 12!! Am I the only lazy person that waits this late? My cats apparently did not want Christmas to be over yet either. They kept pulling things out of the storage bin as I packed them.
You are not! I took mine down today, too. I normally get them down the first of the year, but I've been super busy alternating with super lazy and just kept putting it off. Finally decided they had to go today!
I took the tree down yesterday and packed everything away. At least I thought I did until I found two ornaments on top of my grafanola.
My husband decorated the outside, and he still has wreaths with bows on all the front windows, with spot lights in the yard. That is his territory, not mine.
I packed everything away last week. The outdoor decorations are down, but are in the garage and not packed away. I pulled everything in quick before a huge snowstorm. It was all wet at the time and I want it all to dry out before I pack it away. The deep freeze froze it all, so hopefully now that it is a little warmer it will dry out and I can pack everything away.
I always used to wait until at least after Little Christmas (Jan 6th) but now DD has an early January birthday so they have to come down before we have any kind of party for her. I've still got a few things to put away but most things are down and in the garage. The bins haven't been put back into the attic because I need to re-sort them since we got a few more this year.
The latest I've ever had my tree up was into March. My DH was deployed for our first Christmas after we were married. So it stayed up till he came home and we could celebrate together. But I've never rushed to take it down till now. I think before DD came along; mid to late January was when things came down. Last year I forgot a few things and they ended up staying up all year. Like some nick-knack type things in my china cabinet. And the lights around the living room. I need help with those and after a while I just didn't care anymore.
In 1996 when I moved to this building, I had a small tree about 3 feet tall. I decided to get a larger one, so I bought a 7.5 foot tree and gave my small one away.
Long story short, I spent days trying to put lights on that tree; always running out and running to the store for more and more lights. After almost a week of putting lights on and taking them down, I finally got so fed up that I put the tree into a corner and just decorated the front!
I was fed up with that tree that it stayed up until June the next year because I just didn't want anything to do with it! If it wasn't so big and heavy I would have just thrown it into the trash, lights, ornaments and all!
That was the last time I put up a tree. I tried putting one up last year, but the tree I bought while being prelit, was way too big, so after I assembled the tree, I took it down about 3 weeks later. It didn't even see a single ornament hung on it.
I bought a smaller prelit tree for December 2013. But ended up not putting it up. I took it down to the storage room still in the unopened shipping box it arrived in.
I think there are companies that you can hire to come in and put up a tree and decorate for you, and then come back and take it down. I suspect that the next time I put up a tree, it will be because I paid someone to come in and do it for me. LOL