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Wednesday, December 29, 2010
When do you take down your Christmas tree?
Some families keep their Christmas tree up for days, even weeks, after December 25. Other families, like ours, tear down the tree after all presents have been opened.
Carrying the Christmas tree to the garbage truck pick-up spot.
The day after Christmas my Mother grabbed our little Christmas tree and dropped it out the window from the third-story of the London flat where we're spending the holidays.
My kids ran out to the cobblestone street and carried the dried-out tree to the end of our alley. Minutes later the garbage truck rolled by and picked it up.
Next, the snowflakes the kids taped to the windows were removed, and the wreath from the door was shoved into a garbage bag. The red and green paper chain strung about a lamp in the living room was crumpled up and tossed in the trash.
My Mom tore through the house with little compassion for the kids' hand-made decorations, crumpling and scrunching, tossing and trashing. Within 30 minutes Christmas was gone.
Both of my kids shed some tears. They had waited months for our holiday family reunion in London and to them the time up until Christmas Day had inched by painfully slow. And then all of a sudden the holiday cheer was gone.
My Mother has always been the type to throw out the tree the day after, even the night of, Christmas. I have memories of her staying up late Christmas night and rapidly plucking ornaments from the tree. The next morning she'd order my father to carry the shrub outside.
As a child, this was unsettling. I remember desperately wanting my Mother to sit down in a chair and relax. We were supposed to talk about our presents from Santa, and sip hot cocoa. I wanted to relish in the moment of Christmas and make it last as long as possible.
But sadly, my childhood ideals haven't stuck with me and now I'm like my Mom. When we have a tree, I always take it down the night of December 25. After the presents are opened, a Christmas tree quickly becomes a burden, something that has to be dealt with, and I like to get the tedious job of putting away ornaments over with as soon as possible.
My friend Scott Adler who writes a blog for BabyCenter's Momformation made me realize that not all adults are desperate to tear down Christmas.
He writes in a recent blog post: "I tend to be a lingerer -- mostly under the misguided ideal that having decorations up for a bit will somehow make the day last longer than 24 hours. Heck, I don't mind listening to 'White Christmas' a full week after the last Salvation Army bell-ringer is off the streets."
And now that I think about it I recall some family friends who kept their trees up for years. As a kid, I thought this was the coolest thing ever but I remember my parents thinking it was an example of this family's dysfunctionality. And we have some friends in San Francisco who joke about the year they left their tree up until summer. In this world where everything must be done efficiently and fast, there's something refreshing about a Christmas tree sticking around after the actual holiday.
Next year, I think I'll wait a day or two after Christmas to take down the tree--at least for the sake of the children. Although it might require more than hot chocolate to get me to sit in a chair and relax.
| Dec 29 at 10:26 AM
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