Happy New Year, y’all! I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. My kids and I had the flu for Christmas, but thankfully, our symptoms were fairly mild. Santa still came, and we managed to have a nice, quiet day full of naps and movies. Before the holidays began, we talked about our preferred timelines for putting up Christmas decorations and discussed proper outdoor lights etiquette. Now that we’re solidly into the first week of January, it’s time to discuss another age-old societal debate: when to take your Christmas tree and other holiday decorations down. This year, YouGov did a poll to gauge where people stand on the matter, and just like when it comes to putting them up, opinions about the right time to take ‘em down are all over the board.
The survey says: A YouGov survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults conducted earlier this month found that most of those surveyed take down their Christmas tree at some point in January. Among those who planned to have a Christmas tree this year, the survey found that 47% of them planned to take it down during the first week of January. Another 24% of adults surveyed said they would be taking their tree down later in January, while 20% said theirs would be coming down between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The Epiphany: Traditional Christian teaching says to celebrate Christmas through Jan. 6, known as Epiphany, so many opt to keep their decor up until at least then. Rather than celebrating the holiday only on Dec. 25, Christian theology says Christmas should be celebrated for 12 days beginning on Dec. 25. Meaning the 12 days of Christmas start on Dec. 25 and end on Jan. 6. Jan. 5 is the final night of that period and is referred to as the Twelfth Night. The following day, Jan. 6, is Epiphany or Three Kings Day, according to the Boston Public Library and History.com. Epiphany marks the day when three kings traveled to Bethlehem to meet baby Jesus. The day is celebrated differently across cultures and sectors of Christianity, but it is widely considered the end of the Christmas season.
The case for taking it down right away: On social media, opinions on the correct timing to take down holiday furnishings run the gamut. “Taking down all the Christmas decor at 9am on the 26th because I’m a psychopath,” user @christinalujan7 said in a TikTok video. Commenters on that video largely agreed; one person wrote, “I’m done being decor over stimulated lol,” while another said, “some of us just like a clean house.”
The case for leaving them up longer: “Time to take down Christmas and reset the house after the holidays! this is the most satisfying feeling to me, but I left a tree up for some cozy winter,” @carissacleansitall said in a Dec. 29 TikTok video, where commenters had mixed responses. “Girl, Rudolph ain’t even made his way back home yet,” one person commented. Someone else said, “A trend I won’t be participating in. Tree is up till Jan 6.”
This comment cracked me up: ”Girl, Rudolph ain’t even made his way back home yet.” I agree! We’ve always been in the camp where you put your decorations up right after Thanksgiving and take them down after the Epiphany. If the sixth falls in the middle of the week, I’ll slowly put things away and then take the tree down the weekend that follows it. If it snows, I may be in the mood to keep the outdoor lights on a little longer because they always look so pretty when it snows. By mid-Jan., however, it’s time to let the season go. I know people who keep their trees and lights up until Feb., though. On the flip side, my SIL decorated her house on Nov. 1, and her husband had all of their indoor and outdoor decorations taken down by Dec. 27.
I wish there were more holidays to decorate for throughout the year. I especially miss the outdoor lights after we take them down. It always takes some time to get used to the yard looking so bare and dark again.
Photos credit: Jessica Lewis thepaintedsquare, Damir K, Dominik Gryzbon via Pexels Gautam Krishnan via Unsplash
I agree, the yard looks sad and dark after I took down the lights, so I left up some around the porch that look like little snowflakes and are easy to take down.
I’m Catholic, so I know we’re supposed to wait until the Epiphany, but my PGM was Baptist and OCD, so she instilled a Dec 26th takedown in me.
I always take my tree and inside and outside decorations down before the first of January. Don’t drag the old year into the new year.
That’s kinda how it worked for me this year. I usually do the putting away on January 1, but this year decided I wanted to go hiking instead, so everything came down on NYE. I got into a real ‘clean it all!’ mood that day so I was able to go hiking & come back to a nice, clean, relaxing home.
Plus, mine was a more secular/cultural Christmas growing up. Although I’d heard the words through song & plays (Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelfth Night), I never really knew the religious references. Such rules! You must celebrate TWELVE DAYS! You must!
Depending where one lives in Canada, outdoor lights stay up til spring because it’s too bleeping difficult to take them down due to snow and ice. One doesn’t have to turn them on, but many people do, since it is pretty.
One of my favourite things about living here. The lights stay up where I am until April. It really helps with winter blues and I think our local government has figured this out. I am so grateful for winter lights. It gets dark way too early and it’s cold.
Yes! As a fellow Canadian, I agree! Outdoor lights can–and should!–be left up longer than indoor decorations to bring cheer to the neighbourhood.
More like 365 days a year though. Many literally don’t take them off at all.
Lights yes. Love the lights. Dark, rainy/snowy/slushy, cold night dog walks are better because of Christmas lights. Blow ups need to go. Saw more blow up characters this year than ever before. They seem like lazy decorations to me. But kind of funny, too; I do get the appeal. Still, they need to go bye. I’m keeping my lights up till the days are noticeably longer. Any day now!
We’re in Pennsylvania and we usually keep our lights up and on until February or early March. Most of our neighbors do the same. We don’t have street lights and it just makes winter feel warmer.
HNY, Rosie!
We’ll start taking the deco down tomorrow late in the afternoon.
So yes, we always wait until Epiphany, even if we’re atheists — using it as a calendrical cue.
The outdoor lights will have to stay for the time being, as we got lots of snow, ~ 8 inches, on NYE, for the first time since 2010/11.
I take down everything on Jan. 2 except, like this year, if I receive friends or family on said date. Then, its the day after. As a catholic it should be day after Epiphany. However, if I wait to Jan. 7, life caught up on me and everything stays up for the whole month.
In Mass/NH, the lights stay up until April. It’s too cold to worry about them now.
Growing up, we always got the tree in the first week of December, and then we gradually put ornaments on it throughout the month, one box at a time. The tree came down on Epiphany, and by then it was usually shedding needles pretty badly. We never did lights, but the poinsettias got to stay for as long as they were alive. One year we got some going strong into February, somehow!
i always take them down before its back to school and work. im Irish so we get more time off than you guys so everything came down yesterday.
So am I and it’s always been considered bad luck here to take the decorations down before Nollaig na mBan 😬 Shame the one about the well water isn’t true though!
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2026/0102/1103975-nollaig-na-mban-january-6th-ireland-roots-traditions-customs/
Yes definitely considered bad luck but im not religious or superstitious so i just go for it!!
Nollaig Mna Shona Duit
Since Covid, I wrap some trees in my yard with solar powered lights and leave them up year round. I pick out tres that have a southern exposure that aren’t shaded by anything. I enjoy them up year round.
There is a house near us that has a magnolia tree with a string of lights that probably have regular lightbulb sized bulbs in them that they leave up year round and I absolutely love them.
I would like to think my lights bring some joy in the neighborhood.
I’m not religious, except about my clean space so January 6th means nothing to me. I take the whole shebang down before January 1st because Iike to start the new year with a fresh and clean slate. I find too many decorations garish and visual clutter also clutters my mind and then I can’t think straight so I also put it up as late as possible, usually around mid December. Two weeks is enough for me.
Happy 2026 Rosie and fellow celebitchites! We bought a pink tree and last year left it up until March because we love the lights and looking at all the ornaments that we have been buying over the years! All the inside and outside stuff has been put away for a few days though. It’s the best of both worlds!
That sounds awesome!
I have to say that I’ve now got some penguin lights on the shelf over my desk (there are four and the biggest is about 25cm tall down to smallest maybe 5-10cm) and I am considering keeping them out until I’m no longer spending time in there in the dark!
So is the story pic just something you found, or someone’s place? That is a lovely room
We don’t have a set date or time for taking down. The live tree will come down today, and everything else over the next few weeks. Some lights are permanent because I just love them
It’s just a stock image but I like it because it’s clearly someone’s cozy home. As long as we can still tell the difference we will not use AI images or videos.
Appreciate that! No AI!
And that is a lovely room. All it needs is a dog. 🐕
I’m in the ‘do what makes you happy’ camp. I do enjoy these discussions and hearing what others do and how/why.
Definitely not before new years for me, I need the lights and brightness in the house to at least get me into January. It’s the darkest time of year in the northern hemisphere, that’s why we’re celebrating now.
There’s no religion in our house so it tends to depend on how the dates fall, I was planning to have it all done at the weekend but I’ve been busy catching up on work that got pushed because I was so ill before Christmas and I wasn’t going to spend the last day of my ‘holiday’ rushing when there was no need (having soup made for lunches this week and a good dinner that I can also reheat after pilates tonight was way more important). So I’m doing it gradually and the tree will come down Wednesday when my bf is back from a work trip and can help me get all the boxes from the loft and the tree outside for collection.
I’m team pragmatic.
I’m another in the do what makes you happy camp. Personally, our indoor decorations come down by mid-January (we do a faux tree) but we leave the outdoor lights and garland (real) up til it turns brown, usually early February.
Our neighbor leaves lights up year round but he can change the colors. He’ll do pink/white for Valentine’s Day, maybe red and blue for lunar New Year, then onto green for St. Patrick’s, spring colors for Easter, etc. And we’re in New England, so sometimes he’ll do blue when it’s going to be frigid, like this week.
I love this! I’ve always considered doing lights for V-Day and St. Patrick’s Day just to keep the ambiance going for a little bit longer.
Heh—couple years ago my backyard neighbor decorated his trees with solar lights one summer. He liked them so much he calls ‘em winter solstice lights and leaves them up permanently. 😂😂
We burn our tree in the backyard as a New Year’s ritual. Decorations come down by Jan 1st.
Because we so enjoy going all out for Xmas, we do put everything up after Thanksgiving.
We love these beautiful Christmas trees so much that we always leave them up until 20 January. To honour Epiphany 6 January we take down our three Herrnhut stars and dismantle our garden nativity scene on that day. A lantern is then placed in the tree niches where the nativity scene used to be, and it stays there. We don’t have any fairy lights, just the stars outside. The lantern kind of replaces the stars 🥰
I’m an obsessive bird-watcher in the upper Midwest and I take my tree down when spring migration begins and the returning birds bring the color back with them. 🙂 (There are definitely lots of birds around all winter, but the change in spring is dramatic and lovely.)
We don’t have snow geese here, but cranes, song thrushes and starlings are the first to return ❣️
Cranes are among the first back here, too, and they’re my absolute favorites. So clever and graceful and devoted to each other.
I’ve always waited until after Remembrance Day (November 11) to put the decor up and January 7 to pull it down. Since my daughter was born on January 3, I pulled everything down on January 2 this year, in order to make room for birthday decorations. I still have teddy bear and birthday balloons floating around my living room:)
I’m Episcopal so I will take ours down Wednesday after Epiphany.
Lots of folks here tend to leave them up until school is back in session.
I thought I was the only one!
At least until Jan 6th. I’m in no mood to say goodbye to them yet though as the house looks incredibly bare after everything is down and this is really the only time of year I know how to decorate well. My small real tree will stay up and lit with clear lights until it dies or my desire to care for it does (usually the latter) and my big artificial tree with multi-colored lights will convert (yay technology) to clear of ice option after I remove the ornaments. As for the outside lights, they’ll stay up until it’s warm enough to take them down.
I’m keeping up my two real trees until Saturday because they’re still in great shape (even though we cut them down the Saturday after Thanksgiving … my husband McGyvers a tree-watering “system” with gallon-size water jugs and clear tubes, so they stay hydrated).
I get very sappy (pun not really intended) in the days before the trees come down, because I love the colors and light in this dark time of year and will miss them when they’re gone.
The tree will stay up for as long as the kid wants it. His sweet smile when he sees the lights and decorations is the only thing that warms my cold heart.
day after Christmas. BYEEEEEEEEE Christmas!
I always wait until at least January 6 for Epiphany (currently agnostic, but daughter of an Episcopalian minister).
Our multi color outdoor lights stay on all year. They’re on the roofline and come on each night at sunset. The yard decor comes down the first week of the New Year. As for inside, our spruce garlands around the windows and doorways come down the week after Christmas. The real evergreens become dry and crunchy and I’m sick of the needles on the floor. The trees come down after Epiphany. We have one on the living room, one in the dining room and a little one in the kitchen. When I was little we had a fake tree and my parents left it up one year until March 21st. My birthday is the first week of March and there’s a picture of the tree up at my birthday party.
Due to Trump‘s reelect, we kept the tree up sinfully long last year. I won’t say the date we took the tree down as it was embarrassingly near May.
I needed a great deal of comforting.
I enjoyed reading everyone’s personal stories!
Same here!! 😎🙃
In answer to the OP, take them down when you feel like taking them down. There are no rules.
Anyone who tries to impose rules on others in terms of when they should let Christmas go needs to take a long and swift walk off a short bridge.
My decs will come down this week but my lights will remain shining.
I took mine down before NYE which I never do but I was so tired of the shit show that 2025 was that I just wanted closure. Well here we are in 2026 and it’s already horrendous.
8 am December 26th!
(I’m not a holiday person)
I took mine down on Friday/Saturday and put the last two boxes into storage yesterday. I wasn’t messing around. Sometimes it does take me longer but this year I was just motivated for some reason because I did a lot of organizing and cleaning last weekend.
We have 20 more days of lights in Denver! The local tradition is to wait until the Western Stock Show is over, and this year’s stock show is January 10-25. Even the Capitol will stay illuminated until January 26. It makes me very happy to get an extra month of sparkly colorful joy everywhere I go.
Sorry to hear that you and your family had the flu. My son and I either had the “superflu” or covid in November so we were a bit alright by Christmas and then I seemed to have caught the same bug again by New Year’s eve so I’m now trying to make a recovery with this awful variant. Just my luck.
I take our decorations down sometime between January 2-4, simply because the Christmas tree recycling service starts collecting the trees from January 5 and they state that the trees must be out in front of the house by then as they can’t guarantee a set time or date to collect the tree. I’ve also made a mistake of not keeping up with topping up the water for my tree so it’s started to dry after Christmas and it was looking a bit sad which is unfortunate as we went for a taller tree for our first Christmas in our new home as the house has a higher ceiling than our previous home.
I put flower-like solar lights in my backyard center every spring through early fall. (I didn’t think they’d survive the cold…and they shine way shorter because of shorter days.) This year I got too busy to take them up…but found they are not only hanging in there, but are nice to look at in the snow/dark winter nights. My backyard neighbor does the same with his summer tree lights—he just calls ‘em winter solstice lights. 😂😂
When I found out I could celebrate 12 days of Christmas STARTING on Christmas, that became my personal tradition. And here in Germany (at least in the east), people leave stuff in their windows until Feb 2…so I might even do that. It’s all about being cozy in the cold. (And I keep my indoor lights up all year, but usually they don’t come on in summer except for an evening party.)
christmas tree, lights, and decorations all tend to be taken down and packed away after New Years. when exactly depends on when in the first week of January the weekend falls. This year everything was gone by the 3rd.
We do the proper twelve days of Christmas and decorations are put away on Jan 6/Twelfth Night.
It’s a holdover tradition from my childhood and Christmas is my favorite holiday so hubs has accepted it.
A few of my friends in the South keep their tree and some decorations up and repurpose them with a Mardi Gras theme/colors. Carnival season starts on Jan 6th and runs through Fat Tuesday.
I celebrate orthodox Christmas so mine stay up until the middle of January.