In my family growing up, the tradition was to take down the Christmas tree before New Year’s Day. My mother said it was bad luck to keep the tree up any longer. I think her real reason was that she was allergic to evergreens and wanted the scent out of the house.
Whatever my mother’s rationale, my husband and I have always followed this tradition in our home. We permitted the tree to stay until January 1 on occasion, but no longer. In our case, I think it was because my husband wanted the mess cleaned up. Also, he has been the one who usually makes sure the tree has water each day, and he gets tired of the task. This year, our Fraser fir sucked up water from the time we bought it until the day we took it down (New Year’s Day 2019).
But my family’s tradition of removing Christmas decorations did not apply to the nativity crèche — either in my mother’s house or in ours. After all, there are twelve days of Christmas, and the twelfth day is not until Epiphany, which is January 6. That’s when the Magi appeared, so anything depicting the wise men could stay until Epiphany.
Wooden crèche in my parents’ house, Christmas 1986. (The little white stocking was not for Baby Jesus, it was for their Schnauzer.)
My parents had a beautiful wooden crèche from Italy. My maternal grandparents bought it on one of their trips to Europe in the early 1960s. My grandfather died in January 1966, and after my grandmother remarried in July 1967, she gave the crèche to my parents. They displayed it every year from early in December until Epiphany.
The only casualty the crèche suffered in the many years my parents owned it was in 2012 or 2013. My father’s last dog Sandy, an exuberant Duck Tolling Retriever, gnawed on a shepherd’s leg.
My brother wanted the crèche after my parents died. I don’t know what traditions have been instituted in his household, nor what he’s done about the mauled shepherd’s leg.
The Waterford crystal nativity set I gave my parents, now in my home
My parents had another crèche also, which they displayed year-round. This one was Waterford crystal and consisted only of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I gave them this crèche for Christmas sometime around twenty years ago, and they kept it displayed on a bookshelf. I asked my siblings if I could have that crèche, and I now display it year-round on my piano.
The clay nativity set from Mexico my parents gave me
I have another crèche which I bring out only at Christmas time. It is a handmade clay set from Mexico that my parents gave me after they traveled there one year. I typically leave it up until after the first of the year, though I try to put it away on or around Epiphany. This year, my husband and I picked up all our decorations on January 1, including the crèche. I guess the wise men came early.
The silver bells—a secular version of the Twelve Days of Christmas—got put away then also.
What does your family do about picking up decorations after the holidays?
My family, also Catholic, didn’t put up the tree until Christmas Eve, and it remained for the twelve days of Xmas – until January 6th. By the way, many have taken umbrage to the spelling Xmas, thinking it takes the Christianity out of Christmas when the X in fact represents the first letter of the Greek word for Christ (Χριστός or Christos – Chi) and has been around since the 1600s..
In my country (Christian Orthodox), according to tradition, the tree is also put on Christmas Eve and remaining until the 7-th of January. My mother, since she got retired and we have plastic trees, uses to let it longer because she likes its festive looks. Sometimes I convince her to take it down mid-January, sometimes after 20-th. I have a friend who kept her plastic tree on up to 1-st of March, simply because she liked it. And it was marvellously decorated too!
As for me, I usually like to put it on around 17-th to 20-th of December, and it gets put off in the week-end after 7-th of January.