Oh, December 26th- it’s typically a hard day for me. Over the years I’ve come up with different coping strategies, but before I get into that, let’s talk about this year’s Christmas tree.
We always get a real tree right around Thanksgiving. This year, about a week before Christmas I noticed that our tree seemed VERY dry. And kind of droopy. Basically, any branch that had an ornament on it was drooping down sadly, like the Charlie Brown tree. What the…??????
We suspect that, in addition to selling us a $200 tree, the tree lot also sold us inferior tree food. We usually get some sort of liquid that we add to the tree water, but this time the food they sold us turned into a gel. For the first week after we got the tree I kept trying to add water, but it didn’t need any… which seemed odd. Usually the tree absorbs a LOT of water in the first few days. Hmmm.
Anyway, by Festivus the lower branches were so dropped, we couldn’t fit any presents under it, so I asked my son to cut them off. I was making dinner while he was trimming the tree, when suddenly I heard him say “OOPS.” Uh oh…
He accidentally cut through the strand of lights- as he said, “Now I know why they make the light wire green- it’s to blend in with the tree branches!” Er, yes! And now our tree was totally dark.
But! Remember how I never got the lights up in our bushes? Because of that I had extra strands, which luckily matched our tree lights. I gave my son the task of unwinding the damaged lights and replacing them (again, he said “Now I know why you put the lights on FIRST.”) He had to un-decorate half the tree to re-do the lights. So many life lessons here!
In the end, all was well, but we felt that the tree was barely going to make it through Christmas Day before crumbling to the ground.
Which brings me to the topic of taking down Christmas… I don’t have a set way of doing it. Sometimes I do it before New Year’s, sometimes I do it after… any way I do it, it makes me sad. But THIS year, I think it will be a relief to get that tree down (maybe that’s a great post-Christmas hack- have a tree that basically self-destructs after Christmas Day.)
So I’ll do the tree first, ASAP. I’ll leave everything else up at least through New Year’s. My card display will stay up for a while!
Last year I left white lights in the living room through the month of January, and that helped a lot. I’m also going to take out some new mugs (one from San as my Secret Santa gift!) when I put away the holiday mugs, and I have a new candle I’ve been saving as well.
I can do all these things, in addition to keeping busy- that definitely helps- but in the end I know I’m going to be sad. But you know what? That’s life. I guess if I didn’t love Christmas as much as I do, and didn’t get so excited about it, I wouldn’t feel as sad when it’s over. So, I wouldn’t change a thing.
What’s your schedule for un-decorating the house? Does it make you sad or do you like the way it feels less cluttered?
Any other tips for mitigating PCD (Post Christmas Depression?)
34 Responses
I have been thinking about you Jenny! I know this time of year is tough for you. Your coping strategies sound very smart. And while the tree issue sounds very frustrating hopefully it does give you a sense of relief to take it down!
I am already eager to get back to normal. I love Christmas but I love having my house back too!
I feel like our house always improves so much with the Christmas decorations, which is maybe telling me that our normal decor needs some work??? It just looks so blah when the Christmas stuff goes away.
Our artificial tree in the basement started going black this week. First one strand at the bottom (tolerable), and next the top strand, so we had ONE strand that still worked. So yesterday I decided to just take it down. It’s a small tree and last year I left it up until FEBRUARY and decorated it with hearts for Valentine’s Day. But this year…it’s already down.
I hate taking things down after Christmas. HATE. IT. I feel like I need to have an undecorating party and invite friends over to help us take things down so it feels more festive? *Sad sigh.
I tend to do things in little bits for a few days and then go into a final tizzy and clear up 90% of it in one fell swoop.
We are so alike with this PCD issue. Sending solidarity <3 Sounds like you have some GREAT plans to mitigate the slump.
Yes, maybe you should have friends over and make it kind of like a party? I don’t know… nothing seems to really work. I just told my husband I wanted to take the tree down tonight and he objected… so I guess the droopy tree will stay for at least a few more days.
I haven’t taken anything down… I usually wait until after New Year’s and then all the snowmen can stay because they are winter decorations.
It’s a letdown.. all that work and in a blink of an eye, it’s over.
I think it’s a good idea to have some general “winter” decorations! That’s why I leave up some white lights.
Your poor self-destructing tree! And what a hassle with the lights! But so much better to have that happen the day before Christmas Eve v right before your company arrives!
Well you know me, I am not very sentimental so I am not very sad that Christmas is over? I have mixed feelings about putting the decorations away. I don’t love the job but I do like getting the house back in order. We put our tree in our “toy corner” of the living room, so everything gets shifted to make room – at a time when we are adding to our toy collection so it can feel very cluttered in our living room! But if we try to take toys downstairs, Taco will just bring them back upstairs so I just give up and accept the clutter. There are years I took the tree down on the 26th but they year I will leave it up until Sunday. I really really love coming downstairs to the glow of the tree (we have a smart outlet plug so it turns on at 6 and off at 9). I don’t like coming downstairs to a dark house. We have some lights on our fireplace mantel. I kept them out all year last year and just put them away when I put our Halloween spider lights up.
I think in this stage of life where life isn’t exactly relaxing and the holidays are especially not relaxing since we are policing who opens the Advent calendar and have to keep explaining to Taco that there are no more presents to open, etc, it’s not this relaxing and peaceful celebration? I might feel very different when the kids are older and more independent!
Yes, the phase you’re in is definitely chaotic as opposed to peaceful. I can see why it would be nice to get the house back in order, and be done with the ongoing conflict of the advent calendars.
The glow of the tree really is nice- we should put ours on a timer! I love it when my husband gets up first and turns it on, so it’s all lit when I come out to the living room.
We take everything down right after New Years! It feels good to move on, and like other said, to have the house back to normal. I don’t really feel any sadness, just a feeling of gratitude and, relief? January bring nice, clean energy, and I’m excited 🙂 I think I made good intentions for 2024.
I do remember when the kids were little I felt a sense of relief when Christmas was over. Kind of like each year was an accomplishment. And, I suppose we have to move on some time!
Jenny, we are just not on the same page. I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I won’t take the tree down until a couple weeks into January (artificial, though), so I keep the fun decorations for another weeks to help get me through the darkest part of the winter. There’s ANOTHER holiday in a week. In the meantime, everything’s kind of slow and quiet! It’s great!
Yes, but… I always find New Year’s to be kind of depressing. But I think I’m letting the post-Christmas blues color everything. I agree it’s nice to have a slower and somewhat quiet week.
maybe you can make the week in between more fun? transition the xmas decorations to new year’s decorations? You can create your own idea (color scheme, multicolored lights to represent fireworks, suns) and celebrate a new year and goals? IDK 🙂
I’m just coming out of my seasonal funk and it does not make me happy to see the torch get passed down to you. I hope it passes quickly.
Our decorations come down the same way that they go up – my husband takes the lead! They’re usually but not always down by my stepson’s birthday in mid January, which is the official end of the holiday season for us.
I know you said you get more depressed BEFORE Christmas, but I thought for some reason it was better this year. Well, I’m glad you’re coming out of it, even if it’s been now passed to me!
Oh, gosh!
Honestly, I love live trees, but I am TERRIFIED of the fire risk. Like cold sweat terrified. About five years ago, we bought an artificial tree and it’s done wonders for my peace of mind. I grew up Catholic, and it was tradition to leave everything til January 6, so that’s usually when I start the undecking.
Hugs. I hope your lights and new candle help!
Thank you Jenn! January 6 is Epiphany, right? I’m going to declare that the official end to the holiday season no matter when we take the tree down.
I think leaving some lights up through Jan is such a great idea!
Sorry about your tree! I am giggling about cutting the lights though!
I am ready to get out tree down and to the preserve. I like having it up from Thanksgiving to end of December then am ready for the space back!
Ours is down! I did it today after work. It was sad, but I’m glad that task is done.
What a bummer about your tree!
I remember you had a thing about Christmas! I used to be very sad when Christmas was over but then something happened the last 5-7 or so years that I worked as a nurse, that I stopped caring about Christmas because there was no point to engage in it when you work in that profession and any time off can be taken away from you at any time and you usually work when other people are having fun etc.
But now I enjoy celebrating Christmas in our own way, and do some decorating. I usually leave decorations up until at least the 6th of January, and it’s nice to have the electric lights up longer than that when it’s still dark so many hours of the day.
Yes, I can see how life circumstance could shift your perception of holidays. I think I might make January 6th the deadline for Christmas-y decorations, but leave the white lights up till the end of January.
Oh gosh that is disappointing that your tree was not up to your standards, LOL on your son cutting the wires. Sounds like it made it through-like a Christmas Miracle! After Thanksgiving, the worst part for me is putting away all the decor.
Yes, the tree managed to survive through Christmas Day! And yes- putting away all the decorations is a lot of work, and definitely not as fun as putting them up.
I am famously bad at undecorating. We do the tree on the long MLK Jr. weekend and I go through the house taking down lights and packing up Santas and little statues and the like, but every year I forget something and we find it months later. Last year, someone came to my house in May and sat in our living room and asked if we leave snowmen up year round – because we had FIVE SNOWMEN on the table our tv sits on. I guess they start to blend in?
Oh yes- I have a basket in the bedroom that is for all the “Christmas overflow”- stuff that I keep finding through the month of January. Thats pretty funny you still had snowmen up in May though!
Oh wow, trees are $200? That stinks that the tree wasn’t the best. But what great lessons learned by your son 🙂 We had to switch from a cut tree to an artificial tree years ago because we like to go on ski trips around the holiday and can’t have a dead tree hanging around! And, the cats always knocked over our automatic tree waterers which made a big mess. I take the lazy approach and our tree and decorations will be up to at least mid January.
I love getting a real tree (ahem, usually) but more and more I can see the appeal of an artificial tree! Especially if you’re traveling- a real tree doesn’t make sense.
We had such a wonderful Christmas, and I was so happy but so tired, and I thought I was going to so enjoy reading all day and couldn’t imagine that I would feel sad. Which is how I usually feel, and then surprise, I DO feel sad every year. We haven’t taken down the tree or done anything besides straighten out the presents and clean up the dishes and stuff. I lost a few presents I needed for when my sister’s family gets here for New Year’s and I was so frustrated with myself, and then it turned out they were just where I thought I’d left them and my son had moved them, so I found them in time. I also have a bit of a cold and the weather is dreary. I’m starting to feel better and the weather looks like it might get a bit colder and a bit sunnier, and then my sister will be here and we’ll have a couple more family nights and then a few more days before the kids leave. I’ll be okay, and I hope you will too.
That’s bad luck about your tree … and the lights. I always spend Christmas holidays which extend to the end of January with my parents so don’t tend to get PCB. I take my Christmas tree down once I get back home so generally it signals time to get back to normal routines.
There is something sad about looking around the house after all the decorations are gone. It looks so blank! My Christmas tree is holding out pretty well so far but I don’t usually get it until almost the middle of December (and I’ve been getting it at Lowes where it was only $42 plus a 25% discount!).
We started to take everything down yesterday, Our house was just too cluttered with all the new toys so we needed to start getting organized before getting back to work next week. While it’s sad that Christmas is over I am ready to get my house back to somewhat normal!
I hope your PCD has gotten better, Jenny! (I am so behind on blogs, lol.) I think it’s the right attitude to just accept that you are going to be sad once Christmas is over and that it’s OKAY to be sad. It just means you love Christmas that much! And once you’re ready to take down the decorations and welcome in 2024, you will. There’s no set time for that. <3
I always take down Christmas decorations little by little. A shelf here, a few ornaments from the tree there… slow and steady.
I feel for your son. I had to replace the string lights on our tree this year and it was a nightmare task LOL
Ah, I love the card display… 🙂 Cards make me so happy. I suspect my cards will stay up until right before next Christmas 🙂