When Should I Take Down Christmas Decorations?

After Christmas the Christmas decorations were still in shops.

Problem
When should I / you take down Christmas decorations?
1 Midnight on December 25th? Singapore shops think Christmas ends at the end of Christmas Day.
2 On Boxing Day? (That's December 26th in the UK - St Stephen's in Catholic and European countries.) 3 On New Year's Eve (replacing decorations with mistletoe and silver and gold and Happy New Year banners, and Christmas cards put away and replaced with Happy New Year cards?
4 Evening of New Year's Day, January 1st - holidays over - it's back to work. Shops replace Happy Christmas with January Sales signs.
5 January 5th - 12th Day of Xmas.
6 January 6th? Sounds like a nice even number.

Let's Count
Jan 24 - Xmas Eve - must have decorations up.
Jan 25 1st day of Xmas. (Unless you start counting on Jan 24th, which is a half day holiday in many businesses.)
Jan 26 - second day. Jan 27 - third day. Jan 29 - fourth day. Jan 30 - third day.

(How many days in December? The old rhyme goes, 'Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31 days ....) So December has 31 days. Keep going.

December 31st (New Year's Eve) - fourth day.
Jan 1st - fifth day.
Jan 2nd - 6th day.
Jan 3rd - 7th day.
Jan 4th - 8th day.
Jan 5th - 9th day.
Jan 6th - 10th day.
Jan 7th - 11th day (but counting Xmas Eve as Day one it's 12th. So take things down on the morning or evening of the 7th, or midnight on the 6th. Hm. This year that's Friday night. End of the working week. Weekend clear to today up and pack away. Sounds good to me.

Answer
Jan 6th is the 12th Day of Christmas with the Feast of Epiphany. Jesus was circumcised on the 8th day after his birth, as is still done by Jews nowadays.

Do what you like. Tidy minded people take them down and pack them up as soon as possible, whilst still on holiday to save work later. But there are good reasons for all these ideas and dates. To get best use of your decorations, leave them up as long as possible.

Traditionally, you would leave the decorations up in the UK for the 12 days of Christmas, as in the song 'The 12 days of Xmas'.

Tips
Store Xmas decorations in tote bags from supermarkets which have Xmas themes in order to locate them easily next year.
Need to know more?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/august/real-twelve-days-of-christmas.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-festivals/12082544/What-is-Epiphany-Here-are-10-facts-about-the-history-and-meaning-of-Three-Kings-Day.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.
See my other posts and blogs. You can also follow me on Facebook and see profiles and posts on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube videos. Please follow, like and share.