Christmas decorations

JamieSK

So I am curious how many keep their Christmas decorations up until the Epiphany on or around January 6th or do you take them down sooner and why?

How long do you celebrate the Christmas season given it starts on 12/25 and lasts for 12 days...do you think this sends a secular message to your children/family/friends by taking it down before the Magi come?

Thanks for sharing.

perfectingpatti

We celebrate through the Epiphany. At church, we still sing Christmas songs. My grandmother always told me to leave Christmas decorations up until after the Epiphany or you'd have bad luck all year. Hahaha. She was old school Catholic.

orapronobis

I've done it all three ways. This year, almost everything is coming down early. The only thing staying out is the Advent wreath that has the Christ candle at the center. We'll continue to say our Christmas-season prayers at meals until January 13.

bushidowoman

We leave ours up until after our Epiphany celebration. The kids will spend the afternoon after church making crowns and a Christmas star, and our table will be filled with glitter, jewels, and the like. Once we get that all cleaned up, we'll have a roast for dinner with our table set all fancy and lots of "royalty" joining us. The royalty will bring to the table a box of gold-wrapped chocolates, a censer filled with frankincense, and one of my pretty perfume bottles. Instead of new years's resolutions, we offer gifts to Jesus in the form of some way that we will try to grow spiritually in the coming year.
In our Epiphany cake, we will bake a dollar coin, and whoever finds the coin in their piece will get to be the "high king" and lead the procession carrying the Christmas star. The rest of us will follow behind carrying the rest of the gifts and place them around the manger, and then we'll go to each doorway of our house, where Daddybear will sprinkle them with holy water and mark them with chalk...20+C+M+B+13. (The CMB stands for "Christus mansionem benedictat", or "Christ bless this home.")

Then sometime in the following week, our decorations will come down. I always hate taking down my decorations. :frown:

orapronobis

We leave ours up until after our Epiphany celebration. The kids will spend the afternoon after church making crowns and a Christmas star, and our table will be filled with glitter, jewels, and the like. Once we get that all cleaned up, we'll have a roast for dinner with our table set all fancy and lots of "royalty" joining us. The royalty will bring to the table a box of gold-wrapped chocolates, a censer filled with frankincense, and one of my pretty perfume bottles. Instead of new years's resolutions, we offer gifts to Jesus in the form of some way that we will try to grow spiritually in the coming year.
In our Epiphany cake, we will bake a dollar coin, and whoever finds the coin in their piece will get to be the "high king" and lead the procession carrying the Christmas star. The rest of us will follow behind carrying the rest of the gifts and place them around the manger, and then we'll go to each doorway of our house, where Daddybear will sprinkle them with holy water and mark them with chalk...20+C+M+B+13. (The CMB stands for "Christus mansionem benedictat", or "Christ bless this home.")

Then sometime in the following week, our decorations will come down. I always hate taking down my decorations. :frown:

I wish I had known about this tradition when my daughter was young. It's beautiful, and I bet your children just love it.

JamieSK

Bushidowoman - that is a great tradition; I've never heard that either.

bushidowoman

I grew up Baptist, and I had never heard of the Epiphany growing up. And the day after Christmas was always such a let-down. I remember when I first discovered the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany...I was all excited..."you mean there's MORE?" :laugh: It makes sense to me that the birth of the King of the Universe should be the *beginning* of the celebration and that it should last more than just one day!

pumpkinoodle

I like to keep my Christmas decorations up as long as possible. Sometimes even past Epiphany, but for the most part I take my decorations down sometime in January. Unrelated side note: I love it when atheists have a CHRISTmas tree in their house. God reaches all

perfectingpatti

I like when non-religious people think saying "Happy Holidays" is better than saying "Merry Christmas". Holi means holy.

orapronobis

I like when non-religious people think saying "Happy Holidays" is better than saying "Merry Christmas". Holi means holy.

**snickers** as she thinks of her angry atheist cousin Mike.

JamieSK

I like when non-religious people think saying "Happy Holidays" is better than saying "Merry Christmas". Holi means holy.

**snickers** as she thinks of her angry atheist cousin Mike.

Ora - was your angry cousin Mike Catholic at one time or has he always been an atheist?

grassette

We leave ours up until after our Epiphany celebration. The kids will spend the afternoon after church making crowns and a Christmas star, and our table will be filled with glitter, jewels, and the like. Once we get that all cleaned up, we'll have a roast for dinner with our table set all fancy and lots of "royalty" joining us. The royalty will bring to the table a box of gold-wrapped chocolates, a censer filled with frankincense, and one of my pretty perfume bottles. Instead of new years's resolutions, we offer gifts to Jesus in the form of some way that we will try to grow spiritually in the coming year.
In our Epiphany cake, we will bake a dollar coin, and whoever finds the coin in their piece will get to be the "high king" and lead the procession carrying the Christmas star. The rest of us will follow behind carrying the rest of the gifts and place them around the manger, and then we'll go to each doorway of our house, where Daddybear will sprinkle them with holy water and mark them with chalk...20+C+M+B+13. (The CMB stands for "Christus mansionem benedictat", or "Christ bless this home.")

Then sometime in the following week, our decorations will come down. I always hate taking down my decorations. :frown:

Your story about the dollar coin in the cake is just like the French-Canadian custom, except that we bake a bean into the cake. The littlest one sits under the table and says who the piece should to to, and whoever finds the bean is crowned. Then the king takes a queen. This works best when there is a large extended family around the table.

We put our tree up the week before Christmas, and take it down after the Epiphany. We use a live tree, so we need to keep it fresh until them. I hate it when Advent becomes Christmas, to the point that people are so sick of it they can't wait to take things down. But if the family follows the liturgical feasts of the Christmas season, and celebrates each one at home, then we can give the Incarnation the wonder and celebration it deserves.

JamieSK

I agree w/you whole heartedly Rachel - many in our subdivision had their decorations up in mid November and down 12/27...what a pity.

Topher1978

February 2nd (Candlemas) is the traditional day to take down Christmas decorations. I like that. Advent is not a time for decorations, and traditionally decorations go up Christmas eve. This is a way to better live the liturgical year in my opinion. And that is hard in our society with the pace of everything around us!

Topher1978

Also, Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas. Candlemas is the last day of the Christmas season...