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When should we take down our tree?

Christ is Born!
Glorify Him!

In my family (south German heritage), if the tree is real, then we tried to leave it up at least until the morning of January 2nd (as per my Mom, it is bad luck to remove it before New Year's Day, but then she also makes me eat a spoonful of saurkraut; [cooked with pigs knuckles or ham hocks] at Midnight, and taught me to clean out my wallet but leave a shiny penny in it for the new year). If possible, or if you have an artificial tree, then she suggests the tree should be left up at least until the day after the 6th (Theophany/Epiphany) or a bit longer to celebrate the Julian Christmas if you are inclined.

(as you can see, I was raised RC, and have a few adjustments to make as life continues )

Michael (a sinner)

Hi Gary!

You can take down your tree whenever you want. There are no rules.

The Byzantine Church has several feasts associated with the Christmas season.

December 25 is the feast celebrating the Birth of Christ, and runs from December 25-31.

January 1 is the feast of the Circumcision of Christ and is a one day feast.

January 2 begins the pre-Theophany (also called Epiphany) commemoration, which is the celebration of the Baptism of Christ.

In the Roman Church, Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Three Kings and the Christmas season continues until the following Sunday (in the United States the Roman Catholics have moved Epiphany to a Sunday).

For Byzantines, I would recommend that tree be left up through January 1st. But this assumes that it can be left up that long. I've had a few years were mine was dropping needles and I had to take it down before January 1st.

The only thing I recommend avoiding over the coming years is to turn it into an "Advent Tree". Americans seem to be celebrating Christmas throughout the first part of December and then taking down all the decorations just as the Church moves from the preparation phase to the celebration phase which begins on the 25th.

Use your judgment. There are no wrong decisions here.

Admin

I put mine up on the Sunday before Christmas and take it down after Theophany.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Galv,

I love Christmas trees, so it stays up as long as I can get away with it - usually until the day after Old Calendar Christmas

Many years,

Neil

Leave it up as long as you are happy with it. I find that as I age, I am getting more like the middle-schoolers I have taught. They wear shorts until February when it occurs to them that it's cold. Then they get out the flannel shirts and wear them until July when it occurs to them that it's hot. That approach works for the tree, as well. Do take it down by July.

Dear Gary:

Gosh, your question is a difficult one!

My wife insists that we buy and put up our Christmas tree at least on the weekend after Thanksgiving! This season, we did buy and put our Christmas tree up (fully decorated) on December 3rd! (It helps that we reside next to a flora et fauna store which sells freshly cut trees the day after Thanksgiving.)

Although our Village sets the week after Epiphany for pick up of Christmas trees at curbside, we keep ours until my wife is tired of sweeping the floor of dried and fallen needles. (I always remind her that Christmas may be "forever," but the tree is not. )

Today, our tree is still "green and fresh," thanks to the cuddling and TLC by the house empress.

Amado

Well - now here's another version

Being as how I am on the other side of that wee pond - we do things slightly differently - OK - yes I know - but of course we do

All Christmas decorations MUST be down by Twelfth Night - if you do not comply - well anything nasty that happens is your fault :p

Oh and I should also say that they should not come down earlier either - so Twelfth Night becomes a bit of a scramble - cards , decorations and Christmas tree to come down

Anhelyna

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

As a liturgist or a lover of liturgy, I think that Nativity decorations should always remain up for the Twelve Day Feast of Nativity...but that's IF you put them up just prior to December 25th. In America, I suppose many put them up earlier? Anyway, I think it's important to try and keep the feast for the twelve days and take down decorations only after the Theophany/Epiphany celebration...that would make the best liturgical sense, I think. Whatever you do...please be careful if it's a 'live' tree...and enjoy these bright days of entering into the Nativity of Christ According to the Flesh!

In Him Who is Born for us and our salvation,
+Fr. Gregory

An RC family we knew a few years ago put up their tree on Christmas Eve. When we were surprised they waited so long, they looked at us strangely and said, "That's what Catholics do."

So is it RC tradition to wait until Christmas Eve to put up the tree? I was raised Lutheran and we always used to put our tree up around the first or second week of December - sooner if it was an artificial tree. And we always took the tree down on Epiphany Sunday unless it was too dead before that.

Tammy

News to me Tammy

I was taught that you must not put it up any earlier than 17 December .

Until this date any Carols that are sung are of a Pentitential type - but after that RCs are definitely looking forward to the Birth of the Christ Child so Carols referring to His Birth are then sung.

I have heard of RCs who do not put up any decorations , cards or tree until Christmas eve - but they are fewer and fewer in number as the years go by. In our Church the Trees do not go up until as late as possible [ this year it was the Sunday before Christmas ], but the lights on them are not switched on until the end of the Carol Service and the start of Midnight Mass [ This is after the Procession to, and Blessing of the Crib..

Anhelyna

Putting up the tree on Christmas Eve is (was?) the norm in Eastern Europe, regardless of whether one's Catholic or Protestant. Certainly it's the custom in Hungary, Poland, and eastern parts of Germany. I don't know about elsewhere...

Tammy,

We actually did that this year (put the tree up on Christmas Eve), but that was a function of some major disorganization that was rampant around here.

As a Latin growing up in Boston, the date on which our tree went up was dictated by our neighbors, Bill and Edna Rehm, two dear and wonderful people, may their memory be eternal. They were Mainers (Father Gregory, is that the right term ?) who wintered in Boston which, to them, was the equivalent of the deep south . Bill would make a return drive north in mid-December, and come back with the largest, most beautiful, freshest tree imaginable, cut from his woodlot - for us . We were the envy of the neighborhood :p . I think the extreme freshness of those trees played into my tendency to keep trees up as long as possible.

That said, I remember that there were families who waited until Christmas Eve to put up their tree. For some reason I seem to recollect that it may have been an ethnic-related custom, but I'm blanking on who - so I can't point to a specific group.

Thanks for bringing back some fond memories.

Many years,

Neil

Waiting until the afternoon or evening of Christmas Eve to put up the tree is an excellent custom, which harks back to the days of real candles on the tree. In those times one could only light the candles once - late on Christmas Eve - and one wanted very fresh branches with needles still soft and full of sap, so that they would probably not catch fire but would smell nice if the flames came near them (one also wanted to have some well-placed buckets of water and sand, just in case). Carols were not properly to be sung until the tree was ready, or at least not until one was decorating the tree.

Incognitus

I always put mine up on the Feast of St Thorlaukur (Dec 23) have a traditional fish dinner and decorate the tree with friends.
Then it is removed after the Feast of the Epiphany.
Stephanos I