Just today I took mine down. Usually it's down before December 30th, but this year I just loved it so much I kept it up. I almost turned it into an "inauguration tree" and redecorated it with buttons and stickers and such. All the needles are falling off, so.... down it came.
I miss it.

You just don't quit, do ya?! The only reason my tree isn't still up is because it never made it out of the attic. Thanks for reminding me about how pathetic I am!

Yes, I do and I still have my house lights on in all their glory and will keep things up until martin luther king's birthday. I make the rules!

I took my daughters to Seattle for a little weekend getaway, (strategic side-step of the taking down of the tree). "He can do it this year", I told myself.

We get back niiiiice and late Sunday night, and there it is, still twinkling in the window, this neighbourhood's last standing tribute to procastination done RIGHT.

Mine's still up. It is such a pain to take down, getting down the boxes, wrapping the ornaments, cleaning the needles off the floor. I have a big work project due Wednesday. After that is done...

I took it down two days ago;0)

I figure if it's down by Easter I'm good. (Some years I didn't make it -- luckily it's artificial, so there are no needle in the carpet issues...)

GREAT IDEA -- AN INAUGURATION DAY TREE! We've got the only TV in the neighborhood (I live in the land of aging hippie Luddites) and are already having everybody in to watch -- this will be PERFECT! We've got a carload of Obama swag from canvassing in Nevada, too, so the decorations are all set. The only trick will be getting the Christmas stuff off without stripping all the needles...

"If it's down by Easter, I'm good."

No wonder I feel so at home here.

When I was a senior in college, living off campus in a house with two other guys, we got a Christmas tree and decorated it, lights and all. Christmas came and went, but the tree stayed. It gradually turned brown and brittle, and eventually we got nervous about leaving the lights on (just how dry are those needles? and how hot do those little lights get?), but the tree stayed with us until we all moved out that June. We had a little ceremony then--nah, I'm kidding, we just chucked it into the back yard, next to the trash can, the day we left.

So I'm like everyone else with a tree still up, thinking, "Okay, if we can still turn on the Christmas tree lights and the house isn't going to burn down, what's the big rush?"

Finally got it down yesterday. The lights will be up until the weather is better here in the Pacific Northwest. I can't imagine sending my soon to be 70 year old husband up on the roof in the storm that promises to never end.

I just laid mine to rest outside on the sidewalk not five minutes before I saw this post.

In an alternative existence my entire world is lit with Christmas tree lights. The small colored ones, occasional blinking allowed. No chasing lights, no white faux "icicle" lights.

Finally, I figured out the perk of not putting one up in the first place--not having to take one down!

I'm with you Alpha Whiskey, if you don't put one up - you don't have to take it down!

Lonnie, we're on the same schedule: Nora and I just pushed it over our balcony and into the street, before I took her to the airport! It was sad though to come home to a house without Nora OR a Christmas tree....I still have the special Christmas fireplace screen and a couple of Santas on the mantle, maybe I'll leave that.

L, not L: my parents routinely left it up til February was approaching, I'm not sure why.

Hey Laurel, you and your neighbors going to end up watching the inauguration in your underwear like the book club?!

Got it down yesterday. It will be a bonfire starter soon. God, after reading the comments I feel like such an overachiever - just like in the 5th grade!

Well uh...yes. We took the lights off the house and the ornaments off the tree and packed all that crap away but the tree still stands. I love the inauguration tree idea! I am always up for a good excuse to procrastinate!

Yes! It is my first ever real one, and I am loathe to let it go....

I had to take mine down, the needles were just killing my bare feet. I still have the Christmas tree lights outside on though. It makes things seem so cheery I loathe to take them down too soon....and apparently my neighbors feel the same since most still have their lights on.

Mine comes down Feb. 2 (pagan festival of lights)

The ornaments are all off. Just the tree and all those lovely lights.

:)

Oops...I see things have been piling up here while I've been busy checking out other posts. (Let me take this opportunity to plug NoisyNora and her sweet, funny tribute to breasts, in all their various guises. http://open.salon.com/user_blog.php?uid=10307 )

Boy, do I ever feel validated! The tree stays at least until Obama is sworn in. (Hey, maybe instead of decorating it with Obama buttons, it might be fun to festoon it with symbols of the last eight years -- a Christmas Bush, if you will -- and then burn it in effigy. Any thoughts on ornaments?)

Joan Walsh, I'm so honored that you dropped by. Had I been here, I would have offered you an eggnog (though I think it may have turned by this time...nothing that a little rum won't disguise.) But about tossing Christmas trees from the balconies of apartment buildings...are you generally this reckless?

Laurel - Nevada APPRECIATES you canvassing here. Thanks to you Californians, we turned not only Nevada blue, but Washoe County and that bastion of red - Incline Village - blue. Quite a feat.

Oh - my tree came down two days after Christmas. I would have loved to leave it up longer but 1) I had my son here to help get boxes, wrap lights, etc. and 2) it was about to spontaneously combust.

I miss it. January decor is so...blah...

Ex Marin girl, SS

No, you're not. I'll be reluctantly putting everything away this week, before I go back to teaching. Sigh!

We've got one of those umbrella-types that stands on a table. The lights are built in fiber-types and it takes about 5 mins to set up and put away. We typically take it down two weeks after the solstice.

Took it down today!

I'm better than you.

....heh.

Pssssst. Here in the Pacific NW, I have a fake tree. It's not my choice, but it would be difficult to bring a real tree on the bus. However, one of the perks of getting your tree from Rite Aid is that you can leave it up without worrying about it drying out. It's still in the window and looks lovely and it cheers me while I type. Not taking it down right away, and I'm not at all sorry.

Tree down, lights still up.

We took ours down a few days ago, and I carted it off to the recycle location yesterday. If we had a fake tree, it would be up until Easter, easily. In fact, I never took down the outdoor Christmas lights last year. They are placed under an over hang so they aren't that noticeable, which give me another excuse not to take them down.

Laurel, if you do the Inauguration Day Tree, will you please post a photo of it? I would love to see that idea come to fruition. Thank you.
PS. One thing - I am sending out Inauguration Day greeting cards. Since I didn't send holiday cards, it seems fair. I found some great cards that say, "It is the season of hope."

Ahhhh...............nope. Just took it down tonight though.


So, I guess you're off the hook. ;-D

Thumbed, with a little tinsel and a pine needle stuck under the nail.

this is how anal we are. decided to get a tree, but only a manageable small one week before christmas. would not get the decos from the boxes since I packed them sooo nicely last year. went to target and got only silver stuff, cheap-ish, but varied. did all silver, used it all.

Dec 26, off they came and into the garbage. recycling was the next day and the tree went away with the garbage guys. moved all the furniture back (takes rearranging to get a tree in here). voila!

I am pitiful. I love the tree for about a week, and then it has to go. noticed neighbs a have a bare tree with lights in the window now - no needles! an interesting sculpture for sure.

perhaps I left therapy too soon?????

I don't even remember Christmas. Those puppies (we had 2--- which is ridiculous---we live in 1400 sq feet) were out of here on New Year's Day. Bye-bye.

the tree in our house when I was growing up was always down the weekend after christmas. In my house now, it is usually down the day or two after. this year it took me till new years. I came homr from work at 11:30 at night and decided that it was too dry and it needed to come down, so it was down by 1 am, and the next day I asked my husband if he noticed anything different about the living room, he had to go back out and look. sigh...all my hard work....
on another note,
Our neighbor had their tree up about 6 months before christmas, and I dont' think it is coming down now.....

The Chargers did.

They went on a winning streak right after they put theirs up.

I think they'll be taking it down tomorrow.

Go Ravens. I'm sorry, it's not that I'm bitter, although I am very disappointed. It's just that I've never really liked the Steelers.

Just put it back in the closet yesterday. (It's fake so don't think I'm some kind of arboreal Norman (Norma) Bates.

We were going to take it down today but decided to go out instead. Maybe this week sometime.

We boxed it back up the weekend after the New Year but I hated to see it go. It was symbolic of something special and now there's only an empty space to remind me of its absence. I do love the holidays!

Shup! Shhh!

Ugh...I've been trying to force myself in that direction all day -- and have failed miserably. I did manage to get the big, tacky decoration off of the door and toss the oh-so-cute smooching Rudolph & Clarice into a box that they don't actually belong in. It's been a chaotic kinda season, so I'm considering that a major accomplishment. :)

Always comes down on Epiphany, which is the 12th and last day in the 12 days of Christmas.

Mine is still up but here is my excuse: as an Old Calendar Russian follower, I put it up on New Calendar Christmas Eve (which is the Gregorian December 24) and will take it down on Old Calendar Epiphany (January 19 this year)... For my Julian calendar runs 13 days late. It is well-known that the Russians "oblomov" very well...

Yes it is.. we have a fiber optic tree so it passes as a light show all year round.. (I have a string of Christmas lights down the hall also.)

I'm crazy! Everybody knows it so why try and hide the fact?

Mine was taken down January 2nd, which was a little longer than I usually keep it up. I hated to see it go because it was particularly pretty with an abundance of small colored lights, but when the holidays are over, they're over...

wakingupslowly -- I love your ideas! I'm going to make that Obama tree, take a photo, and put it right on the front of my Inauguration Day greeting card. Christmas in January, which it indeed will be. The bad news is, I just went to inventory our button/bumper sticker supply, and it's not nearly enough to cover our ginormous tree. (We bought late, so slim pickins at the lot --size wise, our choice was either tabletop or department store. We went with department store.) So I've got to get cracking on homemade ornaments. What fun!

We have ours up. We finally got around to having our Christmas tonight. I'm sick of the tree.

Before I married him, Daniel unintentionally left his tree up year 'round.

Errr... I haven't HAD a tree for the last five years, or so. =o) Liberal guilt about global warming, you know, but I miss having a tree. I just seldom have the leisure to truly enjoy a tree around the mad house that is Christmas. And then with two rambunctious young cats, the only way I could keep the ornaments safe from the cats and the cats safe from the tree would be to suspend it upside down from the center of my ceiling. Have a lot of ornaments in my closet gathering dust.

But darn...Now I wish I DID have a tree for an Inauguration tree. Great idea!

Mine came down today. It's in the yard waste bin. ::sigh:: The ornaments are put away, and the lamp is back in its spot where Christmas was. However, the lights in the yard are still up and on and I'm just not in a big hurry to take those down...maybe I'll leave *those* up for the inauguration!

Another "OS addiction" sign to watch out for: I was driving home tonight and saw that a neighbor still had their tree up in all its multicolor glory. What did I think to myself? Ooooh - I need to comment on Laurel's blog about trees still being up.

I am one sick puppy.

Ha, ha! You ARE a sick puppy! So am I. And now the tail is wagging the dog. I'm starting to look at everything that happens in real life in terms of its usefulness as material for my blog.