Stuck on the Subway

Happy 2025, everyone!

Tomorrow we will be halfway through the month of January, and a full three weeks past Christmas. I still see them and so do you: the decorations.

I draw one of three conclusions about you if your wreaths and poinsettias still grace your home or place of business: you haven’t had time to take them down; you are lazy; or you really like Christmas.

To be clear, I’m sympathetic to all three, so that feeling of judgement you have is misplaced. But I’ve thought about this such that I decided to make a post about it…when should the decorations come down?

I’m apt to give the answer that January 6 is the day. That is the day of Epiphany, when the Three Wise Men visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Note that this is twelve days after Christmas Day, so if you begin your delivery of birds and other accoutrements on Christmas, it would conclude on the sixth.

But that seems bureaucratic to me. Same with–and this is a controversial topic to some–when to put the decorations up.

Some swear by waiting until after Thanksgiving, and I get that. Give Thanksgiving its due. But if, say, on the fifteenth of November you’re feeling particularly festive and want to put up your Christmas decorations to really round it out. Nope. By your own arbitrage, you cannot.

I put mine up when I feel like it. When the time is right. I still enjoy Thanksgiving, it’s not a zero-sum game here.

Taking them down? I’ll admit, I took mine down early this year. Same as putting them up, it just felt right.

My mom on the other hand, when I was growing up, couldn’t wait to reclaim the living room real estate annexed by the lit tree and colorfully wrapped boxes. Household lore recalls her taking ornaments down while we were about halfway through the unwrapping on Christmas morning.

In the end, do what makes you happy. But, you know, it’s getting pretty late in the year…