Is anyone else...

Took ours down on Monday and couldn't wait to see the back of them! Love Christmas, me - not!

bells love the colour of your mop!

Had good fun putting dec's up with a 2yr old and 3yr old
Chaos taking them down with same 2yr old & 3yr old!

carer loved your fat ball tree
I now wish we had a real one

We dismantled ours yesterday and I was so fed up I walked away.

Today we are boxing, packing up and I felt a lot happier as I have had 2 'gurt big' Snowballs in a 'cheers' to my dear old mum who passed on her love of Christmas to us.

It's like doing the ruddy Hokey Cokey , you put it in, you take it out, you put it in, you take it out.

Yep. Comes round so quick too, dunnit Pogs?!

Hope it's not too much of a disaster KatyK.

Why is it that once it is all packed away back in the loft and I'm sitting with a restorative cuppa that I immediately spot the one that got away? Every year, it's a tradition .

Ours got put away yesterday. Not planned, but we got up to find water dripping through the ceiling into the kitchen. So in advance of our lovely plumber coming, we got the loft ladder down, so thought the decorations should go back up. Ah well, some good things come through bad happenings. Leak stopped and now just have to let the ceiling dry out before wielding a paint brush.

Thank you belllsisabelle I haven't looked yet!

cornergran I've got a 'one that got away'
What are you going to do with yours?
I can't be arsed bothered to go up in the loft for one small bauble
So its sitting on its Todd in wooden bowl.
Do I ignore? ( Hard to its bright red!)
Chuck?
Put in a drawer, forget that its there
But then it won't even be on the tree next year?
All input gratefully received

Ours come down on the 6th every year, so we're girding up the loins to attack tomorrow. We always have a small real tree, which goes out into the garden to dry out for the fire, and every year when we come to saw it up we find a decoration nestling in the branches. It doesn't seem to matter how carefully we search. That's as well as the ones which have fallen off and crept under the sofa. Usually they are put back into the box in the garage when found, but if the box was in the loft I probably wouldn't bother!

carer123, your idea of putting fat balls in the tree sounds good - we haven't found a way of keeping the big birds (jackdaws and gulls) off the fat balls, but maybe Christmas tree needles will do the job.

Why does it take so much longer to take them down than put them up (or around)?

All packed away, the tree is outside having shed needles in a last defiant act, have dusted and vacuumed.

There is only one c in vacuum isn't there? It keeps giving me a red underline, so I have changed it to two a few times lately.

Throw it away Cherrytree - it will only annoy you all year.

Doesn't the house look bare now?
not bare, minimalist hildajenni

I love it, although ours is never that minimalist because the ornaments which were put away before Christmas have come out again now.

Ours came down on the 30th, and that was actually quite late for us! They always come down the day DD goes home, but she stayed a couple of days longer than usual because her DD was unwell from Boxing Day with HFM .
We didn't put the decs up until the 20th, so we had them for 10 days and I was itching to get the room back to normal. They really do irritate me once Christmas Day is done.

I fell backwards off the ladder to the loft today and ended halfway down the stairs putting the decorations away . It was exhausting and really too heavy. I banged my head and scrapped my hand. Not doing it another year. Will just have a couple of bits. I normally de corate the whole house but I think it's time to call it a day.

Yes Jalima, only one c in vacuum. I don't get a red line though

Oh Lord, ww that must have been frightening . But still, I imagine you're grateful for no broken bones - could so easily have been a lot worse. Take care of yourself

Oh dear whitewave When I dropped my box of decs, I was standing on a stool putting them onto a high shelf when the box tipped up and it all went crashing down. I should have asked DH to do it but he had just made such a fuss of dismantling the tree and trying to squeeze it back into its box, puffing and muttering under his breath, that I thought I'd do it myself. Not sure it's worth it but I will probably do it all again next year!

Yes I was so lucky as I fell backwards onto my back. Last time I did that I was in France and ended up in hospital with crushed together vertebrae. So I almost felt gleeful when I realised I hadn't done it again

whitewave
Hope you are OK.

I did say that we should find some space at the top of a wardrobe for the decorations instead of the attic but DH insisted they went up there out of the way and took them up there.

I think I will just say 'hoovering' Indinana even though it is a Dyson.
Red line underneath your name!

MIne took so long to take down last time [longer than they took to put up it seemed] that this year I put up as small a number as I could get away with. No one noticed! Result.

I put up fewer this year as well.

whitewave That's awful.Could have been so much worse too! I've found it hard going this year, but I can't let Christmas go yet. I hope I can manage it, slowly, for a few more years.

Whitewave that could have been so much worse (like last time).

Ouch whitewave, I hope you're still feeling ok.

Ours come down yesterday, the first time in my life I haven't waiting till 12th night. Thursday is toddler minding day though and we decided toddlers and decoration packing away weren't the best combination. One of the 'children' arrived with toddler and dog (making 3 dogs to aid the packing) and asked me when I'd developed OCD. This was because I was happily putting lights into their original boxes, the Christmas tree decorations into the box they've been stored in for over 20 years, left over cards/wrapping paper/gift bags all carefully packed for use next year. I have decided to embrace the very occasional outbreak of OCD. It's so rare as to be invisible.