normality.

[Bigmallly]

I will leave the decs and tree up til then so we can spend at least one evening together curled up on the sofa eating quality street and watching a naff christmas movie under twinkly lights and tinsel! Straight after that though, it all comes down!

A bit too much info there lass...............................2nd Jan for me once the madness has finished.

[Lumpy]

Tree went up on my birthday (the Solstice) and came down yesterday.......don't groan you festive lot...................I have got to the age when summer means more than financial ruin and cold dark nights.

[Guest]

It is always madness in my house having something to blame it on makes it normal My few days of normality have been lovely

[noviceveggrower]

Our tree should be coming down on the 2nd of January. Total normality, if that's what you want to call it, will enter our house when the kids go back to school on the 5th.

[Mushaville]

This is the first year in the last 3 where I haven't worked Christmas day so we just had a lazy one and ordered a takeaway (we didnt really do presents or decorate this year as money is tight but I'll be getting back into the swing of all things christmassy for 2016!)

I worked Xmas Eve, Boxing day, today and tomorrow and then have 2 days off, then back in for another 5 days - retail doesnt stop for anyone lol!

[Alison]

I have got to the age when summer means more than financial ruin and cold dark nights.

Now I'm really confused, didn't know anybody associated summer with financial ruin or cold dark nights (would hope they'd be some warm ones ) although not really thinking of sumner yet anyway - are you based in the Southern Hemisphere?

[bearded bloke]

Nope sorry, don't understand the question Me, I 'm in a perpetual state of normality

[PyreneesPlot]

For us, the decorations go up on the 21st - my dad's funeral was that date and we dressed the tree that evening so it has become a ritual. They come down on the 2nd and life gets back to normal when school starts and the mountains empty again. I find I enjoy the season less and less as I get older - a nice meal and a quiet time with my only close family (MrPP & my mum, and the cat, of course!) and a touch of Skype is enough.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Now I'm really confused, didn't know anybody associated summer with financial ruin or cold dark nights (would hope they'd be some warm ones ) although not really thinking of sumner yet anyway - are you based in the Southern Hemisphere?

Think that Lumpy means that she has got to the age that she enjoys Summer more than Christmas (what with Christmas being a financial ruin and having cold dark nights).

[Alison]

Think that Lumpy means that she has got to the age that she enjoys Summer more than Christmas (what with Christmas being a financial ruin and having cold dark nights).

Ah, that makes more sense than how I read it . We use the same old decorations every year so it doesn't cost anything - some of the baubles are bits of family history, at least 70 years old and I love finding them every year and remembering people no longer with us who used them in years gone by. Bit nostalgic maybe but that connection with loved ones is worth everything to me.

[WendyC]

Decorations will come down before I go back to school on the 4th. Can't stand coming back from work and the decorations are still up. Hoping to get out in the garden this week, it's a real mess with herbaceous to cut down. I even have bulbs to plant!

[Potstubsdustbins]

The decorations are SWMBO's own domain, they go up the week before Christmas and come down on 12th night, I would not dare interfere with her schedule.

We go back to work on the 04/01 and that will be anything but normal, it will be a nightmare of hissing tenants and fizzing landlords, it will be the second week of January before things settle back into the routine.

[Nicos]

And for me....somewhere between the 1st Monday in January and the 12th night.
There is always a period of emptiness though when all the decorations come down and the house looks so bland and sad.
That's when I need to focus on the the new year ahead and the promise of things to come.

[bramble]

Our decorations will be taken down on 6th. January, (little Christmas) and hopefully everything will go back to being normal and we can forget about Christmas.
Its the time of the year I hate the most.

[Lumpy]

Ta for explaining my post Hazel - after I re read it, it did sound a bit odd.