December 28th ~ Packing Up

I felt like such a scrooge this year, as it seemed that everyone in the blogging and tweeting world was decorated for Christmas by Thanksgiving.  I have never decorated for Christmas before or even by Thanksgiving.  For better or worse, I like to still have my fall decorations in place when we carve the turkey.  

Now that we are on the other end of Christmas, I have noticed that many of my blogging and tweeting friends are saying that they have packed Christmas away.  Turns out they start early, and end early.

It has been our family's tradition to put the tree up the first weekend in December, and the decorating continues from there.  Then, on New Year's Day, the tree comes down -- and so does most everything else.  A few snowmen might stay around if I'm not already too overwhelmed by the thought of winter.

So, I am CURIOUS...

When do you put up/take down your tree?

Do all of your decorations go up/come down at the same time as the tree?

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers.  Sometimes though, we may find that we don't really know WHY we do things the way we do.  We just carry on the way our parents did things, for example.  That reminds me of the story of the roast with the ends cut off.  Do you know it?

A new bride cooks a roast for her husband.  In preparation for the cooking, she cuts off the ends of the roast.  Her husband is mystified as to why she has done this.  She assures him that it's her mother's recipe and this is the way it's done.  The next time they visit her family, the husband asks his mother-in-law WHY she cuts off the ends of the roast.  She assures him that it was HER mother's recipe and that this is the way it's done.  The next time they see the grandmother, he asks her the same question.  Her answer to him:  "I never had a pan large enough for the entire roast, so I cut the ends off!"