All gone (At least until December 2023)!

I usually leave mine up until late January. This year especially, with my new job, it took so long to complete it, I am definitely not in a hurry to take it down.

Or, you could do like the stores do and put up Christmas stuff in September!

You did better than me John. I didn't even set up the PE set under the tree this year. We just finished having the house sided in mid-December and I was out of gas.....the house looks great though

From Christmas 2021

My little helper.......

Happy New Year.

Bob

@texgeekboy posted:

Or, you could do like the stores do and put up Christmas stuff in September!

Or do like we did several times. Leave it up all year! Artificial tree of course.

We typically go one week after the New Year. My times running short...

We'll be taking everything down this coming weekend, after the Day of the epiphany.  After all, Christmas lasts until this Thursday night, the Twelfthnight!

@Lionelskii, Wow, I can see why you are a bit sad, that’s a beautiful Christmas Tree, beautiful train under the tree, a beautiful cabinet, a beautiful living room, it’s really nice. I believe your operating standard gauge tinplate trains, so colorful. Thanks for sharing your Christmas set up with us here on the Forum. Awesome.
@Scrambler81, you also have a really beautiful set up, a fun to see and run Christmas time layout. It’s very well designed, O gauge trains, nice accessories, a wonderful layout. Thanks for sharing your Christmas decorations with us, it’s a great season and your display sets the theme for sure.
@RSJB18, Bob, that’s beautiful siding on your home, and beautiful landscaping to, and your Christmas Tree and decorations are very nice and the trains running are cool. Three wonderful Christmas settings, thank you all for showing your Christmas Spirit with us. Happy New Year to Everyone.

@leapinlarry posted:

@Lionelskii, Wow, I can see why you are a bit sad, that’s a beautiful Christmas Tree, beautiful train under the tree, a beautiful cabinet, a beautiful living room, it’s really nice. I believe your operating standard gauge tinplate trains, so colorful. Thanks for sharing your Christmas set up with us here on the Forum. Awesome.

Thanks leapinlarry,

We spend our evening TV time in the den, so that is where the tree and trains were/are. This way we can enjoy looking at them more. Normally we wait until January 6, but the tree stopped drinking and was getting very dry.

A beautiful warm day here on LI, so the outside decorations came down too (why wait for the freezing single digit temps like we had last week?). I love the old blow-mold decorations - more nostalgia:

@Scrambler81 posted:

I usually leave mine up until late January. This year especially, with my new job, it took so long to complete it, I am definitely not in a hurry to take it down.

Love the layout Scrambler81!!

palallin and scrambler81,

We had a real tree that stopped drinking and was getting pretty dry. I wish I could have waited until at least 1/6!

Oh well

Oh, wow!  Yes, of course.  at that point, we have no choice.  I would like to have a real tree someday but don't for that very reason.

If my post came across as critical, it was meant to be nothing of the sort.  I simply figured you had started the annual "It's the end of the Christmas layout" thread.

On our Christmas layout, if I took it down before the Epiphany, I can just hear the conversation between these guys:

Caspar: "Uh, where did everybody go?"

Melchior: "I kept telling you guys we were just traveling in circles."

Balthazar: "Whose idea was it to hitch a ride on the flat car?"

I can't remember exactly when I took down our layout last year, but I do recall watching a few coal cars running around while sipping a Guinness on Saint Patrick's Day. This from a guy who often gets around to raking Autumn leaves in the Spring. Oh, well.

Call me Ebeneezer but all my stuff except what's on the downstairs layout has been put away since the morning of the 26th.  Once the kids came over on Christmas I knew I wouldn't have any other visitors so I cleaned it up.  The transition from Polar Express/Christmas on the layout will most likely happen this weekend. But until then here's this...

@Scrambler81 posted:

I usually leave mine up until late January. This year especially, with my new job, it took so long to complete it, I am definitely not in a hurry to take it down.

Nice set-up! (And the horror of that car out in the snow 😉😁)

@palallin posted:

Oh, wow!  Yes, of course.  at that point, we have no choice.  I would like to have a real tree someday but don't for that very reason.

If my post came across as critical, it was meant to be nothing of the sort.  I simply figured you had started the annual "It's the end of the Christmas layout" thread.

No issues palallin.

Your post did not come across as critical at all

All of my train buddies think I'm nuts for taking my 11'x14' Christmas layout with 2 levels down as soon as I do - usually a few days after Christmas day.  They have a good point in a way - it takes me 4 to 5 weeks to complete it and they all think I shouldn't go thru all of that work and 'destroy' it so soon.

But to be honest, FOR ME, it was up long enough.

- walt

@walt rapp posted:

All of my train buddies think I'm nuts for taking my 11'x14' Christmas layout with 2 levels down as soon as I do - usually a few days after Christmas day.  They have a good point in a way - it takes me 4 to 5 weeks to complete it and they all think I shouldn't go thru all of that work and 'destroy' it so soon.

But to be honest, FOR ME, it was up long enough.

- walt

Walt,

As long as you had fun setting it up, running trains, and sharing it with others I don't think you are nuts. Do you have pics of it to share here?

Time to start planning for December 2023!

Our tree along with all of our other Christmas decorations including our trains comes down right after the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.  Always a downer for me.  This year we ran one of my old Lionel early post-war 2-6-2 675’s circa 1946 along with circa 1997 Lionel silver and red Madison cars.  Everything made in the good old U.S.A. and has operated flawlessly throughout the holiday season.  😃😃😃

We start setting Christmas up the first Saturday of November and take down end of January. It’s such a short season and we maximize it as much as possible.

@Lionelski posted:

Walt,

As long as you had fun setting it up, running trains, and sharing it with others I don't think you are nuts. Do you have pics of it to share here?

Time to start planning for December 2023!

Since I only have a christmas layout, I take a large amount of photos and post one a week on Scott Smith's Photo Fun thread. This spreads them out over a full year typically.  I will start posting them next week.

I did post a video of it that's on youtube a month or so ago.

walt

I don't have room in my house for a permanent layout so my Christmas display is my train fun for the year.  I typically setup after Thanksgiving and keep it up until either Super Bowl or Valentine's Day.  I have modified the "Christmas" display to make it a "Winter" Display.  That way I can stretch out my train fun until ~March.   I haven't done that in a few years.  Maybe it's time again.  I've thought about what ChiTown Steve does but I can't seem to get motivated until I watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I've also considered configuring the display for Halloween.  That way I could put it up in September and then swap Halloween for Christmas between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  The problem with that is except for the benchwork, it's a complete rebuild between Halloween and Christmas themes.  Another motivational issue...

I have a friend that keeps a tree up all year.  She uses clear lights on it and changes out the hanging decorations.  Hearts, Shamrocks, eggs, etc.  I thought of doing something similar but my wife and I both prefer multi-colored lights for Christmas so for me I would have to completely un-decorate the tree to change out the lights.

Tony V