How long before your train around the tree display, platform or holiday garden is taken down?

My tree- layout will come down After the 3 kings arrive which is usually around Jan 9th

The weekend after New Year's is when all of the Christmas stuff gets put away. I only have a simple loop around the tree so the process is not much of an undertaking. I also have a permanent year round layout so putting away the Christmas trains are less painful.

This morning before I left for work at 5:30 AM.  But, that is because I have an RA number from Lionel to return my Legacy 990 due to the dual red flashing light problem.  I disconnected and pulled the base to ship off today.

the past 4 years my christmas layout was my permanent layout but trhe new house don't allow for that so around two weeks from now it'll come down on the bright side i'll be moving construction upstairs to start on a modified version of a lionel d_131 dealer layout!

dave

New Years day.

No earlier than January 6, but we usually keep the tree up much later than that, sometimes to the end of January.

Tomorrow (27th).  The grandkids leave about mid morning. That will sort of take the fun out of it.  But it will be back next year!

The Tree and the trains will stay until at least the 15th of January. I just can't get enough of Christmas.

At least after January 6th the tree comes down, but the trains stay up till the end of January. 

I don't have a permanent set-up so I keep it up as long as I can.

 

Tin

Great question. This year we have three locations with a train related to Christmas. The big tree has a train under it that will be removed when we take the tree down, probably mid January. We built a North Pole layout in the first level of our home for the first time this year and for now, it will stay up. My layout in the train room has a Christmas/winter scene that stays unchanged with the exception of new accessories added from time to time.

 

Most of you put a lot of work into your Christmas layouts and if you can enjoy then for as long as it is practical. In any event, there are twelve days of Christmas.

When I was a kid, the tree would come down after January 6th, but I always pleaded with my Dad to leave the train platform up for a few weeks after that. Once my brother and I had room for a permanent payout in the basement, the pleading stopped. 

 

The same holds true today; when the tree and the trains come down, then I head back down to the basement for fun with trains.

I will probably leave this up a month, maybe more. Last year it stayed up til the end of Feb. Too cold to work in the wood shop anyway. And, after all, I just finished it Monday!  Greg

 

Mine is probably coming down Jan 6th, but I'm going to build a permanent winter themed layout so we can enjoy the Christmas trains all year long.

 

Cheers,

glockr

Our tree stays up until, January 10th, give or take a few days. My track board (60" circle) is the base for our tree. My wife and youngest daughter take down the tree and have everything put away within an hour. All I have to do is store my tree (train) base overhead in my garage.

One of two trees is placed in the middle of the layout. The other on a mostly glass porch where I am watching the snow fall.

In the very old days the decorations were taken down on Candlemas Eve. Candlemas, the 40th day after Christmas, is the last feast day related to Christmas. To heathens it is known as Groundhog Day. This is good enough for me.

I also leisurely celebrate 12 days of Christmas before returning to the routines of life.

January 5th. That is the last day of our modular railroad display at Midlothian Village Marketplace.

 

Gilly

Usually around 3 Kings day.  I have to take the trains out before we can undecorate the tree to remove it.   It's a lot quicker to take down than to setup!   It is so pleasant to just sit and look at the tree and the small 'perfect, quiet and peaceful' village below.   I have to get some of the neighbor kids in to see it before we take it down.   I finally got smart and put my UCS track right in the front with 3 operating cars in my freight consist.   I dump out logs, hershey kisses and unload boxes for the kids.  They get to keep the Hershey kisses.   

The tree will come down, the living room will go back to normal and the trains get relegated to the carpeted basement til at least Feb. I hope!! 

Right after New Year's it will come down.  Seem like it just went up.  My permanent layout in the basement has no scenery yet...and I was going to make it a predominenently summer/fall scenicked layout.  Now I am wondering....maybe incorporate ALL seasons so I can have some winter scenes year-round as well.  I really have to give this some thought.

 

Rick

Absolute cutoff is the 4th of July.  

Gotta free up time for fireworks! 

after 3 kings day here also ,so after jan 6th the tree comes down ,but i leave the tracks and trains setup till the end of january

I think I made it to late february or march with my layout one year.  We disassembled the tree and just left the trains.

 

My display at the Redford Theatre will probably come down the second weekend in January.

Our display is set up after the day after Thanksgiving day, and is usually not torn down until January 1st.  So a month and a half.

Mine will probably come down next week sometime, before my Mom decides to take the tree down.

Tree gets put away on Jan. 1; circle of track with tinplate train will remain in place indefinitely, with a potted plant of some sort placed in the center where the tree stood.

 

My 36-inch round table top, mounted on the bottom half of a whiskey cask and set in the center of my living room, was something of a hit with visitors, so I think I'll just keep it there with something else replacing the Christmas tree.

Tradition has it that it is bad luck to take decorations and especially the tree before the 12th day of Christmas. So, with Christmas Day being day 1, then January 6 would be the soonest one would start disassembling. That is unless you have a calamity such as the tree falls over a few days after Christmas like ours did two years ago, then you can remove the offending objects.

Gandy

Sometime after my brother and sister-in-law, who are visiting from FL, leave. Probably around January 5-6.

You mean I am supposed to take it all down? Nooooooooooooooooooo! Say it ain't so!

 

Looks like the world will end after all, just not on the date everyone thought it would. Sounds like Jan 6th based on most of the replies thus far!

Usually it would be Jan 6th, but I get an extra week or so this year

1) The cousins that helped with initial setup, on the last day of a visit, to help get my aunt's house (there Mother/Grandmothers) house cleaned up after Sandy, are coming back, in early January. as my Aunt is living with us, she want's them to see the final layout. Luckily, my wife agrees!

Interesting replies so far and I've learned a lot.  We have an artificial tree and usually take it down the weekend after New Year's Day.  The North Pole layout is in a room directly behind the room with the tree so it can stay up as long as we want.  Most likely it will remain until Super Bowl weekend.

 

We have a permanent layout in the basement that we actually ran a couple trains on today.  Although it is usable it is definitely in the "Under Construction" phase.

Typically wait until a day or two before the grandchildren arrive to set up the tree and trains and put them away the day after the grandchildren depart.  Too much to do today; suppose I will get to it tomorrow.

Don't ask what would happen if the grandchildren did not visit.




What, me worry?

We have a real tree and it is getting dry so it and the trains will come down this weekend.  The kids won't like it but the permanent layout is in the basement.

When I was a kid, it was a sad and bitter day when the time came to take down the tree and put the trains away.

 

Today, we take down the tree after January 6th, but the trains are in the basement and stay up permanently.  However, I do plan to put up a temporary loop of 027 track under the tree this year, when visitors start to come.  I will run both my mother's and father's trains for them.  Seeing trains made in 1934 and 1929 (respectively) rattling around the tree as they did so long ago is always fresh and new.

 

Of course, if the weather keeps up the way it is today, we may not get any visitors!

Oh, gosh!  The thoughts of putting away that monster are overwhelming.  I'm still not sure where I'm going to put that Zeppelin!  Don't know when it will come down, but we got started putting up Christmas stuff mid-November, so I got to enjoy having it up longer than in the past.  The trains and village items are kept in my room, so I'll have year-round access to them when planning for next year.  I never really get tired out over the winter-themed layout; I'm in the mood quite often throughout the year. I eventually want to incorporate everything into a permanent layout.

I remember my first Lionel layout around the tree. (I was 42),hated to take it down in late Dec.

Next year it stayed up longer has I had added a MPC Loco and a switch to the 027 track.

Year after that, Euraka! the tree came down but I had added a plywood board, covered in white felt,another engine and two more switches, so I layout up sans tree til mid Feb.  

Next year tree was down in Jan but layout was up in April when it was moved to the basement and turned into a layout. I love this Holiday 

The train around the tree and village houses inside train loop and on table next to tree went up on Dec 23 and comes down a week or so after new year.

 

In a room downstairs however I have a huge Christmas theme layout with 4 loops of trains running around the edges of the room and lots of village houses and figures and trees and lights etc. snow looks great and has now been up for 3 Christmases without coming down yet. Someday will get the time to tear it all down and finish the layout that it is sitting over on plastic food containers holding the boards for the holiday display that sits over the tracks below of the new layout I will finish building one day.

 

Now the reason for the delay in getting the display up around the Christmas tree was that it was set up for the previous 3 weeks at a museum, and only took it down on Dec 23 so then had some stuff to set up around the tree!

 

Christmas theme layouts are fun!

I usually take my tree and Christmas decorations down around the 6th Jan but this year I built a 4'X8' three loop, 21" (grandkid height) layout in the middle of the living room. I will leave it up as long as I want because I can, my ex, a Grinch if I ever saw one (....."I don't know what pleasure you get out of watching a train go around in circles.......") left three years ago . Besides, I'm having fun swapping out buildings, accessories, trains that I bought over the years that are coming out of storage (again, because I can....).

 

I have to share with you the best Christmas gift that I received this year, it was a card from two of my sons (20 and 22) from a second marriage, still living at home. I introduced them to the hobby, the 22 yr old has turned into a master On30 craftsman and the 20 yr old loves his MTH scale Daylight. The card said: "Dad, I may not believe in Santa Claus any more but I'll always believe in you! Merry Christmas with love, Ian & Steven". Now, that's what Christmas is all about: trains, family and friends........

 

So, if you don't have a permanent layout, keep your Christmas layout up as long as you can.

 

All the best to you all for 2013,

 

Mike (alias, Santa), Steven, Ian

 

Mike:

 

You are obviously a great Dad and that card says it all. I would frame it if I were you and put it on display for all to see. I know how important receiving this card meant to you.

 

Thanks for sharing your story and the picture of your sons.

we cut our own tree down every year, so it stays fresh a long time. so as long as the needles  aren't dropping, we leave it up. Two years ago we almost made it to Easter. Got some strang looks when anyone stopped by......we  all like the tree, and the boss likes having me in the living room running trains instead of downstairs.