How long do the Christmas trains and related stay up?

I may leave the snow patches out for a while, but the Manger and other tin Christmas buildings are already packed.

 

Steve

we always cut our tree down fresh, so it lasts a long time. We all like the Christmas decorations, and The Boss likes having me in the living room playing with the trains instead of in the basement, so it's a win win for us. A few years ago we almost made it to Easter(should have seen the looks we got when anyone stopped by....)But usually the end of January.

 Everything stays up until Jan 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany or as some call it Little Christmas.

The Polar Express gets packed up when the tree comes down.  My wife ensures all decorations remain up through the Epiphany.  That gives us to next Tuesday.

 

My son wants the PE on the Basement layout all year long.  But he has lots of other trains to play with.  We want the PE to remain special and have something he and his sister can look forward to every December.  So we pack that train up.

 

Ron

 

Usually until mid-January...Greg

To the three kings day.

Thanksgiving through late Jan/Early Feb

2015 goal, start weekend before thanksgiving. Still be running trains as Giants win Superbowl. Pester Mike Wolf to make something powered for NY Giants. 

The tree just came down this evening. Its been up since the day after Thanksgiving. The lights are still on outside.

It's rather ironic for me.  As far as Christmas is concerned, I wish the season lasted longer that it does.  After December 25, however, I'm ready to take everything down.  With that said... my train stuff has already been taken down.  Fortunately, it is highly accessible, so I can and do pull it out whenever I want to.

This is one reason why a permanent layout would be better winter-themed rather than Christmas-themed.

We leave our Christmas decorations up through a good part of January.  That's in part because we ALWAYS get a late start and our decos get up late, so we compensate on the other end of the season.

 

Last year, our small twice-around-the-tree track stayed up all year in the living room!!!  The grandkids loved it so grandmom was happy to leave it with a PE set on it.  Let's see if that magic continues to work this year.

After the 12 days of Christmas. Been up since the first week of November. 

We have a long standing family tradition. Our Christmas decorations go up on or just before the first weekend of November. Everything comes down the last weekend of January. The children and grandchildren really look forward to the family get-together. At my age I get to supervise and taste test all the food.

 

God Bless,

"Pappy" 

Already took the lights down outside. The tree and inside decorations will come down after my hangover wears off New Years Day.

Marty if you're waiting for the Giants to win the Super Bowl Your trains will be up for a long, long, long time.

Late January - early February, but this year I've concocted a scheme that may leave part of it up indefinitely.  My wife says "the room has to be functional".  To me, that means you have to be able to breathe in there.  Beyond that, it's all in-bounds!

Christmas tree and trains are up until end of January. However, I built a permanent Christmas layout in the family room. So it will be merry all year long.

 

Bob

Traditionally in our home, the tree and anything that was part decorating around the tree including the trains is taken down and put away on New Year's Day...

 

Alan

Christmas tree and Dept. 56 village is still up. No set date for removal. Usually whenever I'm told to get rid of 'em.

 

My MTH Christmas boxcars on my permanent layout were boxed up and put away last night. 

Jan 1 is Un-Christmas in my household. However the layout is in basement and is up year round

January 2nd outdoor lights come down and Jan 3rd the tree with the PolEx around it comes down.  A little quick I must admit but with three kids and work I have to take advantage of some "free" time, especially this year with New Years Day on a Thursday and me being off on Friday.

My Christmas layout doesn't come down until March 2015!! Why you ask??? Because I still have visitors that wants to see the layout in action!!

The Christmas Tree, we follow the Twelve Days of Christmas. The Christmas layout downstairs, complete re-do for next year, so very soon. The layout in the barn, stays up all year.

The tree comes down in mid January, as well as everything else, but the trains stay up all the way until March.

Our Holiday/winter layout is in a separate room so even though the tree will come down this weekend, the layout will stay up until Super Bowl weekend. 

 

After that it all gets put away until next October for reconstruction of the Halloween layout.

 

Most inside decorations are down. The wife does something in every room of the house. The tree and trains are still up, but will come down this weekend along with the outside lights. When I was a young lad, mom and dad would put the tree and trains up after we went to bed on Christmas Eve. It was a nice surprise fro all of us to see the magic of Christmas when we woke. I don't know how they did it; they were both in the choir and sang for midnight mass, then my dad, who worked in the family dairy, had to get ice cream cakes ready for pickup on Christmas day. We would wake them around 6 AM to open gifts, and then we all went to 11 o' clock Mass which they sang for as well. 

I'd like to keep the tree up as long as we did growing up, usually til the end of January or later, but when the tree goes up on the day after Thanksgiving, it's a long season.

Happy New Year,

Don

We figured out a way to extend the season with some pre-planning: on Christmas day, our kid only gets 3 gifts from Santa and 3 from Mommy/Daddy.  She then receives 1 gift per day (think small $2-$10 items) for the "12 Days of Christmas" which lasts through Epiphany.  It has several positive effects- it eliminates the gift overkill on Christmas Day; it eliminates the massive downer of the day after Christmas Day; it extends the joy of the season (trains, lights, music, leftovers) for almost two more weeks; it allows us to enjoy the spirit of the season without all of the pre-25th cram session; it allows us to slow down and focus on the religious origins of the season which gets lost in the commercialized crush of mid-Dec.  We have done our "12 Days" for the last three years and it has really improved our enjoyment of the holiday. Anyone who reads this, I hope you consider the benefits of trying it. 

Target date for this year is January 10, 2015.  We absolutely have to leave all the decorations up until just after the Epiphany or "Little Christmas" as it often referred to so thankfully I have a few days left.  I love running the trains under the tree at night time and always get a little "Blue" when everything has to come down.  Fortunately, I have a year round layout in the basement to help my spirits rebound. 

That's very funny. Strictly mathematically, only 4 teams wouldn't trade Superbowl era success with the Giants (4 and 1), without a second thought. About the same if we limit it to this century (2 and 1). With your WM logo, I'm guessing you might be a fan of the team that beat them.... Since I can't say something nice, I won't say anything at all.

 

But back to trains. C'mon Mike W, the Steelers can't be the only team that would buy out a run of something with more power than a trolley. I have all the cars. And if you make a caboose as well, I promise not to ever switch to Atlas track. I'll even record my own highlights and play them through the TIU.

(This does relate to leaving the Christmas decorations up, as they overlap the N scale football train!)

This year everything will come down starting on January 2nd which is earlier than normal, but I put up my layout earlier than normal this year in order to have it filmed by TM Books and Video.  Usually, in previous years, I have waited to the end of January except for my Christmas Layout for 2013 came down in late February because of the very harsh and cold winter!  Ken

The tree and such comes down Jan 2, before the kids go back to school. The trains stay up until I get tired of stepping over them to get to the dining room. Usually a week or so later.

Tree and outside lights will come down this weekend.

No special Christmas layout as the regular one is in the living room anyway.

The trees come down tomorrow. The trains never made it out.

 

Gilly

In olden times Candlemas (Feb.2, Groundhog Day to heathens) the 40th day after Christmas is the last feast day related to Christmas. Traditionally the decorations are taken down on Candlemas Eve.

Good enough for me. More or less. Whenever I am so moved.

Jeff,

   Usually the Christmas layout & decorations including the manger in the living room, comes down after my wife has her last Christmas season String Quartet gathering at the house, in mid January.  This year that gathering is a little later in January than normal. 

PCRR/Dave  

We do the same thing. The tree stays up until after Little Christmas. 

When I was a child my mother would clean everything up and away on New Year's Day (she also of couse throgh out my childhood trains).

My wife insists things must stay up until Three Kings Day.

Scotie

Before we moved to the condo, the trains in the living room went up around Thanksgiving and came down around All Fool's Day. Perhaps, there is a significance to that date. Now the trains are in the basement year round.

I always put up the tree for the first Sunday of Advent. Baby Jesus gets added to the manger on Christmas day. I leave everything up through Epiphany, which will be celebrated Sunday this year.

 

I am scheming for next year already. I want to scratchbuild the house from "A Christmas Story, which will be on the layout year round. I want to figure out how to build Christmas trees with LEDs that will fit in the front windows of my houses.

 

I also will keep a vacant lot on what passes for a "layout" at my house, where I can seasonally drop in a Christmas tree lot with the light strings on poles. That prop will be out with the rest of the decorations.

 

Happy New Year, everybody!

for us.........the layout stays up until mid February.  I hope to post a video before the dis-assembly.