Taking down the tree

We're in the same boat. The ornaments are all put away. Just need to put the trees back into the boxes (3). It seems like we were just putting them up....

 

Gilly

Not yet, 4 more days until the Twelve Days of Christmas end. And then, we will probably leave it up for awhile longer.

 

My wife & my son were set to help me & all of a sudden her brother called & *BaNg!* they were off in a flash to go bowling. Now I'm stuck here, by myself, buried in boxes, garland, & pine needles & I mentally checked out about an hour ago, picked up the iPad & started complaining to all you fine people.

After my father passed away in October of 2013, I had nothing up for the last two Christmases. Easier than going through the motions of trying to be festive. 

No kids, no family, no problem.

Our Tree will likely come down this coming weekend. The den layout will change back from the Christmas display to the regular layout sometime after that.

 

Casey

Sorry to hear you are not getting into the spirit but I understand.

Same happened to my a few years in the Military.

Not much room for a tree in a barracks room.

 

Happily I got a family and that passed.

Our tree comes down this weekend, so the train comes down tomorrow. The shame of it is that I ran it when I put it up and one other time this year. I just didn't have time to run it any other time...oh well, I'll just have to run the big layout more to make up for it.

One reason we leave ours up for a while. The Boss hates this time of year with the cold, gray skies,and the house looks so bland after the tree and decorations come down. Plus I like having a train platform in the living room.

 

 

 

What's the rush?

 

 

 

Steamer,

          You and the boss hit the nail squarely on the head on this one.  I really dislike taking down the tree for the same reason.  Oh well, only 359 days until next Christmas.

 Valentines Day is coming!!  har har

Finished up this morning. It's always a little depressing and boring. The house seems so big now.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. People can keep their hot, sweaty, big AC bills, and the "weather is so nice" attitude about summer. I'll take winter any time. I don't mind shovelling snow, but I hate mowing the yard.

Back to work on Monday, and nothing to look forward to until we go on vacation in the summer, to a cooler climate I might add, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas again. Seems so far away, but as I get older, it comes faster and faster every year.

With the way time seems to fly these days, it will be time to put them up again before we know it. 

 

Bill

One of the downsides of liking the holiday season so much is the big letdown afterwards.  On Labor Day, the sadness of the summer season being over is replaced with the excitement of the fall and Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  There are months of build up where as soon as one thing is over, there is another exciting thing coming down the road in short time.

 

But after Christmas, we are met with the prospects of going back to work (and work starts getting serious and earnest again), cold winter, and little to look forward to if you don't have a ski or spring break trip planned.  It's a long haul until the spring when you can start to get excited again about spring and summer and all that comes with that.  I just dread this time of the year.  Mostly because I am not a huge fan of my job.  So I dread the prospects of going back for 5 day weeks from here on out.  In December, even during my worst day of work, a Christmas carol is on the radio or lights on a house on my drive home, that makes even the worst day cheery.

 

Oh well, this too will pass and I'll be onto the next thing.  This time of the year my focus turns from trains to my other big pursuit (boats and fishing).  So time to start drooling over videos of those on Youtube.

I agree....seems like I just put everything up and spent the majority of today, taking it all down.  The wife and I are sitting on the couch exhausted.....saying we have to cut back on the decorations.......but we never do.

 

-Pete

I'll be taking the tree and the lights down Saturday. I just about always hate to take 'em down, but it has to be done. What really got me this year is that besides me, only one other house on my block had holiday decorations.

I guess my rush is a mental thing. It's just the way I'm programmed. I'm task orientated. I like to see things get done to completion & then when it's over with, I've got to finish it & move on to the next phase. Xmas timed out today in my mind & now this layout that's been up since the weekend after Thanksgiving has got to be packed up, cleaned up, & the room needs to get back to order. It was fun while it lasted but I'm ready to move on now. Besides, the tree is pretty much shot, it's needles are falling off by the hour & it's starting to smell like stale pine sap. It's a task that just needs to get done. Like the other guys said, it's season is over & the doldrums of winter living in the North East are on until Spring. Time to hunker down & wait it out for the next couple months.

I took my tree down last night. I still have the train running along the fish tank and behind the fish tank. I think that I will keep it up for a long time this time. I still have to run some wire for my layout out in the breezeway and garage. I did buy a new heater for out there which I need to fill up with some Kerosene. Then I need to adjust the old kerosene heater so I have heat that runs longer then 6 hours.

Time to start planning for next year. Make a list of what i can do improve my Christmas layout and what i need to buy to make it better. Christmas will be here before you know it. 

Way too early for me to take the tree down.  We usually do it the weekend after Little Christmas.

-Greg

Will be taking mine down tomorrow. Intended to do it today but got busy with other things. I don't find it sad, it's just time moving along. Time to get the ski gear ready. 

yeah it works out well for us. She doesn't mind the trains, and we both like the tree up for a while.

Funny you should mention that, because the past several years that's how I've been too. I'll go all out making a layout around the tree, and then end up only running the trains a few times during the 3-4 weeks before Christmas. This year I ran the trains maybe four times, including a couple runs on Christmas. Oh well. Now I'm ready to pack it up and move on to other things.

We trimmed the tree with ornaments three weeks ago and trimmed it again yesterday, only this time with pruning shears. It's easier to remove from the house this way.

TJ

One year I had a big Christmas layout which took up the living room.When it came time to take it down I hesitated and it didnt come down until July.

 

Bob C.

Hmm, time to take the tree down? Not until after the Feast of the Epiphany, which I believe is this coming Tuesday. So maybe take the tree down Wednesday. Ahh but hold on, I have to take down the outside decorations first. So maybe the tree will come down on Thursday. Hold up on that, I haven't run any of the year round trains on the Christmas display, so maybe the tree will come down on Friday. But wait on that, I'll bet the LionChief + NYC Hudson runs really well and looks marvelous pulling 16 passenger cars up, down and around our double spiral Christmas display. May have to keep it all up for a few more weeks.

We had a three piece pre-decorated tree with lights for the last few years. A few days before Christmas one of the string of lights went out. It looked to me as if the non-replaceable bulb burnt out. A couple of nights later another string of lights went out. So we took our tree down on Tuesday of this week and promptly deposit it into three large hefty garbage bags. It left here Wednesday morning in the garbage truck. Now we have to decide what we are going to do for next year. Maybe a smaller tree.