Okay, who on this board hasn't taken down their tree or Christmas lights?

Fess up.

Are you one of those who leaves the lights up all year, but just doesn't turn them on?

I would leave mine up but we have one of those pesky homeowner"s associations with all these rules and stuff. Not only do I have to have my Christmas decorations down by Jan. 5th but I'm not allowed to put plastic flamingos on my front lawn either.

On a side note I noticed this year that I am the only one in my neighborhood that puts up my own lights and decorations. (and takes them down). Our next door neighbors "rent" their outside decorations and lights and have them put up and taken down by "professionals".

I have little white lights in my Ficus trees, so I leave them up. As long as the Ficus tree doesn't grow too much, the lights look great for other special occasions.

Mine are still up. Growing up we always kept them up until January 6. That was the tradition in our home. It was passed down from my Irish grandparents. My mother being devout Catholic said you had to leave them up until the 3 kings have arrived. I know this makes no sense to many but my mother was a hardcore Irish Catholic and nobody but nobody dared question her beliefs.

Christmas was huge deal in our house when we were growing up. Two parents, six siblings and always relatives from Chicago who came to Florida for Christmas. Mom being Irish and dad being German the weeks from Thanksgiving to New years were pure heaven in our home. It was heartbreaking after my father died and I would go visit my mother and she didn't even put up a tree and wouldn't let any of us put one up for her. We all knew the end was near and we were right. She lasted about two years without my dad.

I no longer practice any organized religion. Our decorations are still up because we put up so many it is a major job to take them down. We have over 50,000 lights outside and basically every room in the house decorated. We have been busy helping a recently widowed relative get settled in Florida so that is where all of all time is going.

Scrooge here took everything down on December 26. That's because a trip to Vegas was planned for December 27 and wouldn't feel like taking them down post-trip. December 26 was an all-time record.

I like to have ours down by New Years Day, but this is the first year I've actually done it.

Put the last items away yesterday except for some of the things frozen in the snow outside --- currently -15 here in Wisconsin. Burrrrrrrr.........

I had to laugh. Here in the Tampa / St. Petersburg area they cancelled a night time festival because it was going to be too cold. Yep a brutal 50 degrees. Notice there is no minus sign in that sentence. I can't even imagine 0 degrees much less minus 15. Wow, wow, wow.

I have white candles in every window and will leave them on through this week end. We just got slammed with 18" of snow and -10 degrees. If I venture out of the house before Spring arrives with decent weather, ill consider taking the lights off my evergreens. Otherwise, outside will glow all winter!

Tree came down tonight. But the yard is another story. Still have about 30,000 lights to go (not bad when I started the take-down at 135,000 lights). 10 degrees today and 15 tomorrow...think I will wait a few days to continue the take-down.
The county estimated another 30,000 visitor year (using their car counter).