My friend and I decided to go back to our old neighborhood in Astoria for dinner on Thursday night. That was where I saw this Christmas tree vendor on the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street. I stopped and took a dozen or so photos of the scene. A part of me understands the joy these trees bring to families who decorate them for the holiday season but another part of me feels sad because they will be tossed aside the day after the new year arrives. Life as a Christmas tree is not all it cracks up to be after all.
So when do you usually take down the holiday decorations?
16 comments:
A dozen or so photos? It's just a buncha little X-mas trees, Ming! :)
I used to take them down on Jan 8th (haven't done the X-mas thing in years).
PS: Have a nice and warm weekend! :)
I usually take a dozen or so photos so I can get a good one that is hopefully clearly focused and perfectly captured.
I usually take those deco down before CNY if I were back home in Asia. :P
What I find interesting about this photo is, it looks like this could have been a scene from a movie that I've watched in the past at some point in my life. I've seen this exact way to sell Christmas trees in the movies, but where I am from, I've never seen them sold this way before.
What's funny is, I only thought they set up the tree stand like it is in the photo for the movie, but here it is in real life.
Don't feel sad for the Christmas tree, that was their purpose for being planted. New ones will take their place in the ground if the vendors want to stay in business next year. Think of these as a crop a farmer would plant, they just take longer to grow.
never put any up, so never have anything to take down.
problemo solved!
i dont put them up, so nothing to take down :-)
Tradition says you take down the decorations on Twelfth Night, which is Jan 6. At least, that was the tradition on our house!
While I like Slinger's thoughts, I agree with you, Ming. My husband always wants a real Christmas tree, and I always feel bad because I know the poor thing is dying.
To answer the question. . . .If we have a tree, my husband usually takes it down on New Year's Day or the weekend right after. I leave some of the flowers and more seasonal decorations up until it's the right time. . . .and that depends on my mood, I guess.
BTW. . .In response to your comment on my blog about the one bridge photo. . .Thank you. The setting is really lovely there. . . .
I'll answer the question you didn't ask, Ming.
Ever since my kids were little we've had plastic trees rather than real ones. That's because I'd rather save the real trees and also because the kids were so eager to get things started that we usually put the tree up late November. No real tree would have lasted till Xmas without losing its spines!
We used to only put the tree away around Jan 15.
For the first time this year we might buy a real tree, a small one.
From December 8th (how did you know?) through January 7th...
Enjoy your weekend!
Blogtrotter
I don't understand getting real christmas trees when there are perfectly beautiful fake ones. Some of them have the lights built in and everything!
Well, this is what you need to do this year: sign up for a New York Cares project sometimes in January. One of the projects looks for volunteers to pick up Christmas trees in the Upper West Side, bring them to Riverside Park where they are turned into mulch and will be used all year long for the park. Bonus: at the end of the day, you will have exercized doing something fun, discovered lovely buildings in the neighborhood, help NYC parks and you will smell like a Christmas Tree. That last part alone is priceless.
My little fake-tree is generally decorated each 8th of Dec. This year will be a little later :-)
After reading The Giving Tree I stopped purchasing real trees.
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