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When Should You Take Down Your Christmas Tree?

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From Redbook

If the debate about when to take your Christmas tree and decorations down is one you seem to have each year, it might be interesting to know that we still follow the traditions we've had for centuries.

The date we put up a Christmas tree differs for each household and family, with some people putting trees up in November, while others push it to as close to Christmas Day as possible.

However, most people stick to the same day to take their tree down – January 6th.

Traditionally, the Twelfth Night – which happens twelve days after Christmas, on January 5th – represents the end of Christmas and was when families would celebrate with cake, music, games and wassailing (that's singing, visiting neighbors, and drinking).

"Traditions on when decorations should come down have always varied," says Dr. Martin Johnes, author of new book, Christmas and the British: A Modern History. "Far more common was the idea that they stay up until Twelfth Night."

It was tradition to take down the decorations after this date and even today people believe it to be bad luck if decorations are left up past this date.

And it seems this is the way it has always been, from the Victorian time when we first started celebrating Christmas with a fir tree, to before, when people used to hang greenery around their home.

"Decorations would be up for the full 12 days of Christmas," says Hannah Fleming, curator at the Geffrye Museum, a museum in East London dedicated to the history of the home.

"The tree stays up until Twelfth Night," she adds.

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From: Good Housekeeping UK

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