Taking down Christmas decorations

Everyone is familiar with the carol “The twelve days of Christmas” however most people mistakenly believe the carol refers to the twelve days preceding Christmas.

In actual fact the twelve days start on December 25th and continue to the eve of Epiphany which is the 6th January. This time is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide.

In years gone by the twelfth night was the last day of the Christmas festivities and it's regarded as bringing bad luck to leave decorations hanging after the evening of the 5th January.

There's enough bad luck in my life already without courting more so yours truly always ensures the decorations at the Hall are taken down before the evening of the 5th January which is this coming Thursday.

Just before Christmas I wrote a blog entitled “How to hang Christmas decorations” on which a reader by the name of Milford12 left a comment asking if I could also give advice on folding away and storing decorations.

Of course yours truly is always happy to oblige and there is indeed an art to storing the decorations.

You would be amazed how many people throw away their artificial trees and decorations. To me this is a terrible waste indeed I have some decorations that are over seventy years old.

In these difficult economic times the more money saved the better so please don't throw your decorations away. Give them away rather than throwing them away!

Undressing a Christmas tree is a straightforward process, simply remove the decorations in the reverse order to which you put them on.

After standing in the living room for several weeks the tree is likely to be dusty so carefully run the tinsel through a duster to remove any loose deposits and give the baubles a quick dust over too.

When cleaning baubles I put on my white referee's gloves from the billiard table and give them a quick clean as if I was polishing the cue ball.

I must say this works a treat but do make sure you don't put any baubles down on the billiards table. One year I did and they got mixed up with the billiard balls. When I broke off there was a terrible mess....

Always remember to store artificial Christmas trees in their original box taking care not to force the tree in.

If you have a real tree and it hasn't lost too many needles why not plant it in the garden outdoors?

Providing the tree has an adequate root system there is good chance of it growing.

Make sure it has plenty of water for the first few weeks and you never know you may be able to dig it up next year and use it again.

Paper chains and foil garlands should be given a delicate shake to remove any dust before carefully folding them making sure not to crease any of the paper or foil material.

Maybe you have some tips for taking down decorations you would like to share with us?

What do you think?

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