When to take the Christmas tree down
It’s my first post of 2013 and time to look forward. Actually I threw caution to the wind this morning and was rash enough to tell my local radio station (live on air!) that my twin ambitions for the year are to complete my new novel and to learn to speak fluent French.
But before I could get started on either, there was the thorny question of when to take down the Christmas tree. And even more pertinently, what the hell to do with it after that. I don’t get as fed up with the Christmas tree as my mum used to. She always put hers up early and by Boxing Day was bored of it. By dawn on December 26 she’d dismantled the whole thing, baubles, stars, fairy and all, and stuffed it outside.
This Christmas, our tree lasted till New Year’s Day, when it looked such a sorry sight that it simply had to go.
Stumped for ideas about where to take it I scanned the council website. The recycling page came up trumps, listing a plethora of collection points across the city. They are open for the first two weeks of January and best of all, the trees get recycled into woodchip to use in Oxford’s parks.
My husband nobly said he’d take the tree to our nearest site on foot and set off in the chilly afternoon air. But for some reason he was gone an awfully long time.
“Was there a problem?” I asked when he finally arrived back.
He grinned. “No,” he said. “But I went twice.”
“Er, why?”
“Because we never got round to taking last year’s Christmas tree. So I walked back and dragged that along too.”
He got some very strange looks as he hauled the tree, completely brown and with a few dead sticks attached, through the streets of Oxford. A man selling copies of The Big Issue did a double take when he saw it. “Is that this year’s tree?” he asked. “You should go and get your money back.”
PS. My picture shows a flooded Port Meadow on Christmas Day.
If a jobs worth doing, it’ll still be worth doing next January!
Happy New year
John
Exactly, John. It took us 12 months but we got there in the end! And Happy New Year to you.
Good luck with the book and French! My tree came down on Sunday (Dec 30) – usually I wait until New Year’s Day but it did go up earlier.
Thank you so much, Gail. And Happy New Year to you. I’m glad I’m not the only one to give up on tree before Twelfth Night.
We’re firm believers in making Christmas last as long as possible. The tree won’t come down till Jan 5th – or is it 6th? We argue over it every year! this year’s is unusually a cut tree. We have a selection of small ones growing in various places – our garden, parents’ garden and allotment – but none looked fit to lift so we bought one from IKEA!! It’s still holding its needles well but when it eventually bites the dust Ikea will take it back and shred it – and we get a money off voucher to spend on tea-lights 🙂
Isn’t it the evening of Jan 5, Mary? But what do I know – our tree is always long gone by then!
No one’s any real idea here. It’ll be Wikipedia to the rescue this weekend.
According to our vicar you can leave it up till candlemass in February if you choose. We don’t get that far, 12th night usually, but I find it a comforting thought
Let me know when you find out the definitive answer, Mary. Good luck!
That is such a comforting thought. I’ve still got the wreath on the door and lights at the window and can’t quite bear to take them down yet.