I have never been one to take my tree down right after Christmas. I have a pile of “reasons” for my procrastination that could rival the height of the gifts on Santa’s sleigh, but mostly it’s just that I love the sparkle.
I love winter. I like the cold and the snow and the chance to recharge from the wild summer months. I am, however, not a big fan of the dark. Right now we have just over 9 hours of daylight. The google search that told me that also told me that we only average about 4 hours of actual sun per day in January. I would scoff at that but I feel confident the sun has only been out for about 2 hours in the last week, so I’m believing the random internet sites today.
We wake up in the dark, the kids go to bed in the dark and even when the sun shines, it barely has enough oompf to get over the horizon for many of these so called “daylight” hours.
My Christmas tree, on the other hand, is full of multicolored lights that shine from when I wake up to when I go to bed and I love it. But last weekend I looked at the train that runs circles around the tree and noticed it had been traveling so long that it drove itself from a winter wonderland to the green grass of spring.
It was time to take down the tree.
I had left it up for so much longer than was wise that any needles left on it showered to the ground when I touched it. There was no way there would be a single needle on it by the time I dragged it to a door. And those bare twigs looked like perfect kindling…
And so I got my pruning shears and trimmed my tree branches off into tiny pieces and stuffed them in my kindling pile.
Unwilling to get rid of the lights till the last moment, I just moved them in as I worked.
I sat back admiring my handy work, never feeling more like my father’s daughter than I did just then with my Christmas tree turned kindling, and decided to leave it up for just awhile longer.
Now I have a stick with a ball of lights globbed onto it lighting the room with its soft glow behind me, a cozy fire in front of me (dead Christmas trees really do make excellent kindling!) and I’m contentedly enjoying the last sparkle of the season from my rocking chair in between.
Help me out, what do you do to brighten up the house when the holiday lights come down?
Behind the Willows 
Cozy fire, hot toddy, and my Christmas box set of Season 1 of the “All Creatures Great and Small” remake.
That sounds cozy!
This post is funny and heartwarming, but a little weird. Does the rest of the tree eventually become firewood?
😂 My dad always burns their tree in the woodstove. I’ve always thought it was weird but this year mine was so dead it seemed like a waste of good fire starter to throw it out on the brush pile. This years tree was also very small so the rest may end up as kindling too but normally I don’t burn pine in the house.
When the Christmas lights come down here, we go right into Mardi Gras – everything gold, purple and green. A lot of people keep the tree up (obviously not real trees) and decorate them in Mardi Gras beads and trims with purple, gold and green lights. Actually, they’re really pretty! Then you could go to Easter trims with spring colored lights…
We might have the only Mardi Gras tree in WI if we did that! Sadly a real tree when you heat with wood never lasts nearly that long. But I love my real trees too much to switch over.
As we are putting away Christmas we are getting out Winter. Winter coffee/hot chocolate mugs dominate the kitchen. Plates with winter scenes dominate the dining room. Clear small white lights dominate this season all around. A winter scene of wooden trees with snow on them, snowmen, a lighted home with snow on the roof, a barn, a skating pond, a sledding hill etc. A glass dish with white Christmas bulbs representing snowballs, a pile of various books about sledding, winter, snowflakes dominate my stack of reading material. White greenery(?) dominates my wooden ladder with snowflakes and glass icicles hanging down. It makes me happy. Then a little before Valentine’s Day a few other things come out, a little before St. Patrick’ Day a few other things come out. And then it is Spring.
Now that is a plan! I love the little white lights and greens (even if they are white) idea. I could do that!
I have become addicted to cut flowers in all our lockdowns, filling every vase and container with colour. Meanwhile outside, my real Christmas tree is going to stay in the front garden and each morning I tie a new ribbon on it. I shall keep tying ribbons on while we are in Lockdown or until Easter… or until family can visit again.
That all sounds lovely. In March I started making a paper heart for every day… I gave up mid May. My paper heart chain got so long it was both uplifting and totally depressing at the same time.
Yes I know what you mean, I and my neighbours might well get fed up with seeing my tree.
Yes I know what you mean, I and my neighbours might well get fed up with seeing my tree.
I love your christmas-light waterfall. 🙂
Now that’s what I need to call it! Makes it sound so much more fancy!
Your place looks so cozy! Wish I could come and visit. We only just started taking down some decorations today…but the lights strung up around our living room ceiling are there to stay till spring I think…