Why i am in no hurry to say goodbye to my christmas tree.

Growing up I remember my mum dashing around the house at the end of the school holidays furiously packing away any evidence of Christmas. This was after she had changed all the beds, emptied all the laundry baskets and made sure all bills were paid and accounts were in the black ready to see in the new year. See, she was, well, superstitious. All these things had to be done to avoid bad luck and full laundry baskets in the coming year. As a young adult I followed suit as my then boyfriend watched a slightly deranged woman do the same. As a mother now it has dawned on me that no matter how empty my laundry basket is at the strike of midnight it will be full again by 10am! So I am throwing caution to the wind and staring down the superstition gargoyles by not only having a full laundry basket (and a full heart as I spent my day with friends instead of fabric softener) but also still having my Christmas decorations up past the 12 days of Christmas or 6th January. Here is why.

My boys went back to school on 5th January this year. In my humble opinion 2 weeks at Christmas feels so short and this time around as soon as as they finished we were in the depths of Christmas week and now back to school seemed to happen so fast it felt unnaturally premature to drag us out of our cosy slow rhythms. We moved house last Autumn and for the first time we had the space to welcome all the people we loved into our home to celebrate the joy of the season with us. It started on Christmas Eve and we waved goodbye to our final guests on 2nd January. It was gorgeous and perfect. We all went to bed that night contently exhausted, with full hearts in a very quiet house and in our own rooms! Perhaps we invested in joy too hard and for too long and should have been more prepared for the looming back to reality Monday. Sorry, I just read that back and wondered who would actually ever say that out loud or enforce it. Most definately no one in this household.

Back to the decorations, as we gathered ourselves over the final weekend, searching for school ties and going to one last pantomime I could not even consider starting to derig the house. Christmas for me has always been a time of comfort. There is stillness in the lie ins, a warmth in the glow of a thousand tiny lights, a soothing nostalgia in the same ornaments. I couldn’t even contemplate whipping that out from underneath everyone as well as packing them all back off to reality. January is notoriously cold, wet and generally rather grim. It lasts for 382 days with no pay packet and everyone still wants pannetone and ice cream for breakfast. Who am I to deny us all the tiny joys of driving back home from school and seeing our house still beautifully illuminated by our lights. As they come through the door the stairs are still spiralled with garlands and bells that jingle as you brush past them. But the most peace comes from all snuggling on the sofa lit only by the glow of the Christmas tree.

I am not sure I will ever be able to explain the feeling I get sitting next to a Christmas tree. Ever since I was a child I have felt the same. Like inside the tree there is a guardian who watches over the house and fills it with love protecting us from harm. Please don’t believe my house is like a movie, there was plenty of fall outs in front of our tree but it is like the tree becomes the heart of our home. Like a fire it seems to draw us in and hold us close. I could stare at a Christmas tree for hours and never get bored.

So here we are 14th January and slowly my decorations are being packed away. I feel ready to start the year and to say goodbye to Christmas and all the goodness it held for us this year. Back to school and work routines have been instigated and whether they are well received or not we are all in for 2026, one foot in front of the other.

I guess the point is, we are all different. Our Christmas holidays are unique and so how we round off and close down each season is not a set design. There is no judgement here if you pack everything away the day after Boxing Day or keep it up until March. The more ways I can find to take the pressure out of life the better. This has been a big one for me.It has given me the time to be there for my children as they navigated back to school. It has given me space to breathe and plan my days in a measured way. Finally it has given me the opportunity feel calm packing away our decorations and be more organised so Christmas 2026 Dani will be able to unpack and put them back up with as little hassle as possible. So as I have my last cup of tea in a Christmas mug and turn off the lights on the tree that’s a wrap on Christmas 2025. We will all still be eating pannetone for breakfast, but maybe just at weekends from now on, and with a side of berries for good measure.