The stress-free guide to taking down your Christmas decorations
It’s fast approaching time to take down your Christmas tree, never a cheerful task after the excitement of December. Personally, I find it both exhausting and time consuming, particularly if you’re still using a fake Christmas tree assembled from individual branches. With delicate ornaments, often with sentimental attachment, you can’t rush such a job.
The good news is taking down your Christmas decorations doesn’t need to feel like such a chore, at least not a sad one. With a few adjustments, this routine can become more manageable, mindful and maybe, fun. You read that right! Here’s how I tackle an often-dreaded task and welcome in a new season.
Set a date and stick to it
Nothing makes a job feel more laborious than one which goes on forever. If you’re slowly taking down your Christmas decorations, one at a time, it can feel endless.
It’s a good idea to set a date to take down your decorations. Mark it in your calendar, and make sure there’s sufficient time to do what you need to do. Don’t be afraid to break it up across a few days, if necessary for a busy schedule. Just make sure you’ve got an allotted time planned, and crucially, an end time.
Remember to keep an eye on the weather if you’re dealing with outdoor Christmas décor too. No one likes taking down string lights in the rain!
Prepare yourself
Taking down holiday decorations will feel less of a struggle with the right tools. If you find yourself guilty of crushing your Christmas tree into its original box each year, it’s probably time to invest in a dedicated bag to make storing it much easier. An example would be this Jumbo Christmas Tree Storage back from Amazon.
Make sure to keep delicate baubles and decorations in proper protective containers. I’ve been upset to find parts missing from ceramic decorations in the past, all down to how they’ve been stored. Don’t trust the box your decorations arrived in unless its secure and sturdy. Scrunched up newspaper and kitchen roll can help secure loose decorations.
Check out our top tips for packing away your Christmas decorations, so you know your decorations will be safe and sound, ready for next season.
Make a plan
Rather than just having ‘take down Christmas decorations’ on your to-do list, make a plan of how you’re going to approach the task. This will make it feel more organised and manageable.
For instance, depending on the weather, you might want to start outside and work your way in. My family often did this to avoid the neighbours’ judgement of lights being left up way past the season’s end. Or, if you want to get the bulk of the work out of the way, you may want to start by taking down the tree. Once that’s down, what’s left will seem less daunting.
Decluttering methods might help in facing this task too. For instance, you could try approaching it with the Ski Slope method, which was first introduced by Anita Yokota in her interior design book Home Therapy. This involves moving from corner to corner and side to side of the room as you would ‘ski down a slope.’ In doing this, you will be both thorough and efficient, while making the task feel less daunting.
Turn it into a tradition
Putting up the Christmas decorations brings the family together, so why should taking them down be any different? Don’t look at this as a melencholy task – instead, think of it as an opportunity. When I was young, my mum used to take down the decorations without warning. So, I’d come home one day to find everything stripped and back to how it was for 11 months of the year. It was quite a shock, and naturally a little saddening.
Getting the family involved can make this feel like less of a chore, and it gives them a chance to adjust to the seasonal change too.
Play music to lighten the mood and introduce winter or spring-themed décor so the house feels like it’s evolving rather than losing festive cheer. You may even want to keep some of the lights up during the long, holiday-free month of January. Whatever you decide to do, making this a family routine, means the task becomes easier for you and gives closure to the family.
Reward yourself once your finished
No matter how organised you are, taking down Christmas decorations is still hard work and requires time. Once you’re finished and everything is packed away, make sure you reward yourself and your family. By having a pre-planned treat and something to work towards, packing away Christmas will feel less saddening, to adults as well as children.
Either make time for yourself to relax at the end of the day or treat the family to a movie night, or a family outing? The choice is entirely yours, so long as there’s a light at the end of the festive-decorated tunnel!
Make sure you’ve finished
While the decorations might be down, the job’s not done until things are stored safe and sound. Many of us will pause at this final hurdle, because the effort of entering an unused space, such as the attic or garage, can seem like an imposition too far. But, in doing this, your decorations will inevitably end up sitting on show where they shouldn’t.
Take the time to store your decorations out of sight. Give them sufficient space and try to leave them accessible for next year. At the same time, make sure they’re not in the way of other items you might want to access in the near future.
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