Christmas isn’t complete without all the dazzling lights and decorations and even during the past weeks, Covid-19 clearly hasn’t stopped people taking the time to adorn their homes with Christmas lights and decorations, in fact I would go as far to say to say the doom and gloom of the pandemic has increased the number of homes that have been decorated from top to bottom around Swindon.
When then should they come down?
Some Christmas-lovers will tell you Never! Keep those Christmas lights up year-round – it would spare the trouble of putting them up next year. Some will wait until all the pine needles have dropped all over the floor and others will follow strict dates based on superstitions, religious holy days, and Christmas songs.
Traditionally, Christmas doesn’t begin until December 25th – marking the birth of Jesus Christ and the old pagan date for mid-winter celebrations.
Christmas Day, and the following 11 days, are ‘officially’ Christmas, and make up the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ – which may sound familiar because of the classic Christmas song.
Therefore it is considered the twelfth and final night of Christmas is typically celebrated on January 5th. After this date, the fun is over and if you leave up your decorations up past this date, it’s considered bad luck.
However, many argue that the Twelve Days commence after December 25th, making the Twelfth Night January 6th – the Epiphany – the day many Christians recognise as when the wise men visited baby Jesus and the date it’s considered best to complete Christmas festivities and pack everything away.
But then you have the old school tradition where it is believed that if you leave your tree up past the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve is bad luck.
However one thing you probably should remember is, the inside of your house is your domain and you make up your own rules. If you want to keep your decorations up until June then why not, go for it!!
