O.K., there tree is down, safely packed in a box and hauled down to the basement. (We went from the "real thing" to artificial a few years ago after our cats kept scattering needles all over the house and drinking all the water in the pan underneath the tree.) Ornaments are arranged in their boxes and the inside of the house is in post-Christmas, non-Advent mode.
I still have my Christmas lights on outside. Is there a Miss Manners to tell me when I should take them down? I guess I feel if I go to the work of hanging them, is four weeks really long enough to leave them up? Also, January is such a dreary month. I think leaving my lights up brings a little cheer to the otherwise bleak evenings.
How long can I leave them up and not be called 1)strange, because I have lights up when it's not the Christmas season, or 2) lazy, because it's January, so take them down already.
Granted, my light display is pretty modest. (The picture I posted is not my home. I put that in for effect.) I'm guessing I could have them taken down and put away in a half hour or so, but do I want to?
For the three or four of you who stumble upon this while trying to visit someplace else on the internet, do you have any opinions?
3 comments:
Don't you live in a parsonage? I'm sure if you leave them up long enough someone will come and take them down for you.
I noticed a lot of lights still on when I traveled through town on my way home from work tonight and found myself thinking that it was nice of these people to brighten January's darkness. The parsonage down the street was the brightest, maybe because of the Christmas tree in the window. Leaving them up must be okay. Leave them up long enough and some day you'll come home only to notice that your wife took them down.
January's fine, but Valentine's Day is over the limit (in my opinion).
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