Definitely in the clean slate camp. I do love the holidays, but it's so nice to put everything away and enjoy the clean open space again. And I don't even have that much holiday stuff out--but the tree takes up a lot of space, and the garlands and lights take up a lot of visual space.

Also--maybe it's just my personality, but I love to spend January evaluating my house, getting rid of stuff I don't love, re-purposing stuff that could be useful but isn't, and making (once again) vows not to accumulate any more. It's very satisfying and holds me over until February. Then February is a short month so it's practically March and practically spring!

That is the time your good intentions are supposed to kick in. There are other things that make it cheery and cozy inside besides holiday stuff. Post christmas blues can be overcome... or rejected to begin with!

I like to take the tree down soon after New Years Day, but I like seeing people's outdoor white lights up through these dark evenings. Here in New England many people leave them through the winter, and I find it cheering. I live with a single open room downstairs that includes kitchen/dining/living space, and I light candles every evening and put them around the room, in the windows, etc. It makes the room warm and cheerful and lifts my spirits. I also find that if I meditate for 10 minutes a day, exercise (just a walk at lunchtime is enough), eat well and do creative projects of some kind, I keep the blues at bay.

You file your Christmas cards?

Go skiing! Snow shoeing! Get out and enjoy the "short" winter.

Daylight is getting longer every day! (At least in this hemisphere.) Garden planning time is here.

I can live without the tree and gift wrapping... What I hate is the loss of light. I love love love coming home to my cheerful outdoor lights in winter and love the glow of my white tree (which makes it even glowy-ier) inside. Since I took everything down this weekend it's just so dark. I think I'd like to try some plants with fairy lights on timers at my door. I need something else for indoors, though.

No post-holiday blues for me! I dislike the Thanksgiving-New Year's Day stretch, all but low-key time spent with family and friends. Now that the nest is empty, we don't bother with holiday decorating. What a relief! (I know that many enjoy it, but we don't and have been delighted to stop.) Like others, I tend to clean, purge, and organize. We're all raised to be consuming units; it's a difficult ideation to shed. I overbuy second-hand goods and pat myself on the back for recycling, but the truth is that I'm still consuming a lot that I don't need or, after the treasure hunt thrill of a great price wears off, really want. It's not easy to retrain lifetime habits, but I'm trying. That's much of what this January is about for me.

I agree with GreenKey, in snow areas a string of single colored or white lights left up for the remainder of the winter is lovely. My entire neighborhood does it!

Down south here my roommate and I are in the process of changing out the Christmas-y ornaments on the tree for Purple, Green and Gold. It's Mardi Gras season y'all! We're keeping the joy up for one more month!

Skiing, sledding, sleigh rides and why not celebrate Chinese New Years in Feb

We didnt spend the holidays in our flat so therefore didnt decorate. Im still feeling the blues though, its just SO dark and dreary ALL the time.How do I deal with it? Besides working out (endorphins) - lattes in the morning and bellinis in the evening. Hopefully by the time I come down/sober up it will be spring.

@cbreynolds hahaha

I live really north and I hate how dark it is in the winter, plus the winters are long. I've been lighting a lot of candles. And this year I think I'm taking my white Christmas lights and putting them in jars as kind of a winter display.

I'm one of those people who looks forward to the holiday season all year. The anticipation is so much fun! I get to decorate my house and make it cozy, and Christmas is my main time to see family. I'm always sad when it's over. The house feels colder and I feel I don't have much to look forward to. I combat this by always keeping a list of fun ideas and things to do. Maybe it's a new hobby, starting a new TV series or book, or looking forward to that museum exhibit coming up. or finally forcing yourself to learn how to play a guitar. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was to *always* have something to look forward to, and it's a rule I live by now. Oh, and buy some flowers! It instantly makes the house (and you) more cheerful.

I'm leaving my Christmas tree up for a few weeks yet. I know some might say it's a little ridiculous, but I can't help but want to keep it up for just a bit longer because I'm a grad student and I was in my home state for 2 weeks over the holidays (so I really only got to enjoy my tree here for a short time before I left!).

However, I agree with some of the other commenters that one way to feel less mopey is to clean and organize. Shopping for post-holiday sales is also a good thing to do- I just went into Williams-Sonoma this weekend and their peppermint bark was 50% off!

I'm also having fun using of some of the presents I received. My boyfriend gave me a book on making cocktails so I've been making the occasional fancy drink after dinner for us instead of dessert. Also my parents gave me Smartwool socks so I've been wearing those every day with my boots. So cozy!

I'm leaving my Christmas tree up for a few weeks yet. I know some might say it's a little ridiculous, but I can't help but want to keep it up for just a bit longer because I'm a grad student and I was in my home state for 2 weeks over the holidays (so I really only got to enjoy my tree here for a short time before I left!).

However, I agree with some of the other commenters that one way to feel less mopey is to clean and organize. Shopping for post-holiday sales is also a good thing to do- I just went into Williams-Sonoma this weekend and their peppermint bark was 50% off!

I'm also having fun using of some of the presents I received. My boyfriend gave me a book on making cocktails so I've been making the occasional fancy drink after dinner for us instead of dessert. Also my parents gave me Smartwool socks so I've been wearing those every day with my boots. So cozy!

This is the time of year when I feel like if I hear "SIM-PLY HAAAA-VING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME" or "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" or, God forbid, "Little Drummer Boy" again in the store I just might bust things up. So, yeah, I'm ready for it to be over, with all the terrible tunes and the tchotchkes and the sad, dead pine trees. It's all fine in the lead-up to the holiday, but afterward, I want to live a simple, unadorned life again.

I am in the wistful camp...I worked most of this Christmas season, and it seems like I didn't have the time to enjoy the tree, decorations, general coziness that I should have...we didn't really have any visitors or go visiting either, which is a big holiday tradition where i'm from. However, city tree pickup is in 2 days, so I had no choice but to take it down today. Hopefully I will not have to work next year!!

This time of year is hard for me too. The first weekend after Christmas, we take down all our decorations which feels very cathartic and purge. This year though we decided to immediately put up something else pretty and SIMPLE to cover the void. We had a cute simple think branch fake evergreen that's sit on our dining room table and took off all the handmade ornaments and replaced with hearts we made out of scupley tied with baker's twine (red and white). It's been a cheerful add and simple.

I go snowboarding! Nothing cheers me up more!

I am not a winter person. Why I am living in an area that experiences cold winters is a good question. I tried antidepressants when I lived in New England where it was cold, dark and dreary from October to May and found I would rather be depressed than mush-brained. I decided to make an effort to get some sunlight each day and engage in some type of activity besides work and sleeping at least twice per week. That helped a lot. Plus my birthday is in February so I celebrate the entire month. Moving several hundred miles south of New England has helped significantly. Maybe it is all in my mind but the days start getting longer sooner down here. Summer's coming!!!

I usually have my Xmas tree the entire December and I take it down after New Year (the date depends on when there is a scheduled Xmas tree garbage pickup - if I miss it, I am stuck with the tree until May or June or whenever the regular bi-weekly yard waste pickup resumes) and I do love the Xmas lights. But, once, the tree is gone, I adjust pretty quickly.
This year, I am so terribly busy with work that not only I am terribly busy with The Cure, I am behind with everything. I spend most of my evenings cooking or recovering from the extremely hectic work so I don't have time to mourn the loss of the tree.
This week though, because it is sunny, I am happy that I can still quickly raid the back yard and pick doggie poop at 5:30 pm.

I did notice though that almost everybody in my neighbourhood removed the outdoor Xmas lights after New Year. Traditionally, they stay put much longer but maybe everybody is trying to curb their expenses (myself included).

I actually enjoy it when the holidays are over and I have more time to relax or work on projects. I live in New England and do not like the short days, so I also like to leave the lights up to counteract the dark season. I like to force paperwhites, light fires, and burn candles to brighten things up a bit. Soups, stews, popcorn and movies help.

I'm going on a ski trip with friends later this month. It gives me something to look forward to post-holiday. After that, I will just have to get through the short month of February, and hope that March is kind. I'm so ready for Spring.

Time to put out the January lava lamps!

Count me in as someone who looks forward to Winter Solstice all year. We leave some of the blue lights on and yes in New England some people also leave out decorations. It's also comforting to note there are Pagan holidays every month, the next one is Imbolc. Celebrating the change in seasons with a change in clothing color, recipes and décor is fun. But mostly I spend the year waiting for next December.

For people depressed in winter I second the idea of outdoor exercise. Does wonders.

Keep the indoor lights, silver & gold babbles, and the greenery decorations (homemade garlands and swags) up while the more gaudy Christmas-y decorations are put away. I have flameless candles on timers so when I come home from work, my apartment is lit up by the ambiance of several flickering "candles".

Like Zenezie, I'm a big fan of flameless candles on timers. I also use battery lit branches in funky vase arrangements, also on timers. I love the ambient light, and different colors it produces without looking like Christmas.

What are you talking about? I love the this time of the year! Christmas should only be between sundown of Christmas Eve to sundown of Epiphany. You should have taken everything down by last Sunday.

I decorate on Advent (4th Sunday before Christmas), so I'm sick and tired of it by new year. Packing away the Christmas decoration and really clean up the house for Chinese New Year is one of my favourite festival gap!

My suggestion is to find your reward. No one likes cleaning, but I find it very rewarding when it is done so I feel motivated to do so. Get the house back in shape takes work but it will all be worth it. If you love the cheery atmosphere, perhaps you can start planning for Valentine's Day. Give yourself a reason to clean up.

I felt the blues this year, especially with many dreary days happening here in the Southeast. So when I put away our Christmas decorations, I decided to take up a few good wintry DIYs. Like new candle holders in gold and silver, a new painting with white and gold, just some nice touches that will be new to us, still festive, but doesn't scream "Deck the Halls". It's giving me something fun to look forward to seeing around the house. Also, working on a Winter Playlist. Cozy, fireplacey songs that still give me reason to want to curl up with tea and enjoy the season.

I was just talking about this with a coworker and we were agreeing that there is something a bit unnatural about having the biggest holiday of the year (for primarily Christian-oriented countries/areas) be in the middle of winter.
Having said that, I do enjoy the holidays.

Winter itself with cold, wet weather and less sunlight is hard on the body and mind. For folks going through rough times temporarily, and particularly those with longer term issues like unemployment or illness, it can be difficult. Perhaps you live far way from your family and you fly home and your time with family is wonderful, and then you miss them when you get back home. Or perhaps time with family is stressful and depressing. Or you're someone without family all together. Or you're completely stressed from shopping, cleaning, entertaining. Or you can't afford to buy the presents that are expected. Or you're someone who is outside of the mainstream Christmas celebration and you feel a bit alienated or isolated or resentful.

In other words, there are all sorts of reasons for people to feel sad, blue, or even depressed at any time of the year, but especially right now. I think shaking off the post-holiday blues depends on why exactly you're feeling them in the first place.

Personally, I'm okay this year. But other years have been hard. Last year, for example, my sister was going through chemotherapy, which is hard enough. Then I came down with a cold and wasn't allowed -- doctor's orders -- anywhere near her, so I ended up home alone on the holiday. I guess my advice is for everyone to be gentle, it is winter and the days are short, it's cold, it's cold/flu season, maybe your holidays were a letdown, whatever: it's OKAY to feel a little less exuberant than you might, say, on a long, sunny, warm June day!

leapkate, I read your post three times..it was very calming and just all true...'be gentle' especially til JUNE :)

I have an ornament stand and I choose one ornament as I'm packing up Christmas to hang on the stand. It stays up throughout the year...a little of the spirit of Christmas to cheer and warm me every day.

I love the Christmas holiday as well, but this year i put away decorations on Christmas day. And took the opportunity to rearrange the main living area and get ready for spring. I don't have post Christmas blues.Which is easier because i live in an area that doesn't get cold winters, it is bright and sunny(less pollution) most days.But i understand the moody blues feeling during the autumn and winter seasons, while most of the country is participating in fall/winter events, my area is just beginning to have temps below 100. We are still waiting for our trees to drop their leaves so we can rake.

I love Christmas but this was the first year in ages that I was like Ok we're done and felt an overwhelming need to clean up all the decorations before the New Year.

What I find helps a bit with the January-early Spring grey skies (especially with our dismal lack of snow here this year again) is to leave the small lights up around the window or door way frames. It really helps with the winter ambiance at night. So much that it's not all Christmasy but yet it feels like 'winter lighting'.

I like having friends over for goofball theme parties as often as I can...have one scheduled for this Saturday and hopefully another next month. It keeps me looking forward!

@LSUgrad03 Agreed! I work hours that dont make daylight very accessible these days and I so miss it. Do the plants by the door get much sun? It might be nice to put little solar lights in them to harness what light we do get and help you look forward to dusk.
I bought one of those Aerogardens for my desk and it's wonderful.