We didn't do anything elaborate at our house for Halloween - some pumpkins and gourds for outside, skeleton lights, banners, and pennants. Oh, and a huge spider and spiderweb in the entryway. About half of the decorations have been taken down and put away; the rest are up and as spooky as ever.
Part of the reason I keep holiday and party decorations up even when the date is over is because I love a festive occasion. I'll take any excuse to put up something festive and out of the ordinary in the house. But at some point, decorations for a holiday that is long past just look stale and sad.
So commiserate with me tell us what you do when it comes to holiday decorations!
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Ha! I was good this year and took it all down Tuesday morning! My pumpkins, however, are still on the front step because I am afraid they are gooey!!
I will put up seasonal decor as the season arrives and leave it up until the next season begins, but holiday decor, like Christmas, Halloween, Easter and such goes up no earlier than one week before the holiday and comes down within two days afterward. It drives me absolutely crazy to see Christmas lights still on and flashing in February and rotting jack-o-lanterns on porches well into November.
We didn't carve pumpkins until a couple of days before Halloween. We've let ours only go for 4-5 days and when we threw it out this morning it was pretty gnarly. I can't imagine having it go for longer than a week! Yuck.
I usually put up our faux Christmas tree and lights at the beginning of the month of December just because it gets me in the spirit. And my great grandmother was stickler about leaving her lights up until New Years because she swore it brought good luck (probably doesn't) so in her honor I usually leave em up.
Christmas stuff I keep up til just after New Years (I'm from New Orleans so growing up we even planned it out so red decor could come down and switch with purple, leaving any green and gold to make for easy Mardi Gras decorating!)
Halloween we took down everything outside aside from me painting stained glass paint on the decorative lights in our yard to look spooky. I just have to remember to pull off the paint during the day before they come on and the glass gets hot!
The best thing about halloween is that there's relatively little ramp-up, and let down. Nov 1, the decorations come down. Christmas is another matter, which stretches from Dec 1 to January 1.
I had a tutoring student cancel on me yesterday, so I took that time to take down my Halloween decorations! I still have the ghosties tied to the tree by my driveway, though - I'm quite determined to get them down today!!!
I'm such a procrastinator that I never got the Halloween decorations up. Clean-up problem solved!
I still had Easter decorations up last week...
I was waiting for the weekend to take down the Halloween decor. I put them up on Oct 1. Halloween is my fave holiday so I'm not in any hurry to take it all down :) All Christmas decor gets put up on Dec 1 and taken down on Dec 31. Growing up my family always said it was bad luck to have it up after New Years. I don't really believe it but I follow that tradition anyway. I'm kind of Scrooge though so I want to get all that down ASAP!