When is the right time to take down your Christmas tree? The day after Christmas? New Year’s Day? January 6, the Epiphany? There really isn’t a right or wrong time to take down your Christmas tree; the right time is ultimately up to YOU.
Some people like to leave their tree and decorations up even later than January 6. Elvis always left his Christmas decorations up at Graceland until after his birthday on January 8 and they still continue this tradition. Dolly Parton leaves her Christmas decor up until her birthday on January 19. Queen Elizabeth always left her Christmas decor up until February 6, the anniversary of her father’s death. So if you don’t get your Christmas tree down until later in January, you are in good company.
I personally LOVE all things Christmas and will leave my decorations up until after the new year. I start taking down my decorations, and leave my tree for last. That way I get to enjoy it just a little bit longer.
Regardless of when you decide to start taking your Christmas tree down, I have some great tips to store your tree decorations like a PRO.
As you can see, I have a TON of Christmas tree decorations this year. Three different ribbons, glass and plastic baubles, two types of berry stems, gold leaf stems, ivory eucalyptus stems, icicle ornaments, etc. I also have two tree skirts and a large bow topper.
I’m able to fit all the decorations into one large tub, except the glass ornaments. I pack anything breakable in a separate tub.
When taking down your Christmas tree, it’s best to remove any glass or breakable ornaments first. Carefully place them into a storage tote/tub with dividers. I usually put two or three ornaments into a compartment and I’ve never had any issues with breakage. Of course, if you have any special, sentimental, ornaments that are glass, you should probably store them elsewhere.
I’ve had my storage totes for a number of years; they were from the local Walmart store. But I found a great deal on Amazon for ornament storage; this storage box has room to safely store 64 glass ornaments. If you’re interested, here’s my affiliate link. https://amzn.to/3XfHzZi (I make a small commission if you decide to purchase.)
Removing the decorative stems was my next step when taking my Christmas tree down. I removed and separated them into four stacks, before putting them in the bottom of the large storage tub.
The plastic baubles and other plastic ornaments were the next items removed from the tree. Some of them were in clusters and I left them that way. All of the plastic ornaments were placed on top of the decorative stems. It’s perfectly fine to leave the hooks on the ornaments.
Next, I removed, sorted, and rolled all of the ribbon into bundles. It’s amazing how little space the ribbon takes up when it is all rolled up. (You can see here that I missed a decorative stem earlier so I just placed it in with the ornaments).
The large tree topper bow was the last of the ribbon. I flattened it out and nestled it in with the plastic ornaments. It hurt my feelings a little to smash the bow, but since it is made with wired ribbon, I knew I could fluff it out next year and it would be as good as new.
The final item to be stored was the tree skirts. I folded them and placed on top of all the other things before closing the lid.
And BOOM, all of the tree decorations were stored! I can hardly believe that everything fit into these two totes. Actually, only the top half of the red box has ornaments from this year. Older ornaments are stored in the lower half.
Taking down the artificial tree was all that was left to do. Mr. Craftsy helped me that. Thankfully he is still able to fit the tree into it’s original box. After the tree was boxed up, the box was secured with some packaging tape. Storage tubs and boxes then were stored in the garage. Don’t forget to label your boxes for next year.
Mr. Craftsy also built some shelves in the garage to store all of our seasonal decor; I can’t say how thankful I am for that.
If you need a tote to store your artificial Christmas tree in, Amazon has a terrific deal on one that will hold up to a nine foot tree. My affiliate link for the tote is here. (If you make a purchase, I receive a small commission)
If you’re like me, it’s always a little sad to see the Christmas decorations go and the house seems so empty. But, on the bright side, it’s kinda nice to reclaim the space and do a little winter decorating. I hope to have a few winter and valentine crafts coming up for you very soon.
I hope I’ve given you some good storage tips so you’ll be able to store your Christmas tree decor like a PRO! I’ve used this basic system of storage for many years. Once you get into a routine, it gets much easier.
Until next time….
From Fall Clearance Sign to Snowflake Decor