Part of me loves to see the Christmas decorations up after the big day and part of me wants to clear them away and move on. I’ve always resisted the idea of taking them down before New Year, but this year I might think about getting rid of them earlier.
It feels like it’s time to leave Christmas behind and move on. The tree and the cards and the decorations take up extra space. It’s difficult to clean properly with all that stuff in the way. I’m keen to get it all back up to the loft, where it belongs, and move on.
I think it’s partly because for one reason or another I didn’t feel particularly Christmassy this year and not really in the festive mood. I felt I was going through the motions a little for the sake of my son who is now 9. He didn’t seem to get into it as much as usual this year either. The advent calendars didn’t seem too popular. He gave up on getting the little penguin books out of the one calendar and I don’t think Joseph, Mary or the baby Jesus made it to the nativity scene either. I think the magic has gone a little now that he no longer believes in Father Christmas. That said, I think he was still pretty excited about getting his presents and his stocking gifts seemed to go down very well.
It seems a little sad not to have some magic though and I think next year I’ll try to revive it a little and maybe create some new traditions that are fun.
How was your Christmas? Do you have any tips for bringing the magic back into the festive season? What do you do with older children to keep some of the magic alive?