Exact date to take Christmas decorations down to avoid years of bad luck

31 December 2023 , 10:58

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Taking the decorations down can make your home feel bare (Stock Image) (Image: Getty Images)

Christmas festivities are done and dusted, and we're now looking forward to a whole new year - but people can never decide when it feels right to take the decorations down.

There's no denying that when you remove the tree, angels, and assorted reindeer, the room feels rather bare and a little less interesting. There's nothing quite like staring at your colourful decorations, and as a result, people may choose to leave theirs up as long as possible, even into the new year. But did you know that superstition dictates there's a day you should have taken them down? And if you're really superstitious, it could spell bad luck for the coming year if you leave them up past this date, North Wales Live reports.

The first day of the Christmas festivities is technically Christmas Day, even though some people put their trees up as early as September. The Twelfth Night (January 5) is widely considered to be the last day or the eve of the Epiphany. According to superstition, if you leave your decorations up after the 5th, it can bring you bad luck.

This belief dates back to when people used to decorate their homes with ivy and holly. They used to think tree spirits lived in the greenery and made sure all their festive ornaments and trimmings were taken down in the first week of the New Year to set them free.

If the custom wasn't followed it was said to affect the vegetation and greenery for the next twelve months, which would be a form of bad luck, and some people still adhere to this tradition these days. Many people even choose to take the tree down before the new year, so they can enter it afresh, sprucing their home and giving it a clean to welcome in the coming year.

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January the 6th is the day of the Epiphany and in Christian religions it celebrates the time the Three Wise Men visited baby Jesus. It also remembers his baptism.

Danielle Kate Wroe