When is the best time to take your Christmas tree and decorations down?

It is a question that always elicits a variety of responses and often some very strong opinions. 

For Newstalk’s Simon Tierney, January 1st is the ideal day to take everything down. 

“It’s ideological, it’s dictatorial - it’s everything,” he told Moncreiff. 

“We take a ruthless approach to the termination of Christmas in our house. 

“This doesn’t come from a place of hatred of Christmas or any sort of sense of the Grinch. 

“We don’t put up the Christmas tree through a sense of obligation or for the children, we do it out of love - we love Christmas as a cultural holiday.” 

Simon said for his family, Christmas is a holiday that does not need to last 12 whole days. 

“Rather than slowly watching the Christmas tree decay in front of us over a period of several weeks, we decide that we need to go through this in a cold turkey sense,” he said. 

“[There’s] absolute severance - it’s now over - and anything beyond January 1st is really dragging out something that should probably just quietly come to an end.” 

Traditionally, most people take their tree down on January 6th for Nollaig na mBan but a poll by the Journal.ie suggests people are increasingly doing so earlier. 

“34% said that they take it down before January 6th,” he said. 

“That would suggest there is a shift taking place and I think the more traditional Ireland is still waiting till Nollaig na mBan to take it down.” 

An outdoor Christmas tree illuminated at night. Image: Roman Milert / Alamy

More contentiously, some keep theirs up for the whole of January. 

“There are some people out there who will insist on keeping their decorations up until February 2nd,” Simon said. 

“It’s the Feast of Candlemas; the Gospel of St Luke suggests that this is the day when Jesus as a baby was presented at the Temple by Mary and Joseph.

“There are plenty of people and institutions that are still keeping their Christmas decorations up until February 2nd. 

“No less a noticeable figure than Queen Elizabeth II, who insisted on keeping her Christmas tree up in Sandringham, where she traditionally celebrated Christmas, until February 2nd.”

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Main image: Man sitting in front of a tree. Image: Tero Vesalainen / Alamy Stock Photo