Cleaning up after Christmas
Published Saturday January 3rd, 2009
How to dispose of, or store, the ghost of Christmas past
Wrapped in layers of fleece, we share a skate with friends or an invigorating walk along one of Metro Moncton's beautiful trails. In the briskness and clear reality that a new year has dawned, it settles on our spirit that Christmas is really over for another year, that the caroling has stopped, and the reds and greens no longer light up the cold and the dark.
When we return home, we know it is time to dispose of the trappings of the ghost of Christmas past.
And we discover, as we search for original containers, ponder how storage space has shrunk in just a three week period, and wonder what to do with the giant tree that dominates the living room, that it is always more fun to decorate than it is to take it all down again.
It doesn't have to be. Why does this last task have to be one that lacks tradition and fun in a season known for those values?
The Times & Transcript asked some families in a very informal survey what they did to ease the pain of closing the door on Christmas for another year. We discovered that there are lots of great ideas that people have incorporated into their routines to make the task more pleasant.
For example, as one family packs up the Christmas tree decorations, they ask all family members to write down a prediction for the coming year on a piece of paper. They are stuck randomly into various ornament boxes and there is great merriment during the tree-trimming next year, when these predictions are pulled out and held up to the test of time.
Another family turns the task into what they have mischievously labeled a "de-decorating party." It's the first pot-luck of the new year for them and their friends. Three families take down decorations as a team, one house at a time, packing everything away in huge plastic containers. As they leave each house, they pick-up a Crock-pot full of comfort food or a home-baked dessert. When they reach the last house, the "de-decorating" gets done, and then they all share a happy New Year feast.
In another house, the day they take down the holiday decorations, a family meeting is held and everyone, young and old alike, is asked what they liked best and least about the holidays. One "recorder" takes notes, and the suggestions are incorporated into make Christmas better each season.
As some families take down their natural trees and move them outside, they chop off a length of the trunk to serve as a real "Yule log" in the Christmas Eve fire for next year.
All three Metro Moncton communities have special Christmas tree pick-ups and opportunities for residents who want to take their trees to disposal sites. These are advertised throughout the season in the Times & Transcript.
However, some residents may decide to give their tree a new life as a bird feeder station for the winter.
They simply stake it outside and decorate it for the birds to use as a buffet. When spring rolls around, dispose of it then with the special garbage pickup.
To decorate your "tree for the birds, start with small mesh bags of suet, strings of cranberry, popcorn and dried fruit, pinecones stuffed with peanut butter, half rings of oranges filled with bird seed, small ears of corn, small dried heads of sunflowers, and little nosegays of wheat or grain. You could also add a string of whole peanuts, and some dried or fresh berries for a real treat.
If you use an artificial tree, try decorating one of your real backyard evergreens for the birds this winter.
The editors of Country Living magazine advise that there are key steps to take to store ornaments properly.
"Keep decorations in their original packaging whenever possible," they suggest. "If the packaging beings to show wear put the ornaments inside a huge, sturdy box," they suggest in their primer "Handmade Christmas."
Ornaments can also be wrapped individually in tissue paper and stacked gently into a box padded with old Times & Transcripts.
Tiny ornaments can be kept in an egg carton or a compartmentalized plastic box, the kind used to organize embroidery floss or beads.
The most important thing, everyone from Martha Stewart to Rachel Ray advises, is to label the boxes with more information than just "Christmas" or "Christmas stuff." That doesn't help much when you're looking for that special centerpiece before you put all the other decorations up. It also is useless when you go down to put up the exterior decorations on some warm Saturday afternoon in November so you won't freeze doing it a week later.
Attention to labeling can also save money. If you know you have extra Christmas cards left from last year, or wrapping paper, tape or gift tags, and you can find them easily, you will be less inclined to go out and duplicate them with new ones.
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