Let there be light – all year long

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I know some really efficient people who take down their tree and decorations the day after Christmas.

Most years, I’ve preferred to wait until at least January 7, the day after Epiphany. The 12 days of Christmas, after all, are said to run between Christmas Day and Epiphany.

However, in recent years – especially while enduring season after season of pandemic-related isolation – I’ve been reluctant to take the decorations down even in January. The lights, especially, create such a cheery mood in a gloomy time.

So in 2021, I left everything up until just before Easter. Then, in 2022, I decided, “Why take it all down for Easter?”

That’s when I started outfitting my sun room with an “Ordinary Time” theme, complete with tree, lights and decorations.

Just before Easter Sunday, I traded in the Christmas ornaments on the tree (above) for some bird and butterfly ornaments and cute little bows.

Here’s a close-up of bird and butterfly ornaments on the tree.

I replaced the Christmas wreath and red bows above the windows with a wreath full of spring/summer flowers and some sunshine-yellow bows.

In the rest of the sun room, I swapped out the poinsettias and other Christmas decor for “growing season” flowers.

I exchanged more Christmas decor for spring and summer flowers in another corner of the sun room.

Still more flowers fill a third corner. Yes, that’s a cat bed in the chair.

Our Champie often prefers the floor, however, especially if he can bake his little brains in a shaft of sunlight while I do morning meditation.

The swing below is where I sometimes sit for morning meditation.

Above the door leading from the sun room into the living room is one of my favorite Bible verses.

I’m not sure when I’ll take down the Christmas decor this year. The first day of spring, perhaps? Or maybe I’ll get motivated to take it down earlier, now that I have something just as cheerful to replace it with.

Meanwhile, here’s a panoramic view of my “Ordinary Time” sun room, as it looked for most of this past year, with all the “growing season” decor – and the lights blazing.

No time for gloom in this room!

28 thoughts on “Let there be light – all year long”

  1. We always leave our tree up until about January 10th. The artificial one that is, the real one in the basement we take down on Epiphany, just because it’s starting to dry out then. But I have a small ornament tree that I also put up for Easter, because I have Easter ornaments for it. I love you idea of leaving the tree up way past Christmas…..it is a good way to keep the joy going year round!

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  10. I am touched! Debi, Your reflection “Let there be light – all year long” is beautiful, very inspiring. Lots of love went into those creations. You’ve motivated me to do something similar. Thanks for sharing your gifts – light for the world! Gratefully, Bernice

    Sent from my iPad

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  11. Another blogger suggested taking down Christmas decorations all in one day can contribute to post-holiday depression. Anita and I usually take ours down in series similar to what they went up – last up, first down, the tree being the last to be taken down about the end of January. Hmmm, wonder if she would consider leaving it up year-round with different decorations? 😉

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