I always understood decorations should come down on Epiphany (6 Jan). I still have a couple of things to put away today. I love the decorations and the decorating but also really like that clean tidy feeling in January when you pack it all away. We took our LED icicle lights camping (we have a battery pack thing) when our teenage twin girls wanted a camping birthday sleep over with their friends, made for a very pretty birthday camp site and did not attract insects which was a definite bonus

Luke, don't mess around with gum trees. As beautiful as they are, they are prone to falling suddenly and unexpectedly and that is one huge tree that could take out a couple of homes in the process. I've also found that if part of a tree dies, it can affect the balance of the rest of the tree so it becomes unstable even though it may look healthy. If an arborist says it needs to come down then I wouldn't waste time, you could void your insurance by not heeding advice. Do you need Council approval? Sometimes that can take a while to get.

I'm from a European background ... Italian and Catholic. Christmas means celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. I hold onto generations of passed down tradition ... We celebrate December 6th as St. Nicholas Day (European Father Christmas) ... this is the day that all the house & garden decorations go up! We celebrate January 6th as The Epiphany (this is the 12th day of Christmas - when the Kings went back home) ... this is the day that all decorations get packed away. That's one month of relevant religious dates/events ... just enough time to truly appreciate celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends - whether gift giving or not - and "ooh-ing and ahh-ing" over the home Christmas decorations without getting bored with them.

I don't have room in my current home for any sort of tree, not even a hat stand like pictured, so I can't wait till our new home is complete and I can put up a tree but I think the stand and the gifts looks perfectly acceptable and does still have the important Xmas spirit!! Well done Maria