By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
When to take down the Christmas decorations that took so long to put up is truly a matter of personal preference.
Some people want the tree down and out the door on Dec. 26 and others still have lights and decorations up until Valentine’s Day or beyond.
Gina Kneser, of Oakhurst, said she likes to have her decorations gone with the start of the New Year.
On Tuesday she said although her artificial tree is still up, the decorations have been put away.
“My husband is putting it away today,” she said.
Kneser said besides taking up too much space in her living room, she believes the holiday season ends at New Year’s.
“Christmas is over after New Year’s,” she said. “It starts in November – in January it’s like okay, it’s done.”
Pat Ryan, clerk at the Neptune City Community Center, said she keeps her decorations up until the feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6
“It’s a tradition; in my family we always celebrated Little Christmas,” she said. “I leave my decorations up until the 6th or the weekend after.”
After Jan. 6 she said she would be turning her lights off.
Ryan said this year she noticed that all her neighbors in Coastal Village had taken down their decorations over the weekend.
“Everybody on my block shut their lights off,” she said. “I was the only one with lights on last night.”
Ryan planned to leave her inside decorations up until weekend because she has company coming.
Lorinette Britt-Murray, administrative secretary to Asbury Park Police Chief Mark Kinmon, said her family tradition holds that the tree must stay up until after the first week in January.
“It’s a tradition, we keep up the tree,” she said. “My mother always said you have to take the tree down one week after the new year. It’s a new beginning.”
Britt-Murray, her husband and three children and her parents all live together in Asbury Park and actually have a family gathering when the tree is taken down.
“We usually do a family get together, play board games and have some food and take our tree down,” she said. “We are very family oriented.”
“And we strictly believe in artificial trees, ever since we had a fire,” she added.
Tiffany Williams, director of donor and public relations for the Mercy Center, Asbury Park said she would be taking her tree down this coming weekend.
“We like the holiday,” she said. “It goes so fast we want to sit and appreciate it after the season is over. Everyone is stuck in the rush, and it’s nice to be able to sit back and think about what the holiday is all about.”
Barbara Burn, who was elected to the Ocean Grove Homeowners Association earlier in the year, said she and her college age daughter usually pick up their live tree when driving home for her daughter’s winter break.
The tree is still up, but Burn said she will be taking it down this week.
“It’s getting kind of dry,” she said.
In the past, however, she has left it up as late as Easter.
“Once when my daughter was young she cried every time I went near it,” Burn said. “She’s a lot older now and we don’t have that issue.”
Mary Sapp who was sworn in New Year’s Day as the new borough administrator in Neptune City said she took her tree down before Jan 1.
“I was having a lot of people over my house on New Year’s and I needed the room. I put it up Thanksgiving so by the time Christmas comes…”
She added, “I probably would have left it up until this week.”
Sapp also said she has a new kitten who thought the tree was put up to keep him entertained.
“He kept jumping at it and climbing, he thought we put the ornaments on for his entertainment. By the time I took it down it was practically ruined,” she said. “He’s much better now.”
Kathy LoBraico of Ocean Township said she will begin to take her tree down the day after Little Christmas.
“Not until after Little Christmas – I put it up two days before Christmas,” she said.
“I’ll be starting tomorrow,” she said Tuesday.
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