My plan is to freshen up the house in small ways, for instance to take advantage of January sales to buy new towels, bath rugs and perhaps a shower curtain to replace the "dated" bathtub sliding door. Another thing I'd like to do is give my decor a bit more edginess with a nod to the modern in my somewhat traditional house. I want to replace some of the more traditional art with something more modern, possibly painted by my husband, who is quite a good artist. I want to replace a coffee table that is too ornate with a simple metal and glass table to "unsweeten" (is there such a word?) a rather ornate but pretty Aubusson-style rug. Hopefully other inspirations will come along as I go through this process.

Since we closed on our home (and moved in) on New Year's eve, I decorate for New year's, exclusive of Christmas. I add a few accessories, but mostly I do my seasonal decorating with live plants. White mini lights, lots of shiny gold ornaments in a bowl, white candles, white Poinsettias when I can find them, white Amaryllis if I can't.

After New Year's (and the black eyed peas), the living and dining rooms have green plants like ferns and chartreuse/white flowers (Amaryllis, Narcissus and Cyclamen), in pots made of natural materials; rough glazed pottery, twig baskets, jute wrapped around pots. Both the LR/DR have large north facing windows, so there's plenty of subdued natural light, perfect for winter.

February, predominate color for the month is red. Around the 5th, I'll bring out our little collection of Chinese stuff for Chinese New Years. We'll invite friends over, watch Chinese movies and eat Chinese food with chopsticks, fortune cookies included. After that, it's simple wax paper hearts in the windows for Valentines. I'll "wake them up" in another week, so the red Amaryllis should be blooming by then, and I also hang the 3 foot Cardinal in the dining room. (former barn decoration, complete with a few bullet holes, but none the worse for the wear)

When I purchase clearance holiday stuff, I try to purchase red/white items. After Christmas (I did it today! :), I put away all the christmasy stuff in red/green tubs, and keep out just the red/white/winter + bring any heart items out from the attic.

That stays until Feb. 14 and on Feb. 15 all the red and white goes away into the red/clear tubs. :)

I don't mind seeing valentine stuff out for awhile...I really "love" the holiday!

littledog, I loved your description of what you do to celebrate different holidays after Christmas, and the floral elements you incorporate. It sounds beautiful and I'm sure gives much pleasure to everyone.

Wow, I can't believe that people are taking down their holiday decorations. The holidays aren't over at least until New Year's Day, imo. But our stuff stays up into January, since that is such a gloomy time here.

Then the Christmas holiday stuff is packed away in green and red tubs, and I leave out things like red cardinals, evergreen vase arrangements, my vase filled with snowballs and ice pieces, etc. The holiday pillows on the chairs are put away and plain moss green pillows stay.

I don't really do much for Valentine's Day. The next decor becomes spring, with lighter green colors and evergreens changed to spring florals, spring birds, nests, etc. If Easter is early, that comes out too - if not, I add in a few Easter items later.

Since I am moving soon - hope to find another rental house within next few weeks - I just put up my large pre-lit Christmas tree and a tabletop one but with no ornaments. I can then easily take them apart and put them back in the box which I will do maybe on January 1st. At my part time job at Dillards we have had the Christmas trees up since the 1st week of October and the music started in November. Now all the decor is 1/2 off and in a week or two will be at 75% off. I am looking forward to seeing it all go.
This week in Phoenix we will have lovely weather - lower 70's and sunshine. Love it! The orange and lemon trees will bloom in February I think. The roses are blooming all year but many people cut them back for winter.
I used to have that seasonal depression because of the lack of sunshine and warmth when I lived in Wisconsin. Now I feel much happier even though the summers are too hot. That's our bad season.
Probably won't decorate for Valentine's or Easter.

I've just finished packing up all the Christmas decor. I'm so uber-organized (haha) that I emptied each tub, refilled them by color, theme, whathaveyou, and wrote a list of the items in each tub in my day planner. Now next year I can tell DH I need tub 8 of 12 down from the attic, if I need my silver decorations.

I still use silver things for decorating through spring. But I don't do much decorating, since after Christmas is when I do a lot of home improvement. I've decided to paint our bedroom and master bath, but I'm not going to do the major renos I'd planned. We're going to tear up the carpet in there soon, and then I can paint.

Our decorations come down day after new years day, and love the uncluttered look again of no xmss tree etc. and bringing out things put away temporarily,(inside xmas decor tree still decorated goes in big walk-in closet with vaulted ceiling) outside go in attic space above gar. then when all is set to right again, we take off in RV for a week, first trip of 09, can't wait!!!

Les, I was so glad to see your post. We've got out of town company coming in on Wednesday and staying through New Year's with us. Although my house has been decorated since Thanksgiving, (again because of family/friends visiting,) I still am enjoying the beauty of it all and want to share that with my good friends.

A lot of people down here go directly into decorating for Mardi Gras, but I probably won't do anything. Winter doesn't last long around here, so I will be working in the yard soon enough, which is what I love more than anything!

Happy New Year!

I don't really decorate for valentines and we don't have spring here...so we sort of ove from christmas (which lasts past new years!) on to summer. I too like the look of the house once Christmas is gone...it's clean :o) This year I'm using that time to assess furnishings. We need to do a bit of rearranging and purchasing to get this place finished. So as soon as the tree is down we'll focus on that.

For me the consideration of wrapping up the holidays has to do with the fact that we are homeschoolers launching into the seond part of our 19th year of homeschooling.. I like to have a clean slate for the New Year or things drag out since come the first full week in January we are back at it in full swing and just will not get done.

Since for us Christmas is not a religous holiday ( of our religion) it's easier to wrap it up, and tuck it back in the closet.

Today I picked up a few things( Homegoods anyone?) that still feel "winter" and yet do not feel at all holiday. Come March ( which will be here in the blink of an eye!) I get going on the switch to Spring.. and by April the house is fully ready for Spring/Summer. This involves switching out rugs, different window treatments, switching out pillows and throws. I even change some of the art.

Maddie,who needs a few more plastic storage containers this year!

I don't rush my Christmas packing; I enjoy having the decorations out until the first week of the new year. Then we pack it away since we take an extended tropical vacation in January until the start of Spring Semester.

I have a few Valentine's decorations that I adore, especially since we were married on Valentine's Day almost 29 years ago. After that I plant pots of wheat grass, for which I always take a ribbing. Even though people make fun of me for growing grass in containers it is so nice to see after a long hard winter. (We live in Minnesota). Even if we go on vacation for Spring Break in March we do not see green grass here until April. So call me nuts, but I really look forward to the wheatgrass!