I purged a few months ago, mostly because our previous house was much larger with 2 large staircases and many cased openings for draping garlands, lots and lots of garlands! They were really good quality ones purchased from a floral supplier. I kept some, boxed the rest, and sent them to my mother to share with sibling and nieces.

I think we have similar tastes, Shee. My husband does most of the Christmas decorating and he's more into the fun look. For the sake of simplicity and just my own sense of peace I'd rather pare down and use organic/natural decor--wood, real garlands and wreaths, simple ribbons, handmade/sentimental.

I don't need to purge my holiday decor, but I do need to stop buying anything new. I have enough! It's so hard to resist some items though.

I really purged in 2014, our first Christmas in our current home. We had to downsize from a 9' to a 7' tree, so the purge naturally followed. I think I used to have six bins of Christmas decor. I now have three: a big one with dividers for ornaments, one with wreaths/garlands, and one with other odd decorations. This year I didn't even bring up bin #3, so I'm thinking it's contents can go, as well.

I purged drastically before moving here . I kept one big plastic bin . I bought a new tree here and I have my Santa Collection . I donated everything else including a huge Christmas village collection and train. It's just too much for me to do now . We usually have some out door decorations but we lost those in the flood .

Everyone who comes to my home would vote I purge a bit but so far everything has a place and I love it when all set. I am to the point to get anything new I have to swap it for something already here. The lack of sentimental value many have in their holiday decor surprises me most. I see the decorator trees, the discussions on this year's theme and I wonder at that mindset. I still remember my mom bringing out the Christmas bin and how we searched for THAT ONE ITEM that sang Christmas to our hearts. I sure hope my kids have that experience as they come home to celebrate. We have always had an artificial tree. I DREADED the yearly hunt for the tree..the fact that my time line and DH's would most likely not be in sinc. Too many nightmares of my family of origin doing that hunt...After 20 years it was time to get a "new" tree. my GROWN ADULT KIDS still complain!! They preferred the old one..larger, more of a presence. I like that I don't have to rearrange my entire living-room to accommodate this one!! The first tree was purchased for a different home.

"I see the decorator trees, the discussions on this year's theme and I wonder at that mindset."

Followed by:

"We have always had an artificial tree. "

That juxtaposition made me laugh, because once again the eternal truth is that everyone has different ideas, opinions and values of what they choose to hold important/sacred.

I don't have a lot of deep emotional sentiment overall about my decorations, other than a few family favorites . Mostly I decorate using a theme and color I find very lovely. OTOH I would *never* have an artificial tree; for me a huge part of Christmas is that large lovely fragrant fir tree and picking it is still a little tradition my husband and I follow each year.

So Arcy maybe you can be just a tad less judgmental here? The world's a big place andnbecause you don't understand something doesn't mean other people are less worthy if they don't do things the way you do.

Years ago, we moved in December and I accidentally threw out my adult kids Xmas stockings they had since childhood !!! Gone. oh well, they tease me about it still .

I have young children who get physically anxious every time I suggest doing things differently from the Christmas before so even when I wish to purge my heart will not allow me to spoil that small bit of magic for the kids. Mitch, if we move I will have to remember your story!

I seem to purge a few things every year. I have a tree, a collection of Santas that I assemble on a chest in our front hall, candles and garland on the fireplace mantel, and a few other things but not much else. Right now I'm eager to put it all away but will wait until Sunday since we have friends coming over Sat night.

We did a major purge when we moved, but I need to purge again because we brought some items to the new house that I'm now realizing I'm probably never going to use. Someone else might as well enjoy them, and I can free up the storage space. I'm glad you started this thread, as this reminds me to put this on my "to do" list for the first of the year.

I too have pared down, as I usually break one or two ornaments a year! But, that aside, although I haven't given things away, I just don't put everything out anymore.

My SIL once made a comment about how I decorate similar to her boyfriend's daughter. What she was really saying was that she preferred more!

We have wreaths on every window and front door, candles in each window, two small decorative light up trees on the front porch, an 8 foot tweet lit and decorated and a fireplace mantle decorated! I don't know about you, but this seems like more than enough for me.

I think I get what Arcy is saying. Some would view the tree as purely decorative, others are more religious, and others are more sentimental. Really, no wrong way to do it.

I use a lot of fresh greenery, which is my main source for decorating. Some of it I leave after xmas because it's winter-themed. The rest gets thrown in the fire pit.

I have a nice collection of ornaments and misc. items I'm happy with now. Most are based on memories with our kids and have that value. I'm not yet ready to purge.

My saving grace is that when xmas decor is set out in the stores, I'm too frugal to buy it knowing I have gifts to purchase, and afterward when it's all on sale, I'm too tired to shop.

I think I really only purged once - when I moved last year. I had a rare garage sale and put everything I no longer want/use into that and what didn't sell was donated to charity. I quit having a tree years ago though I haven't ruled out the possibility of having one in the future. So I kept my tree ornaments, many of which are from childhood. This year I actually bought a few new things which I haven't done in a long time - just a few things that worked better with my new place.

Oh, your idea sounds so nice! Sadly, though, as much as I feel exactly the same way every year at this time when I'm faced with taking down and packing away this glut of Christmas decorations, I change my mind round about every December 1st. I told myself this past November 30th, that I was NOT going to buy any more decs . . . and then blew that by buying a darling new Santa for the game table, a new nutcracker (which brings the count now up to 15), and a large mix of things to fill 3 glass bowl centerpieces for our Christmas dinner table. I seriously need to stay away from Hobby Lobby and Pinterest in November and December! On a positive note, though, I did send DS a large box of our smaller decs. And, DD has promised to take a lot once she moves to her own place for grad school this coming June. I love seeing our home decorated festively for the month of December, but I agree that there comes a time to downsize. I'm bookmarking this thread to inspire me to start myself this very year!

We don't buy any more and we have told MIL no more Christmas decorations. We have enough ornaments to do multiple trees which we don't have space for more than one. Probably several years off from a sunroom expansion. No plans to move, so we will continue to have limited storage.

Still, there are some things we can probably let go. I see a fair number of Christmas lots at estate sales, and I just keep moving. :)

I had a former hair stylist here who literally had a storage facility of Christmas decor. He would host a large party for all his customers and friends. It was really fantastic, and you could tell he loved his collection.

We did a major purge and gave a bunch of holiday decorations to Goodwill 2 years ago. We can now see space in our "holiday" closet in the basement. We saved the meaningful ornaments and decor. So very liberating!

I just "purged" the live magnolia I had used all over the house. It was "very dead", so it's gone. Left what was mixed in with artificial greenery on mantel - waited to Xmas Eve to cut it so it's not bad.

I remember the year I cut a bunch of greenery from outside to bring in. I didn't shake the branches or leave them outside for a while and I brought in a TON of different spiders.

It's artificial trees for us. I think our main one looks pretty realistic. It's a GE and if it fails in the future I think we'll get one from Balsam Hill. I like getting it out Thanksgiving night and decorating the next day. I like that I don't have to mess with water or needles and we can get it easily back up in the attic. I also like that I can add heavy ornaments.

Mitch - Oh no!! :0

Roarah - Growing up we had our specific decorations and that's how we liked it too! The tree had red garland with colored lights and our hodge podge of ornaments. My parents had these painted wooden cut out decorations that lined the stairs. My favorites were the reindeer, gingerbread girl, and tree. We all had our stockings including our dog and cats. After us kids moved out my parents stopped decorating quite the same (as in stopped doing almost all of it and bought a small fiber optic tree....) and it was upsetting to us. I don't know if it was partly empty nest syndrome or what. The past few years they've upped their game a bit more. I haven't seen those wooden decorations in probably a decade though and have been meaning to go dig them out.

Well we ended up having a last minute get together tonight and the bins went back to the attic before I grabbed those other items. I'll deal with them next year. Now my goal is tackling toy organization. Without having a separate play room it's easy for things to get out of hand even though I don't feel like anyone goes overboard. It just all adds up.

Runninginplace: I saw your post late last evening and have to say I am soooo confused. From what is posted so far none of the people who it APPEARS start fresh each year with a new theme, new decor because they are so blessed to have the resources, time, ENERGY, know how of holiday decorating are posting. I meant NO insult. I am in awe, jealous, totally out of my league up against those that do. Frankly I was speaking to my attachment to my decor more than anything. Because I wonder at that mindset doesn't mean I think of it negatively. It is just not part of my world and the more "decorator finished" a tree looks the more over the years I have wondered how/if/ when they purge last year's design. A link to a Kardashian's decor was posted last week. I am REALLY REALLY curious as to what happens to all of THAT when Christmas is over. As you so adeptly pointed out, me and my inexpensive artificial tree have nothing to lord over anyone, or reason to point fingers. I would LOVE to hear the perspective of those that do. I apologize for offending you and anyone one else it surely wasn't in my heart or mind to do so. I for one do not take different perspectives as an attack against mine. I have always thought it is through understanding each other we can come to a place where we don't judge so harshly.

Back to the OP's original post.......I haven't purged in the past. However I am doing it this year when I dismantle the decorations. We're moving this summer and while our next home has a more open floor plan and can easily handle everything I already own - I won't have a basement for storage and the attic is smaller. So it's time and both DH and I are ready.

In the past I've had 2 trees - an artificial one in the living room that I put up the day after Thanksgiving and then a live tree in the family room. Next year we'll just do one tree. If I can find an artificial tree that both of us like we might just go that route. The tree decorations really don't take up that much space - just a few totes. It's all the other items that require big boxes or bags for storage. I have several large Santas, nutcrackers, wreaths, garlands and other figures that are spread all over the house. Many of those will be donated. When the kids come over this weekend I'll ask them if they want anything - then I'll be free to clean.

I don't have much holiday decor that has a long history; my older S has most of that. The few things my kids made over the years have been broken in most cases (this was the first year with zero breakage!).

Last year iirc we went through stuff around THXG and took anything worthwhile to Goodwill. I donated the items and also donated cash, like I always do, since they are providing me a service and since the data show that they often have difficulty selling everything they receive.

I bought some Homegoods stuff that is more to my taste. I do not like red and emerald green, so increasingly my holiday decor is metallic, pink or olive/lime. I am thankful my DH is totally up for the work involved in a getting and placing a large live tree, because to me a lot of the holidays is the scent of the tree. I would go smaller before I gave that up. We wanted a 12 footer this year, but we don't buy till mid Dec and inventory was low by then. Ours is about 10'. It is very thick and lush, I adore it.

We have a family tree, and some years i also do a theme tree for fun.

Arcy, somewhat along the lines of your query, I wonder that, too. Although I no longer buy any new ornaments, and we don't put up outside decs except for farolitos, I did go a bit crazy when planning my Christmas table centerpiece this year. DD had told me that my centerpieces were too predictable, as I was just rotating between my Santa, Nutcracker and another collection every year. With 3 very active young boys coming here now, bringing us to 14 total, I planned, bought and created an entire new set of centerpieces this year. They went down our 9.5 foot table as well as the 6-foot table I set up crosswise at the end. They turned out wonderfully, and were a very big hit with everyone. The boys loved them. I love them . . . but now I'm looking at trying to find a place to store them . . . and what the heck was I thinking?!?! I can't imagine what people do with their decs, if they constantly change themes from year to year. If you're the Kardashians, I imagine that you just donate them, but I'm not them. I'm frugal, I'm fond of my decorations and I don't have a basement or attic to store an unlimited amount of them. I shot myself in the foot with this one, and it's stressing me a lot!

I have been packing away Christmas since 9 this morning, it's now almost 3. I have not started the tree or the outside wreaths yet!

I just purged an inexpensive nutcracker that fell over and broke one of my favorite porcelain angels. I never liked that guy, hope whoever picked him up from my curb gives him a good home.

We had an unintentional purge this year. We store our decorations in plastic bins in our attic. This year all the decorations in one of the bins were full of mold. Yuck. We discovered that we had put a glass snowglobe given to my dd in there and it broke open. Everything in that bin had to be thrown away!

The holiday decor is one thing I won't purge before i move this year. I don't know what, or my house, will want until I move. The only stuff I used this year were the outside lights, since indoors is currently a sorting nightmare of just about everything else.

When I do put up a tree, it's been real ones, so obviously I've not been storing trees. (One less thing to move/take up space!)

I have been married for thirty years and really don't buy Christmas decor anymore. We have moved and purged often and the people that kept giving me tacky Christmas decor for gifts finally stopped that practice, thank goodness.

For my kids, who are now in there late teens and twenties, part of the enjoyment of Christmas is the familiarity of the things that we use every year. Some things are very nice, some are a little goofy.

If I don't personally like it or my family doesn't have a connection to it, I don't have any qualms about getting rid of it.

DD came over and helped sort through everything this morning. I managed to fill 2 boxes to donate and DD took another one. Then she helped me put it all into the attic.

It's gratifying to know that I reduced my decorations by 3 boxes but it's still rather amazing when I stack it all together to see how much I still have.

Next Christmas we'll be in our new home and I'll have to re-evaluate it then.

I purged some old garland that was shedding badly and a few other things this year. Next year I plan to get rid of some of my nutcrackers. I have way too many and now they just look junky to me and no longer bring me joy.