Takedown & Storage
When should you take down Christmas lights?
There is a convention and there is a weather argument, and the weather argument is the one that affects whether your lights survive.
Mike M. — The hands-on owner behind Iron Mako Media.
Published
Short answer: the traditional date is the Twelfth Night, around January 5th or 6th. The practical answer is the first mild, dry day after you are done with them — because cold plastic snaps, frozen ground is a poor ladder base, and lights packed away wet corrode all year.
The traditional dates
| Date | Basis |
|---|---|
| January 5th or 6th | Twelfth Night / Epiphany — the most widely cited convention |
| New Year's Day | A clean-slate preference; common but early |
| Mid-January | Practical: the first free weekend with decent weather |
| Candlemas, February 2nd | An older tradition, still followed in some places |
None of these is a rule. Epiphany is the most commonly cited, and the superstition attached to it — bad luck for leaving decorations up past Twelfth Night — is folklore rather than an obligation.
The practical answer
Weather matters more than the date, and for three concrete reasons:
- Cold plastic snaps. Clips go brittle in the cold and break when pulled. A clip broken at takedown is a clip rebought next year, and a leg left under a shingle is one you cannot retrieve.
- Frozen ground is a bad ladder base. It is hard, uneven and often slick. Most decorating injuries are ladder falls, not electrical — see ladder safety.
- Wet lights should not be packed. Lights taken down in a drizzle and sealed into a bag corrode at the sockets over eleven months. You need a dry day and a day of drying indoors afterwards.
Switch them off before you take them down
A useful distinction people miss: stopping running them and taking them down are two separate decisions.
Turn the display off after New Year if that is when you are done with it. Leave the physical lights up until the weather is right for removing them. That gets you the social convention and the practical outcome at the same time, and nobody can tell the difference from the street.
What happens if you leave them up all year
Plenty of people do, and the honest answer is that it costs you lifespan:
- UV degradation. Summer sun makes plastic clips brittle and fades and weakens wire insulation. Clips left up all year will not survive a second season.
- Thermal cycling. A year of expansion and contraction works connections loose.
- Pests. Wire left in gutters and under shingles is somewhere for things to nest.
- Debris. Runs left in gutters trap leaves and obstruct drainage, which is a gutter problem rather than a lighting one.
If the reason you want to leave them up is that you do not want the annual install-and-remove cycle, the product designed for that is permanent holiday lighting — a track mounted once, designed for year-round exposure, and usable for other seasons too.
Do it in one session
Taking half the display down and leaving the rest for a fortnight is how clips get lost, runs get separated from their labels, and one set ends up in the garage without the rest. If a mild day is coming, do the lot.
The method is in storage ideas, and getting the clips off without breaking them is in removing clips without damage.
Common questions
When should Christmas lights come down?
The traditional date is Twelfth Night, around January 5th or 6th. Practically, pick the first mild dry day after you are done with them — cold plastic snaps, frozen ground is a poor ladder base, and wet lights should not be packed away.
Is it bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Night?
It is a folklore tradition rather than a rule. Plenty of people leave them up until mid-January or later, and Candlemas on February 2nd is an older convention still followed in some places.
Can you leave Christmas lights up all year?
You can, but it shortens their life. UV makes clips brittle and weakens wire insulation, thermal cycling loosens connections, and runs left in gutters trap debris. Permanent holiday lighting is the product designed for year-round exposure.
Should I take down lights in freezing weather?
No, if you can wait. Cold clips snap when pulled, frozen ground makes a poor ladder base, and there is no benefit to doing it on the worst day. Turn the display off and take it down when the weather is mild.
Sources
Every specification quoted on this page comes from the manufacturer’s own published information or a current retail listing, linked below. Where a figure is not published, we say so rather than estimating it.