Halloween: October 31st
Halloween decorations usually go up at the start of October, sometimes in late September, and come down in the first days of November. Pumpkins have a practical deadline of their own: a carved pumpkin rarely lasts more than a week or two before it starts to rot.
Christmas: the great debate
There is no single rule, but there are several traditional starting points:
- The first Sunday of Advent - the fourth Sunday before Christmas. In 2026 it falls on November 29th. Many churches and families treat it as the start of the season.
- After Thanksgiving in the United States. In 2026 Thanksgiving is on November 26th, so the two traditions arrive in the same weekend.
- Early December, especially for real trees, which can dry out if they go up too soon.
- Christmas Eve - the older custom in parts of Europe, where the tree was decorated on the evening of December 24th.
Taking Christmas down: Twelfth Night
Tradition is clearer about the end. The twelve days of Christmas run from December 25th, and decorations traditionally come down on Twelfth Night - January 5th or 6th, depending on how the days are counted - around the feast of Epiphany on January 6th. An old superstition says leaving them up longer brings bad luck.
New Year's Eve: December 31st
New Year decorations are usually a short affair: a few days of lights, stars and a countdown, then gone by the first week of January. Many people simply let the Christmas decorations carry over, adding something gold or silver for the night itself.
Winter: the season in between
The weeks after Twelfth Night are the bleakest of the year in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice - the shortest day - has already passed, around December 21st, but January still feels like the darkest month. Snowflakes and soft lights without a holiday attached are a way to keep some warmth after the tree has gone.
Valentine's Day: February 14th
The simplest date on the list. Decorations, if any, appear in the week before and disappear the day after.
Easter: why it moves
Easter falls on a different date every year because it follows the moon. In Western churches, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21st, using the church's calculated full moon rather than the astronomical one. That places it anywhere between March 22nd and April 25th.
Easter Sunday was on April 5th in 2026, and in 2027 it falls on March 28th. Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar for the calculation, so their Easter is often later.
Easter decorations - eggs, chicks, spring flowers - usually go up a week or two before and come down shortly after.
Letting the calendar decide
On a screen, the easiest approach is to let the date choose for you. Desktop decorations that switch theme with the season move from pumpkins to snow, to fireworks, to hearts and to eggs on their own, and nobody has to remember Twelfth Night.