When I was young, our Christmas tree would stay up all January. First, we always left the tree up until at least Orthodox Christmas, January 7. This was odd to me because the Greek Orthodox churches here don't celebrate Orthodox Christmas (though ironically, we do celebrate Orthodox Easter). But I was a child, who am I to question the logic of adults?

Then, because we are Greek, it took a while to get anything done. Including taking ornaments off the Christmas tree and dragging it to the garbage. What would take a normal person about half an hour could easily take a Greek ten times that. So by the time it made it's way to the curb, the tree had no needles left on it, and you were reasonably sure you'd never be able to walk on your left foot again.

I thought, "well, I'm only half Greek, I'll only be half as bad."

HA.

I have never had a fake Christmas tree. My family always believed in real trees. But this year, I have a fake tree. And it occurred to me that I can leave my Christmas tree up until July, I can have a true Christmas in July event. And it's not like the tree will die. Granted, the neighbors may start to stare, but I really like coming home to a house with the Christmas tree in the front window all lit up. It makes me happy.

So my question: how long can I leave the tree up before my neighbors start to talk?

No, scratch that. My question: if I don't care if my neighbors start to talk, is there any reason why I can't leave my tree up all year?