Treedowning
St. Knut’s Day • Old New Year’s Day
The Tree is Taken Down with Much Ceremony
About Treedowning
Treedowning is the bittersweet finale of the Christmas tree’s public life, a day of undecorating with as much care—but far less enthusiasm—as went into putting it up. Today marks the symbolic death of the tree-as-holiday-avatar. Yesterday it was a glowing, pine-scented monument to festivity; today, it is a brittle husk that will leave needles in your socks until July. Still, this is no time for haste. The ornaments are packed with reverence, the star is removed like a crown, and the tree is escorted outside with solemn steps and light jazz. Unlike the joyful tree standing ceremony, Treedowning is an act of reluctant devotion. It’s an admission that the season is fading, and that you must, in good conscience, remove the sapstained majesty from your living room before it spontaneously combusts.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Sip coffee, stare at the drying tree, and say “we really should take that down” to no one in particular. Do not take it down.
(B) Recommended
Host a ceremonial Treedowning Party. Remove ornaments one at a time with jazz playing softly in the background. Bribe family members to help with promises of baked goods and post-tree cocktails. End by carrying the tree to the curb with slow, dramatic pacing.
(C) High effort
Designate children (or neighbors) as Tree Bearers. Wrap the tree in a festive cloth, process to the curb while humming a mournful tune, and read a eulogy before laying it to rest. Serve jazz-era snacks to attendees.
Inspiration
Treedowning usually falls to the one person who still cares. The others—once so eager to hang ornaments and untangle lights—are now mysteriously busy. That’s why we bribe them with pastries. Tree removal earns cocoa, maybe scones, and possibly a small jazz-themed funeral if the children are willing to serve as pallbearers. Just remember: only the tree goes down today. The garlands, wreaths, and bobble-head reindeer remain until Candlemas. That’s another grief entirely. Treedowning coincides with St. Knut’s Day (January 13), the traditional end of the Christmas season in Sweden and parts of Finland. On this day, trees are “danced out” of the house, often with children’s parties, music, and a final round of candy scavenging. But where Scandinavian Treedowning retains a celebratory tone, ours is more funereal. Not tragic, exactly—just a bit elegiac, like the slow fade-out at the end of a favorite record. The holiday tree, once radiant with memory and mystery, is now organic matter. We send it off like a dying monarch, a lunatic shaman, or a retired lounge singer, with awkward dignity and a soundtrack of bebop jazz. Just not Christmas music (too sentimental).
Adornments
Watch
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
A quirky tale of communal compassion, this indie film finds unexpected depth in a bizarre situation. Lars (Ryan Gosling), painfully shy and gentle, introduces his hometown to his new girlfriend, who happens to be a life-sized plastic doll.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Wes Anderson’s deadpan family saga infuses melancholy with style. As the eccentric Tenenbaum clan comes undone, the film finds dark humor and wistful beauty in their slow-motion collapse.
Listen
Blue in Green by Miles Davis
A smoky, haunting ballad from the classic Kind of Blue album, “Blue in Green” drapes the room in melancholy. Miles Davis’s trumpet and Bill Evans’s piano barely raise their voices above a whisper, creating an intimate late-night conversation of a tune.
In a Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
Nothing says “poignant farewell” like this jazz standard elegantly rendered by two legends. Ellington’s piano sets a lullaby-like tone and Coltrane’s tenor sax swoons through the melody with restrained heartache. Ideal for accompanying the Christmas tree’s slow procession to the curb.