EVERETT — For many, the last few days of December are filled with the afterglow of Christmas joy and the eager anticipation of New Year’s Eve. But casting a shadow — literally and figuratively — for some is the Christmas tree that suddenly is an unwelcome guest. Taking down a tree is never as fun as putting it up.

Christina Adamson had planned to take down her Christmas tree on New Year’s Day. But her children, Brandon, 4, and Kimberly, 7, did the work for her Saturday morning.

"The kids knocked it down," Adamson, 25, said as she caught a quick dinner with her children and her fiance, Michael Faulks, at Everett Mall on Sunday. "The ornaments are all over the place, so we’ll finish taking it down tonight."

Adamson and Faulks, 38, were still not sure how the accident happened — until Brandon suddenly blurted out, "I pushed my sister and she fell on the tree."

"They’ve been blaming each other," Adamson said. "It took a reporter to get it out."

Kimberly was able to stand the tree back up before she woke Adamson and Faulks to tell them about the accident. But the ornaments were already strewn about the house, converted into toys for their playful cats.

Many Catholics do not take their trees down until after Jan. 6, or Epiphany, which the Church teaches is when Jesus was revealed as the Messiah to the Three Wise Men.

"I was brought up to wait until after Jan. 6 to take down my tree," said Pat Ormsby, who attends St. John’s Catholic Church in Mukilteo and has always observed the tradition. "I don’t remember where I learned it. It’s just something I’ve known my entire life."

But some of Ormsby’s relatives take down their trees long before Jan. 6.

"A lot of people don’t observe it anymore," she said. "It’s not a church rule. It’s not a sin if we take it down."

Olivia Napenas of Everett is Catholic, but she makes sure to take her tree down before Jan. 6. Most people in her native Philippines do the same, she said.

"It’s because Christmas is over," Napenas said. "It’s the end of the season."

When Jose Huerta was growing up in a small town in the Mexican state of Jalisco, few people had Christmas trees. Most people put ornaments on cactuses or maguey plants, he said. Huerta, 37, has been displaying trees since he arrived in the United States 16 years ago, and many in his hometown do so as well, he said.

He leaves the tree up until after Jan. 6, which is called Three Kings Day in Mexico and used to be when Mexicans exchanged holiday gifts. Today, Huerta and many other Mexicans do so on Dec. 25.

But, in a bow toward his native culture, he keeps his tree up until after Jan. 6, which he still sees as the real end of the holiday season.

Reporter David Olson:

425-339-3452 or

dolson@heraldnet.com.