When should you put up/take down the tree?

I put my Christmas tree up on December 5th. You have to slot all the little colour coded branches into the little numbered slots which don't correspond to the colours at all. It's a painstaking business even before you start decorating it.
Because my tree goes in the corner of the room I usually don't add the branches round the back, instead I put them between the branches already fixed in place at the front in order to give the tree some fullness. Occasionally I fasten these with parcel ties but when I get fed up I just balance them. I add the lights next and use a net because it's easier. and remember that if you are using a light net, you needed to put the tinsel on first. Finally I hang baubles and scented angels who no longer smell. This year having completed my task some two and a half hours after beginning it, I got the vacuum cleaner out to hoover up the hundreds of green bits which had dropped from the synthetic tree. It's quite a good vacuum cleaner so when I ran over the wire to the lights, it sucked it up and began wrapping it round the rotating brushes. I tried to stamp on the off lever but only managed to hit the handle release and lie the hoover flat on the floor where it continued to wrap the wire round its spinning brushes. By the time I had managed to stand on the off switch, the tree was no longer up and the lights were no longer on.
It made me reflect on how much Christmas sucks people's resources and topples their ideals. 
It's not what's supposed to happen at Christmas but if you get the true meaning all tangled up in the whirr and noise of trying to keep things organised, I'm afraid it's a likely consequence. 
The first Christmas wasn't tidy. There was no room to stay in and no cot to sleep in. The floor was probably a mess and quite likely worse things than plastic green bits were strewn across it. But the thing about Christmas is that light came down. Not by accident, but very deliberately. Jesus is the light of the world, he came down to earth to untangle the mess we're in. I love Christmas even when I take my tree down as soon as I've put it up. I know the light of the world has shone in my heart and it means I understand the happiness of Christmas every day of the year.

Wrapping presents.

Last year I asked someone to please invent spray on wrapping paper. Up to now I have not heard from anyone on the subject which is somewhat disappointing as it means I will have to wrap my presents in the traditional paper wrapping manner. I have discovered that cheap wrapping paper is a false economy. I discovered that years ago, but I continued to hope that paper is getting stronger and cheap wrapping paper this year would not tear every time a corner of anything touched it. My hopes are dashed.
I understand why people use gift bags but forgive me when I say - it does seem to be cheating.
I also bought some stick on labels this year. They are bright red and you can't write on them. Everyone in my family will know that the gifts are from someone and to someone but the rest will remain a mystery unless I can find my overhead projector pens. Sticky tape dispensers are a wonderful idea but the centre spindle of mine has snapped off. I have replaced it with a short pencil, sharpened at both ends but it seems to lack the robustness that I require when tearing off the tape in a frantic hurry before my package bursts open.
Further to my post about slicing my finger ends on a headlamp housing, I also regularly slice my fingers on the serations of a tape dispenser. If anyone wanted to find out who had sent the present which is bearing an anonymous label there would be a great deal of DNA evidence on the parcel - hair, skin, blood, and possibly occasionally saliva.
God sent us a gift the first Christmas. He wrapped his son in flesh and sent him to earth as the Saviour of the world. Later there was a great deal of DNA evidence to show how much he loved us. He hung on a cross with his hair pulled out, his skin lacerated and bleeding, soldiers' spittle in his face. It was the gift of selfless love and eternal life. It's got your name on it in indelible mercy. Maybe you'd like to accept it?