You’ll get different answers depending on whether you care about tradition, safety, or just neighborhood vibes, but most advice clusters around early January, with a practical upper limit of about 90 days after you put them up.

Quick Scoop

  • A common etiquette guideline is to take Christmas lights down by January 6, also known as Epiphany or the Twelfth Day of Christmas, which many consider the symbolic end of the Christmas season.
  • Surveys and decor reports show that many households aim for New Year’s Day or the first week of January so the new year feels like a clean slate.
  • Safety codes recommend not leaving temporary holiday lights up for more than about 90 days to reduce fire risk and wear on wiring.

Tradition vs. Practicality

  • Traditional Christian practice often treats January 6 (Three Kings Day / Epiphany) as the last “proper” day for Christmas decor, so lights usually come down on or just after that date.
  • Many people prefer a more practical rule: “first decent-weather weekend in January,” which usually lands in the first or second week, even if that drifts a little past Epiphany.

What Most People Actually Do

  • Polls and reports suggest around half of people take decorations down around New Year’s Day, while another large chunk wait until sometime between January 5–7.
  • A noticeable minority leave lights up through January, often turning them into more generic “winter” lights rather than explicitly Christmas-themed displays.

Safety, Neighbors, and “Tacky” Territory

  • Electrical and fire‑safety guidance says temporary holiday lighting should be treated as a short‑term installation and removed within roughly 90 days to avoid damage and potential house fires.
  • Socially, lights that are still fully “Christmas‑coded” and blazing every night well into February can come across as neglectful to some neighbors, especially in tightly packed suburbs.

Easy Rules of Thumb

  • If you like tradition: Take lights down on January 6 or the nearest weekend.
  • If you like a fresh start: Aim for New Year’s Day or the first weekend of January.
  • If you’re just being practical and safe: Any time in January is fine, but try not to go much beyond 90 days from when you first put them up.

TL;DR: For most homes, the sweet spot for when Christmas lights should come down is between New Year’s Day and January 6, with safety guidance saying to keep them under about 90 days total.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.