A 24-year-old mother of two, Georgia Schofield, has received a lot of mixed comments on her decision to take down her Christmas tree on the night of December 25th.
For many people, the Christmas tradition is to let the tree stay up until at least twelve days after Christmas (until January 5th) but Georgia decides to pack her decorations up long before then.
Right when her three-year-old Ava and two-year-old Leo are put to bed at 5:30pm on December 25, she gets right to work on taking down the tree, lights, stockings, and all Christmas decorations.
Georgia went viral on TikTok last year for showing a video of her taking down the tree in her living room, getting more than 2.6 million views to the video. She says this year, she’ll be doing the same thing but explained why she does this.
@bruh.georgia Time to get on with the birthday decorating 😬 #schofieldfamily ♬ 100 Ways – Jackson Wang
Georgia explained to the Mirror, “It’s my daughter’s birthday on Boxing Day and if it was me, I’d hate the tree being up. So I try and make it as normal as possible for her special day. I’ve done it every year so she knows no different, and she’s never requested or questioned it. If it wasn’t her birthday, I would have them up for longer.”
With Ava’s birthday being on December 26th, she wants to make sure Ava feels like her birthday is a special day just for her, and not that she’s sharing her birthday with a seasonal holiday.
“My kids’ presents are all bought and wrapped by mid-October and the tree goes up at the end of November. I like to be organised,” she said.
“We get up early and open our presents, then get ready to head to my mum’s house for dinner,” Georgia explained. “At 4pm we’ll have a buffet and the kids are both in bed by 5.30pm.”
As soon as the kids are in the bed on December 25, Georgia starts her tradition of removing all traces of Christmas and decorating the place to represent Ava’s birthday.
@bruh.georgia Can’t believe I’m going to have a 3 year old tomorrow 🥺♥️💫 #schofieldfamily ♬ Can We Kiss Forever? – Kina
“That’s when I pack away all of Christmas and replace it with Ava’s birthday decorations. Last year she had a Paw Patrol theme and she will again this year. I’ll get out balloons, banners, presents and decorate the table with a cover and plates. We usually go to Pizza Hut for lunch and have a party buffet for tea.”
Although having to do Ava’s birthday the day after Christmas isn’t easy, Georgia says that it takes a lot of forward planning to make sure it goes smoothly.
“It’s a nightmare buying a birthday cake. I’ve ordered a personalised Paw Patrol one for this year and the baker will drop it off on Christmas Eve,” Georgia said.
It also takes special planning to hide her child’s birthday presents to make sure she doesn’t know where they are until its her birthday.
@bruh.georgia Goodbye Christmas, hello birthday. Can’t believe my daughter is 2 tomorrow 🥺💓 #foryoupage #fyp #christmas #birthday ♬ oh no i hope i dont fall – interpaul
While many people praise Georgia for doing all the hard work to make sure Ava’s birthday feels different than a Christmas holiday, others have commented that she should still keep the Christmas tree up.
One parent commented on the viral video, “I love this, think it’s really thoughtful that you bring Christmas celebrations to an end to celebrate her birthday.”
Though another said, “Why not keep the Christmas vibe and birthday vibe both on at the same time?”
Someone else chimed in, “My daughter’s is 29th and I take the tree down so she knows there’s a difference between Xmas and her birthday.”
Georgia told Mirror, “I didn’t expect my TikTok to take off so much and I had a lot of mixed opinions but I focus on the positive ones.”