IT’S official – Christmas is finally over in York.

The Press reported yesterday that City of York Council was risking bad luck by leaving its Christmas decorations up well beyond the deadline of Twelfth Night.

The council installed 200 small trees on brackets attached to buildings in seven city centre streets in the run-up to Christmas.

Until yesterday the trees remained on display, complete with fairy lights, which are lit up day and night, wasting taxpayers’ money on electricity.

But now the trees and lights have been removed – answering the prayers of the city’s Lord Mayor Coun Brian Watson.

Coun Watson, who represents Guildhall on City of York Council, said: “It’s a good sign that they have been taken down and the council has listened. For a lot of people things like this are a significant visible sign that the council is doing something and if it’s just left unattended they’ve got every right to complain.”

The trees were put up in December along with the large tree in St Helen’s Square, although this has been removed. The 200 smaller trees – which measure about 4ft – were fixed to properties in Coney Street, Davygate, Low Petergate, Fossgate, Colliergate, Goodramgate and Micklegate.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: “Unfortunately, it has taken longer than expected to take down the Christmas decorations in the city centre, for which we can only apologise.

“2008 was the first year we had used the individual Christmas trees and while they looked very effective, the lights have to be turned off at each individual tree, which slows down the removal process.

“We’ll be looking at how we can improve our systems as soon as we’ve taken all the trees and lights down.

“LED lights were used specifically because of their energy efficiency and the total cost of the energy needed to light the decorations since Twelfth Night will be negligible.”

The village of Elvington also has its Christmas tree still up, although the lights have been removed.

Coun Ian Bailey, chairman of Elvington Parish Council, said: “It’s such a big tree that we have to make special arrangements to get a farmer to take it down and replace it with the village maypole.”