Christmas Decorating - Have you started?

[AnnaM]

Yep, I like an early start too.And my DH laughs and shakes his head too. I am 65 and I may always be 6 when Christmas comes each year!!!!!!!!! My village is up and all the mangers in place all I have left is the tree , and if everyone leaves early Thursday that will be up by midnight!!!!!!!!! LOL

[msr107]

Me too! My tree (a Mountain King & the first artificial one we've ever had) went up this past weekend. Wow--I know it was early, but I just had to get it out of the box and dress it up.
We bought it right after New Year's last year at 75% off at Sears. We've been joking that it's the straightest, prettiest tree we've ever brought home (lol). We're known for picking real duds each year! I'ts going to be weird having Thanksgiving dinner looking at our Christmas tree!:p

[Johannah]

OH>>>>>

You are supposed to take the tree down......and put it up again.

Mercy me.... I knew there was something funny going on at our house.

Its Hubby's job to put up the small 4' tree (on a table) every year... the branches just push down, not much to decorate...but he left it up last year in the dining room...and since we hardly go into that room.... "we" left it up.

So ours has been up since last year!!!!

[Sueanne]

What I like best is my set of Christmas Dishes. Start using them for company right after Thankgiving. Have gold place mats to use under them really gives the holiday spirit.
___________
Sueanne

[kasparcat]

My traditional schedule is this: Lights and tree go up on Fri/Sat/Sun of Thanksgiving weekend, and they come down on New Year's Day. We are a mixed-religion family, so the lights that go up always have to be up for Chanukah, also known as "the Festival of Lights," and they are white icicle lights outside, very holiday-neutral. Hubby is just as lazy as can be, and we've had times in our 21 year marriage where the lights stayed up till April or, at one point, year-round. Now it's my 16-yo son's job so it gets put up and taken down when I nudge/nag. I make it as easy as possible, all the decoration and the artificial tree are all in one place and we make a nice evening of it together, son and I. Daughter helped before she grew up, and it was something we all enjoyed together. Most all our decorations were loving made, over the years, in school, Scouts, or as family crafts projects. Now, it is almost becoming a chore and I can't do any of it, being in a wheelchair now. I spent all these years making it a joyful tradition together and now it's just a chore. Isn't that sad? I hope we can still reminisce as each ornament goes up, remember when we made this or that? Every one has a story. The one from the year we took in a child and his father for the Braille Olympics and they gave us an ornament. The time we made cork gingerbread houses to celebrate having made a whole gingerbread village that was on display at the fire dept. The years we hand-crafted pasta-angels, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bulbs, the salt-dough "cookies," all lovely memory-triggers.

Rani

[MomDadinOne]

My daughter and I put our tree up Sunday night! She has a friend that is moving to another state just before Christmas. We usually wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put our tree up, but decided to recruit her friend and let them put it up early. I thought it would be a good memory to let them giggle their way through the trimming of the tree!

[OSI]

If I had it my way, the tree would be up all year and decorated with the seasons. Hearts for Valentines, Champagne glasses for New Years, Four Leaf clovers for march, bride & groom dolls for June, you get the idea. The tree represents happy times spent with family and I just hate to see it come down.

Anna

[christyd8]

I have all of my decorations ready but not put up yet and it's driving me crazy. We have a big family gathering here for Thanksgiving so I decorate extensively for that but I don't put up Christmas things until the last person leaves on Thanksgiving Day and then I have a blast!!

I've made several Christmas crafts this year so that's keeping me busy and in the Christmas spirit until I can put them up.

[chi]

Guess I'm the maverick here. I do dearly love Christmas just like everyone else, but I don't like how it's been dragged out. I prefer to have a short special Christmas season. We put up our tree (real) 1 or 2 weekends before Christmas and it comes down on Jan. 6th. The outside lights go up a little earlier if possible before it gets too cold but we don't turn them on until the tree is up. When my boys were real little the tree and indoor decorations didn't go up until they were in bed on Christmas Eve. Even after the divorce my ex came over for a couple years to help me stand it up but eventually one year the youngest asked if we could put it up like other kids at school did instead of having Santa bring it. By then I was happy to agree to that. (ah-Christmas Eve sleepThe cookies will be started Mon. after Thanksgiving though. I use them for presents, teachers, bus driver, etc and for church Christmas Play on 8th.

[MrsManiac]

I generally decorate for the season--so right now it's still fall stuff. But we've had bits of snow, so I have put out some of my snowmen and snowflake stuff. We put up the Christmas stuff the first weekend of December and take it down around New Years'. We don't do outdoor lights, but use a lot of pine and pinecones, as well as some wooden figures outside. I love the look of lights, but we can't afford the extra on our electric bill(amazing how such little bulbs can cost so much lol!!). Besides, our house was wriiten up in the local paper as being "a sweet, simple, old-fashioned theme". Made us feel good, because all our neighbors go nuts with their lights!!

I want to get a set of Holiday dishes--probably white with gold trim. Simple, elegant, and goes with everything lol!!