We have a principle that no Christmas-related stuff happens until December 1st. So in theory the tree could have gone up on Sunday, but we were coming back from a cycling holiday (600km! I’m very proud…) and were all totally buggered at the time. It may happen this weekend.
This is our 16th Christmas in this house and we have never had a tree. Partly because there’s no good place to put one, partly because of cats, mostly because we’re never here for Christmas. In fact, we no longer own any decorations - they went either to our daughter or my sister or a thrift store.
One year, I did buy a wreath from a coworker whose organization was trying to raise some money. But beyond that, nothing.
Our daughter MilliCal insisted on the Tree going up the day after Thanksgiving. She and her friends were supposed to decorate it, but she ended up doing it herself.
I put up the outside the lights the same day, just before raking all the leaves in the yard (for the third time!) before the snow came.
Outside lights are up, but it’s too early for a tree, as they end up dying by Christmas.
Don’t decorate the outside of the house. When we were staying in town we’d usually get a Christmas tree, but we don’t have a place to put one anymore; where it usually went is now occupied by a huge cat tree. I suppose I could just decorate that, but the cats would ruin it pretty quickly.
No. My wife mentioned doing it on Thanksgiving weekend but it never happened and I’m not looking forward to it. Mainly because it required reorganizing the front room and because we won’t be in town Christmas week anyway so it feels like a waste of effort on my part (plus a crammed front room).
Christmas lights went up outside in the middle of October. Easier to do in mild weather than the cold and wet we get here in the Seattle area this time of year. They will come down the first non rainy day after Christmas.
The tree went up the Sunday before Thanksgiving. My wife wanted it up due to the short period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The tree will come down on New Years Day.
When my daughter lived here, we had a rule of no XMas decorations until December 6th (her birthday is the 5th).
I did put up the exterior lights and decorations a week ago, when the weather was cooperating. They’ve been lit every evening since.
I haven’t gotten to interior decorations yet. I’ve decided to put up the little fake tree instead of buying a real tree, as we’re not celebrating XMas until the weekend. Spending lots of money and keeping it watered is silly for just me and my cat. I figured I’ll get it all done this coming weekend.
I was over at a friend’s house on Friday to help him put up his tree. But the tree that would best be described as “mine” is still the one at my mom’s house, and we’ve traditionally waited until the middle of December to put that up, because my sister’s birthday is in December, and Mom didn’t want her birthday and Christmas to overlap.
Ironically, my sister has her trees up already, and sometimes keeps them up year-round.
I have a new roommate as of about a month ago and she was decorating for Christmas before she was even unpacked. I hate Christmas and would, on my own, opt out of as much of it as I can, but… I’m not going to take away someone’s joy. She put up a bunch of stuff last week and we got a (real) tree and wreath last night. She has a star, but we don’t have lights yet (I think she plans on getting some) or ornaments. I think I’ll make some origami ornaments because if they’re destroyed by the rowdy cats, it’s no great loss.
I had a girlfriend once who put up her tree in July every year for “Christmas in July”
Just wanted to say thank you for this.
As for us, no tree this year, and if I have my way, never again. My wife grew up with good Christmas memories and wants to recreate that for our grandson. Humbug, I say. If we do it next year, I will wait until we’re somewhere near Christmas, like the 10th to 15th of December. (and it will be gone by New Years Day.)
I voted “other” - I personally put up little to no decorations, but spent an hour over at my parent’s house this past Friday decorating the tree there with the family. She always decorates to the nines, and the decor there is all the decor I need.
Not this year. 
Normally, we’d do our Christmas decorations (including putting up two* Christmas trees, and a Department 56 ceramic village) this upcoming weekend. But, we adopted a pair of kittens in August, and they’re only eight months old at this point. The little hooligans are adorable, but they also have a tendency to get into everything. My wife and I agreed that we wouldn’t put up the trees this year, and we’d limit to a few decorations (placed out of cat-accessible space).
It’s our hope that, by next year, when the kittens are fully-grown and a little calmer, we’ll be able to go back to full-bore Christmas decorations.
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- We have a “main tree,” with all of my wife’s traditional ornaments, and a smaller “geek tree,” with my Star Wars and Star Trek ornanments.
- We have a “main tree,” with all of my wife’s traditional ornaments, and a smaller “geek tree,” with my Star Wars and Star Trek ornanments.
We probably won’t string lights and hang ornaments on the big potted palm or dress the dog in his Xmas sweater for another week or two.
I voted “other” because:
Not “we” don’t decorate, but “I”.
I really don’t decorate, but I have a funny Christmas plush reindeer a friend gave to me at a pre-Christmas party some ten years ago standing on a CD rack the whole year around, and I like it so much that I especially address it as my Christmas decoration after first advent.
I get my share of Christmas feeling when I visit my parents and my sister’s family on the holidays, they will have Christmas trees in their living-rooms, I even use to help to decorate my parents’ Christmas tree some years.
All around me, everything already is so much light-polluted by festive lighting that I don’t have the urge to decorate myself.
Anymore I cheat on my wife every Christmas; I go to other peoples houses just to bask in their decorations. We don’t do shit at the OWs insistence and it annoys the crap out of me. We got lots of cool crap some that has been in our lines for generations just rotting away in the attic.
(Long story short – she’s a Dec birthday and on her 35th her brother killed himself. We had to deal with all that and taking down the decorations. After a couple years it went from little to none and stayed there. Never to change. I understand it but ----------- )
I once had a friend whose ENTIRE house was decorated for Christmas every year. I mean, every place you looked there was something Christmassy, often lit up or moving or playing songs or going “Ho ho ho.” Even the bathrooms. It was cloy to the point of being nauseating. It turned me off from any Christmas decorations for several years.
Jewish agnostic married to atheist former missionary here. Nothing is up yet, though we will put up lights, ornaments, etc. before we host a caroling party in a couple of weeks (hey, what can I say, in this case choir geekdom trumps non-belief). I have still been recovering from a concussion (more than 2 months now, dammit!), and have mostly been coming home and falling asleep on the couch by 9 pm - the house has generally been kind of a wreck, though we did make a dent in some housecleaning over the holiday weekend.
Last year our “tree” was our giant rosemary plant, but this year it’s looking kind of the worse for wear. I don’t know that we will bother with a tree this year because we’ll be out of town on the holiday itself, but if we do, it’s likely to be potted and tabletop-sized. But we’ll hang lights and ornaments regardless. And we’ll be out of town for all but the last night of Hanukkah, too - don’t know whether we will light candles at home, but it seems likely that we will go to Mom’s for the last night and do it there.
ETA: last year we bought a nice dried wreath from someone on Etsy, so we will hang that, too.
THis summer I inherited the handpainted vintage ceramic nativity set that was made by my Mom. I just set it up (17 pieces!) and I must say mom did a great job with her color palette and the rich tones. And all the eyes of man and beast are delicately expressive. Ive been looking at these online most have kewpie doll or zombie eyes.
My folks recently downsized and no one really wanted the big box. It was shipped to me, when I caved and said ok. I’m very happy to have it now.