Our tradition is to put the tree up Christmas Eve morning and spend most of the day decorating it as we sing carols, wrap gifts and enjoy a specially mixed eggnog or two. By noon we’re feeling no pain and everyone agrees we require less egg but much more nog in our refreshments. As mid-afternoon arrives, a fantastic decision is made to paint the living room walls bright red and throw green sparkle sequins on the wall before the paint dries. At this point, I get white paint and make caricatures of Santa on all the walls of the house as Santa is involved with Yuletide projects that involve having gymnastic like sex with Mrs Clause and/or an elf while riding a reindeer.
By late afternoon, with the inside of the house picture perfect, we tackle outside decorations and someone suggests, “Hey, Let’s order some snow for the yard!” Getting snow delivered at this late date is too much of a challenge so we settle for two truckloads of white powdered asbestos because, you know, it sort of looks like snow and it’s cheaper! Besides, that stuff always come in handy when the Christmas tree catches fire because we like an old fashioned tree and use real lighted candles.
As nightfall arrives, we settle in to await the arrival of the Fire Dept, Police, Homeland Security and of course, Santa.
Undecorated tree goes up weekend after Thanksgiving along with the outside decorations. The tree is decorated the first weekend of December. It comes down on January 8th because January 7th is Russian Christmas (which my family recognizes with a special dinner since many of our ancestors were Russian).
Tree up no earlier than the third Sunday of Advent. This year, Advent is as long as it gets, so we may wait until the fourth Sunday. Fella bilong missus flodnak thinks the third Sunday is a wee bit early even when Advent is short, so he’s voting for the fourth Sunday. The boys are not entirely convinced.
Down on the Epiphany.
Why yes, as a matter of fact I did go to Catholic school!