We have a small pre-decorated tabletop tree to put the gifts next to. That’s all.
I put up a small tree for the first time in almost 10 years, but otherwise we don’t decorate at all.
I put out some pansies but that’s general winter decor rather than Christmas stuff. I don’t think I even have any Christmas decorations.
I do go out and take pictures of my neighbors’ decorations, as some of them go hog wild showing off for the holidays. A few put out so many lights it must take them 6 months to pay off the electric bill.
I’m sorry to hear this, burpo. I know your doggie lived a wonderful life living with you.
Maybe it’s just my perception, but decorating outside really seems to have split into all or none. It seemed when I was growing up putting a single string of lights over the garage was common. But now it seems that houses have huge set-ups with the whole house and several trees, or none at all. Every once in a while when I see someone with a single string over the garage, or a single 7 ft or less feet tall tree it feels kind of sad, rather than festive for some reason.
For that reason, since I know will never do the whole set-up, I elect for none at all.
Back when I used to celebrate Christmas, I or my flatmates would deign to pull out the fully assembled and perpetually decorated 7 ft tall plastic tree from the closet. The top of the tree was bent from being crammed into the too-short closet space the rest of the year, but the ornaments stayed put, complete with a light dusting of, well, dust. After New Year’s, we would drag it back to its cubbyhole in one swift motion. 15 seconds coming out, 15 seconds going back in. I suppose that counted as decorating. 
My mother destroyed most of our ornaments while in the “rummaging” stage of her ALZ. She used to buy me a keepsake ornament every year since I was a kid…and she broke all of them. The only thing she didn’t get was the tree, which is still nestled in its box underneath the basement stairs.
I work 6 days a week and celebrating/decorating for any holiday is the last thing on my mind. We also have dogs. My husband would like decorations but he doesn’t have the wherewithal to put them up nor take them down. As my MIL once said, “Christmas is really for children. If you don’t have children, you tend to have no incentive.” I think she partially has a point.
Never mind that I’m at the age where I see all these ornaments and such in the stores and think, “Why would I spend all that money on something used once a year? It’s bizarre if you think about it.”
In the late 70’s I used to work at a factory (different department, though) that made the originals. I doubt the new ones use the same chemistry as the originals (sugar and sodium metaborate in the bottom, methylene chloride and dye as the liquid).
I had that department make some special ones for me, which I still have somewhere. The longest was about 3’ tall. Those needed a spiral of heating wire around them to keep the bubbles going all the way to the top - otherwise they would be absorbed back into the liquid about 5" up (depending on the ambient temperature).
I think that’s a big part of why I don’t bother. We moved here the year our daughter started college. There was no family history or tradition associated with this house and, as I mentioned, we’re never here on the actual holiday anyway. Like this year - we’ll be heading to Florida to be with my husband’s folks.
Even my MIL has reduced her decorating a great deal. She used to go crazy the day after Thanksgiving adorning the whole house. What cracked me up was that by the end of Dec 26th, there was *zero *evidence of Christmas in her house! She had un-decorating down to a science!
I live alone. Until a couple of years ago I had a Christmas stick that I used to lean against the wall in the lounge room. It was about 2 feet long and maybe half an inch thick. It lasted 10 to 12 Christmases. Each year after Christmas I would throw it out by the back fence for safe keeping. Now I use nothing.
Although, I found a 20 foot long string of pearl size, gold beads in the street today. I was going to take them to work to add to the crap there but maybe I should festoon some arbitrary bit of my furniture instead.
Courtesy of my wife:
(Note the arrow)
We don’t decorate for Christmas; then again, we’re Jewish, so that’s probably why.
The christmas cards I get are the only things that have anything to do with cristmas.
It depends on the year. The Old Wench doesn’t like the holiday much because it reminds her of our advancing years and her brothers death (both her birthday and his death are Dec 13) and this year I’m just not feeling it much. I really miss it for a lot of different reasons but it isn’t worth the fight any more.
I don’t own a single Christmas ornament or decoration.
There used to be a house near where I lived growing up that decorated simply but effectively. The entire roof was an arrow pointing towards the chimney.
Interesting user-name/post combo
My first post-divorce Christmas I put up some of my favorite decorations, only to find that they just didn’t “go” with my apartment.
My second post-divorce Christmas, I realized the decorations didn’t go with my new house, either.
My third post-divorce Christmas, I boxed up every last bit of the tinselly stuff and donated it to the Women’s Center thrift store.
Haven’t decorated since. Don’t miss it at all.
Nope. Absolutely nothing. Wait - if I get xmas cards, I prop them up on top of a bookshelf until boxing day - does that count?
I have fond memories of decorating the tree as a kid. My brother and I had a competition and the winner got to choose the tree topper. I always chose the star and my brother always chose a star wars figurine, until one year mum put her foot down and put the ugly angel on the top. The angel got “disappeared” during the clean-up that year.
But I couldn’t be bothered. To me, xmas is a time to gather with family, eat indulgent foods, laugh, and gift your loved ones. The decoration side of things (Santa, tinsel, snowmen) means nothing to me, neither does the religious side of things. And while I’m glad the world has some people who go all out, I have neither the time, space nor inclination to spend that much money purchasing lights, hanging them out, taking them down, storing them 11 months of the year, and paying the electricity bill!