Did anyone else find the image of someone hanging from a noose a little hard to stomach- even if it is just a decoration?

The only holiday I ever decorated for was Christmas. I haven't put up a tree in two years but for some unknown reason, I can't seem to let go of the decorations taking up up a six foot closet. How can I let go of these items (it will be really necessary when I downsize)??? Any ideas?

I used to go all out for Halloween when my son was little. As he got older I decorated less and less. Now it's just a Halloween wreath on the door (my son is 22 now). I still have about six boxes in my garage and for the life of me cannot seem to let it go. They sit next to my ten boxes of Christmas decs.

I usually just decorate for Christmas. However, I usually deck out my classroom for every holiday... so it would be a little too time consuming to do that at home, too.

I'm a big lover of holidays! I decorate mainly for Christmas, fall season/Thanksgiving, and Halloween. I do little things for other holidays: New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and 4th of July. I decorate for seasons though, mainly color wise.

So with all this, I have a big collection of holiday decor, although I wouldn't say it's over abundant or hoarder-like. The only exception, my husband says, is wrapping paper. I buy it up right after Christmas when it's cheap (and I try to buy generic colors for birthdays), but I always seem to have a lot.

Yes Yes Yes...I treasure my holiday decorations and each year it is so much fun to bring them out carefully picking through tiny little toys that bring so much joy. My mother was a wonderful holiday decorator so I certainly get that from her. And whilst I do LOVE it all, I only buy very tasteful, modern/classic decorations that will always look stunning. No tacky foil or plastic ones :)

I only keep Chrissy decorations. Christmas for me is about family and tradition so I don't feel bad about hoarding sentimental or quality decorations but I limit my purchases. I look at the product first and then see if I can afford it. That way I'm only buying what I really want. As for storage? Find somewhere in your roof, or under something in your garage or .....ummmmm.....in your parents unused shed..... my point is; it doesn't matter if you store it in the most difficult place. You only need it once a year. :)

I've got a few holiday decorations. Typically I don't drag them out until a couple days before the event, or even forget them completely! One Christmas gets the full treatment, and even those decorations are more oriented toward solstice.

The interior of my house is all systems go for Halloween. It is the only holiday I really go all out for. I have tubs and tubs or Halloween decor and shop all year long.
Nothing like that photo at all, though.

I confess to having about 5-6 large Rubbermaid-type containers for Christmas, 2-3 for Halloween, and 1-2 for the rest of the year (mostly Easter/spring). I try to be somewhat organized, but often leave the decorations out too long and then don't put them away nicely. Since we moved into this house, I've been very into putting a different season/holiday appropriate wreath or decoration on the cute front door.

Since our front yard is turned into a haunted house/yard each year by my husband we have LOTS of Halloween gear,some of it is grim.
And I have several boxes of vintage Christmas decorations.My favorite Christmas thing is our silver tinsel tree,a little modern but kind of wacky too.

I'm a home haunter and my yard turns into a graveyard with a fence, homemade gravestones, a full sized crypt with a floating, glowing ghost and fog and music. We're the "Halloween House" in our neighborhood and the kids love us. :) Storage is a bit of an issue, but I build most of my props and they are built to collapse and store as flat as possible and lots and lots of storage bins take up a good portion of our garage.
I keep some Halloween decor out year round as it's my husband's and my favorite holiday. We even got married on Halloween!

@Jessamy, yeah, that didn't really seem to fit with the tone of this article. Or the site, considering there's usually such cool-looking stuff on here.

That said, I'm picky about my decorations anyway, so I don't have a whole ton. For Halloween I stay away from gorey (see above) and tend to go for retro, gothic, and glittery things. Just retro and glittery for Christmas if I can help it, but my boyfriend and I have some different tastes in that area, so we make a cheerful compromise.

I have an extensive collection of Christmas ornaments, but I'm very disciplined in my purchases: Only glass, only European-made, and I never pay full price. I would love to decorate for fall since it's my favorite season, but Indian corn and mini pumpkins and squashes can't be saved from year to year (I don't like spending $$ on disposable decor). Artificial stuff is out of the question so Christmas it is.

I'm a big fan of vintage Christmas goodies...and I love gore, so at our house we scare the children and old folks in the neighborhood. I always remembered the scariest house in my neighborhood growing up, and I like for ours to be the same for kids.

@Jessamy: I did. (raises hand) And gory decorations usually don't bother me. Maybe it's the fact that one has to walk under it? Maybe it looks like the head is missing? I dunno. In any case I lean towards the gothic, retro style as well.

UGH....the epitome of tastelessness. Whatevever happened to a simple wreath and a candle in the window? These displays are the design equivalent of a McMansion....boastful. ostentatious, and wasteful of precious resources.

Pyrexmaniac, if you have little kids, a "simple wreath and candle in the window" just ain't gonna cut it, especially at Christmas. Anyway, all of our penguins come out at Christmas; we make a game of putting them in new and funny places.

I have been throwing an annual halloween party in my apartment for several years. I love decorating for Halloween. I decided I would decorate for an entire month ie all of october to get the most out of the decorations. My style has changed and I now go with a more fall motiff but with a few fun spiders and pumpkins around

I wonder how many people who decorate actually live in apartments.

pyrexmaniac - I don't even have kids but I don't think a 'simple wreath and a candle in the window' is gonna cut it for me either. YAWN!

Boastful and ostentatious? Do yourself and the world around you a favor... rediscover your sense of humor.

Growing up my parents house was THE Halloween and Christmas house in the neighborhood each year -we went all out. I have very fond memories of our house being decorated. Tacky? Yeah, a bit. But I wouldn't want it any other way.

I collect creepy Christmas elves/pixies like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/retrokitsch/1196454762/.

That's about the extent of it. If it weren't for these little guys, we probably wouldn't even bother with a tree.

I probably have a tub of decorations for Halloween and another for Christmas (not counting the tree). I don't tend to decorate for Thanksgiving (unless you count me sitting out the two dish towels I own with turkeys on them).

I decorate for Halloween the beginning of October and they stay out until a day or two after the holiday. Christmas decorations go up the weekend after Thanksgiving and come down right after New Year's.

I actually don't usually buy any extra decorations since I feel we have enough. It has to be something really eye-catching to add to the pile.

I used to collect a lot of Christmas ornaments and decor. I have a lot of Hallmark, Old World and Radko ornaments and some vintage and new Santas. I've stopped collecting and have sold off some of the Hallmark ornaments at a yard sale. Everything is in boxes in my attic....and now, at Christmas, I put up a small table top tree and a wreath on my front door and call it a day. Putting up a big tree, pulling everything out to decorate....then packing up the tree and all the trimmings, was more of a chore than fun after a few years. I like simplicity, now.

I'm shocked that people have that much storage space for all that holiday decor. Perhaps because I have an apartment where closet space is at a premium.
I didn't buy holiday decor for years because money was also tight and it seemed wasteful for something I get a couple weeks use out of once per year.
Halloween: I was planning a cardboard cut out skeleton on my front door and a black light or two.
Christmas: Last year I lined my picture window in my living room with colored lights. This year I will add a small tree. Which means I need to buy ornaments, finally.

I plan on weeding out a lot of the Xmas decorations when we decorate this year - but the thing I love is all the nutcrackers I have collected over the years of all sizes - I lve the way the army of them looks on my mantle.

Last November 1, I bought tons of Halloween decorations for pennies - probably $400-500 worth for $50. We used them in June to throw a Halloween themed party for my daughter which was a big hit. Now that we have them all, I guess we will decorate big for Halloween. My favorite Halloween tradition that might work nicely for some apartment dwellers - instead of carving pumpkins - we decorate them with Mr. Potato Head parts!

When the kids were young we went all out in the yard for h'ween yard. It was faux-scary but not creepy like the photo. (A hanging??)We used dry ice and creepy music, motion detector accent lights, a funny graveyard--including an open "coffin", and we dressed up for answering the door.

The trick to making it a treat was to not put it up too early. Kids loved our house.

"Pyrexmaniac, if you have little kids, a "simple wreath and candle in the window" just ain't gonna cut it, especially at Christmas."

I have little kids and we don't decorate for Halloween other than a couple Jack O'Lanterns and the kids make some window bats & ghosts. I haven't put up a Christmas tree in several years (not enough space). My kids do just fine and have plenty of fun without piles of inflatables in the yard. It's great if you want to decorate, but going simple won't scar children for life.

@ Jessamy - I'm with you. The picture is disturbing.

@Jessamy, I agree. Not sure why the noose picture was chosen for this article, with the hundreds of other Halloween decoration pics out there.

I don't have a lot of decorations that I hold onto now that my daughter is older, just a rubbermaid tub of stuff for Christmas and some GIANT spiders for Halloween. I'm closing on another house with my boyfriend in a few days though and since he's got 2 young kids, I am excited that I can go ALL OUT with them!

I'm kind of a minimalist myself with holiday decorations - my husband and I have a really small fake christmas tree (we're talking less than 2 ft tall!) that is pre-lit and everything!

We also spend a lot of time walking through our neighborhood admiring others' decorations as a way to enjoy them without having to make room in our house for storing all the decorations.

If do any type of decoration, we try to make it a multi-use item. For example - for fall, we'll make a display for our table with apples and some cool leaves from our backyard. We can eat the apples and then we compost the leaves.

We've chosen this as a way to stay sane during the holidays and for extra time to spend with friends and family. We're also both really tight with our money!

The one item that we splurged on this year was a halloween costume for our beautiful pit bull Angel. The trick or treaters LOVE her, and she loves to greet them too - she's going to be a bunny rabbit this year!

I've never decorated before, but last year (my first in a house, not an apt.) I understood why people did decorate for Halloween - beyond the pure aesthetics, of course. It was an announcement as to whether you were "playing" or not - i.e. whether you were a candy bestowing house, or would prefer to be ignored. I bought candy, didn't decorate, and had most of it left over.

That said, I would not let any children related to me go to a house that thought it was a good idea to have a body hanging from a noose as decoration.

We do collect a lot of Halloween and Christmas decorations, but I try to limit it to two bins worth for each holiday. There are a few things that just won't fit in the bins and they get a pass. All of our holiday decorations fit in half of a large walk-in closet, so I don't think that's too bad. Our Halloween decor is limited to vintage horror movie posters, decorative skulls (just bought a really awesome mercury glass skull that is gorgeous and so unique!) and the occasional bat as well as lots of fall foliage decorations. We don't do the gory stuff because I really can't stand it being in my house when I'm walking around with no glasses in the dark.

I have some Christmas decorations - but since I haven't been home for that holiday in several years, they've just been sitting in the storage room...
...there's nothing more depressing than coming home from a trip and having to take down a Xmas tree - so I don't bother anymore.

@Jessamy - agreed. They could have chosen a MUCH classier and still "Halloween-y" picture for this article. You're better than that, Apartment Therapy!!

I live in an apt and no, I do not decorate at all, actually. I travel during Xmas to see my family, so I do not even put up a tree. But that doesn't mean I am a scrooge :-) .

I have one box of Christmas decorations--anything else has to be usable the rest of the year or easy to make and recycle when the holiday's over.

We lived in apartments for years and did the bare minimum decorating. Storage space was at a serious premium with a 800sqft apartment.

When we moved into our house, we splurged on Christmas lights and a nice fake tree (real had been the only option before because of storage but it always hit my allergies hard). Wreaths, stockings, and a couple of light up deer because our neighbors on either side have them and it looks like a herd moving through the culdesac if we have ours out too- which is fun.

I bought Halloween stuff on sale- this year should be fun. I'd say we have one big tote for Halloween- mostly because the pumpkins don't collapse (the rest does). Two totes for Christmas not counting the deer or little porch tree/big tree. One tote is just lights for the front yard- the other has the wreaths and decorations.

My mother had a tradition that, every Christmas, there would be four new ornaments on the tree, one of each of us kids. The first thing we did, even before presents, was search the tree for the new ones. As we all grew up and moved out on our own, we each had a small collection of ornaments we'd grown up with. Over the years, of course, I've accumulated more and I occasionally "retire" ornaments that don't have a strong sentimental pull. The important ones fit in one tub.

For holidays other than Christmas, I don't have anything I keep (although I do have some china eggs for Easter, also from childhood). I decorate with seasonal plants, flowers, and leaves and perhaps something crafty.

No mention yet of people who collect holiday sweaters. I am not one of those people, but I've known a few. One of them (along with sweaters and matching socks for Valentine's, St. Patrick's, Fourth of July, etc.) had enough Christmas sweaters to outfit herself for each day of the month. Frightening in many ways, but she seemed to have fun with it.

I find it odd how many people don't decorate. I love decorating my apartment for Christmas. We have more than five artificial Christmas trees (most are less than a foot tall) so we can usually have one in every single room. And most of them are odd - one that is made of glass, one made of wrought-iron, another that looks more like a tree from a Tim Burton movie, etc. I'll give up my clothes before them.

I have about five or six seasonal wreaths for the front door that I made myself (silk flowers etc.)

I decorate only the front porch for Halloween -- I have a few of those realistic fake jack-o-lanterns that light up (because I will NEVER carve a real pumpkin again as long as I live!) (One Rubbermaid tub.)

I tend to love glitz, so I have some porch decorations for Christmas, plus a small fake tree on the console in the foyer a taller one in the living room. (After years in apartments where fake trees were the only things allowed, I got used to them and to not having the mess of needles everywhere. Anyhow, since I go nuts with the ornaments, not much tree shows!) And I do jazz up the mantle. (Maybe five rubbermaid tubs, altogether. These are stored on utility shelving in the garage.)

When I lived in apartments, I had a small fake tree (about 3') and a couple of tubs of ornaments. I always found a spot under the bed or on a high closet shelf or somewhere. Things expanded with houses...

Noose picture didn't bother me; I tend to appreciate the macabre and the tacky at Halloween - my favorite holiday because I have no associated guilt with not treating it respectfully enough - and I love how it brings out the creativity in people. It's just kids and candy and screaming and laughing. For me, anyway.

I have 2 rubbermaid tubs for Christmas, 2 for Halloween (including costume parts), 1 for Valentine's day (my second favorite), and then one each for winter/spring/summer holidays like Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, Easter. A lot of stuff gets double or triple duty, e.g. red guest towels for Christmas/St. Val/Chinese NY. Although many things in those tubs aren't strictly holiday themed, separating them out for use only at certain times of the year makes them - and the holidays - special.

Definitely my stash has doubled since moving to a place with a garage. I'd like to trim down storage-wise, but then I get so much pleasure from transforming our home with the seasons I rarely do.