I think it's a universal truth — nobody likes to see holiday decorations up before Halloween. But, once that day has come and gone, it's purely a matter of what makes you happy. Some early birds have their homes fully decked out for the season by now, the first day of December, while others follow a more leisurely pace or follow long standing family traditions when it comes to timing the decorations, both going up and coming down. Our always-willing-to-share commenters weigh in on what works well for them in our latest Reader Intelligence Report..
Growing up in Rhode Island in the late '50s, early 60's, I remember the tree going up a few days before Christmas. We were pretty poor and my Mom waited until tree prices were slashed - one year we got a hugely tall tree for 50 cents! My b'day is Feb 6th, and a few years I prevailed on my Mom to keep the tree up that long. Geesh, I sure didn't appreciate her enough! I don't do a tree now, not really "into" the holidays, although I like sparkly and twinkly anytime. - abcornwell
I'd say the day after Thanksgiving is a good time to start. Before that it's overkill. I say let's enjoy one holiday at a time! - Nej
Up first of December and down first of January :) Nice and simple - Poise
We keep everything up through the first week of Jan because Mrs. Claus comes on New Years Eve to leave little presents - this may have started because my parents forgot their hiding place for a few things and had to keep up the charade. - ebarrett3
Mid-December to the first weekend in January...any longer is too much of a good thing!!! - jimc
I start decorating after Thanksgiving, but don't get the live tree until the last weekend before Christmas. It stays up until Epiphany (I'm Catholic and lived in several predominantly Catholic countries as a child.) Holiday music before Thanksgiving is too early, but afterward, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! - LibrarianJenne
I do it the weekend before Christmas - it makes it more special. Having the tree up too soon seems to take away the meaning of the holiday for me. I would put up outdoor decorations sooner though to take advantage of nicer weather, but wouldn't turn on any lights until after Thanksgiving. - joy911
Growing up my family put the tree and other decorations up after December 6th. December 6th is St. Nicks day, my father's name. In the Greek tradition they celebrated these Name Days as we called them. My family would throw a big party on this night and my mom didn't want the tree in the way, as we lived in a small house. We would take everything down after Three Kings Day. I have kept up this tradition, although the decorations go up around the first of December. -nycagnes
I like to start on the first day of December, both for decorations & holiday music. :) - Rashers
Christmas nowadays is mainly about slowing down, eating great food and enjoying time with the family, but I do like some selected decorations here and there, including candles to light up the seemingly never-ending darkness. I've never had a tree myself, but the parents bring theirs in about a week or so before Christmas eve and take it down depending on when the needles start falling off, at the very latest on "tjugondag Knut" (Knut's name day, tjugo/twenty days after Christmas on 13 January). It's usually gone around the 5th or 6th though. - ninakk
I don't like decorations going up until December. It just makes the season more special somehow. So, the tree goes up the first weekend of Dec. Outside lights the same weekend. Sometimes we don't finish until the next weekend but it just makes the season last longer. - Cali Girl
We always decorated the tree on the Winter Solstice, but a few other decorations might go up from earlier in December. Being Canadian, Thanksgiving doesn't really have anything to do with the timing of xmas decorating. The tree and decorations tended to come down on New Year's Day. - angorian
Lapsed Catholic with Northern European heritage here. We put up stockings for St Nick on December 6. I try to hold off on the tree for as long as possible (we have a live one in a pot that we've been using for about 6-7 years now). Perhaps I should use the feast of St Lucia (Dec 13) as the right day to put up the tree. My daughter's name is Lucy, so she just might accept that as a good reason to wait for the tree. Leave decorations up until Jan 6 of course. Then the (undecorated) tree gets to live inside until Spring since it doesn't like cold nights outdoors. - jeannemarie
Has to be a real tree, goes up @ 12/10(2 weeks before Christmas Eve) and gets taken down @ 1/1 - mbd
For us growing up in a minister's family, the Friday after Thanksgiving was the only day we were all going to be off together until well after Christmas, and it often fell just before Advent. I try to have mine up for the four Sundays of Advent. - gypsymomma
My birthday is December 6th, but my mother had a strict policy of not decorating for Christmas until after then. I have always appreciated that my birthday was treated like a special event, and didn't get lost in the fray. We put up advent calendars and candles on the 1st, but the tree and major decorations wait until the cake is all eaten. :) - smuckleness
I start listening to Christmas music some time between the day after Thanksgiving and the beginning of December. I love it and have a variety of it. I don't mind seeing decorations after Thanksgiving, but we don't put our tree up until a couple of weekends before the 25th; going to the lot is an Event, usually for Friday night or Saturday afternoon, then putting it in the stand, letting it relax and decorating Sat night or Sunday. Other decorations are packed with the ornaments, so they go up over the next few days. We leave it up for ~3-4 weeks. - darlingcaro
We put the tree and the nativity scene up in the afternoon of Dec 23rd and leave the tree up till candlemas which is on February 2nd. before that we have an advent wreath and maybe some wintery decorations. - zimtzucker
For many years, we took down the decorations Christmas Day--the first year we lived in Austin we made the mistake of buying a live tree and by Christmas Day, it was a fire hazard and we took things down. But, in so doing, we found we really liked having the house cleaned up and back to normal before the New Year made it much easier to get back to work on all the stuff we had to get done before the new term started. We still get the tree down early for that reason--but we do wait until after Christmas proper. - kariwk
My tree and decorations go up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There's normally a parade in my small town that kicks the holiday season off and it falls on the same day. So it kinda works out and it puts me in the mood. :) -Desiree728
I put up my decorations the day after Thanksgiving and we get our tree the next day.. but I also like to take everything down the day after Christmas.. Once Christmas is over I don't even want to look at it anymore and I'm ready for the new year to get started.-digialteacup
Ugh, I *hate* that Christmas starts so early. It makes me feel very stressed to roll from Thanksgiving planning right into christmas. I like a little down time. We put the tree up mid-December and usually take it down about a week into January. - dkk
Generally, the day after Thanksgiving is a-okay with me. NEVER before Thanksgiving! - FrauKeiser
I think people in our days tend to confuse Christmas deco with winter deco. I grew up in the 80s and I remember everybody waited til mid-December to get in the mood. However, the houses did get dressed up winter-style, as early as in October, with richer colours and warmer fabrics etc. Then as Christmas got closer there were more additions like lights, the tree, Christmas treats etc. - moondust
Now that I'm a grown up, I slowly start decorating any time after December 1st & I'm sometimes not quite finished by the time Yule rolls about on the Solstice. I usually try to take them all down sometime in the week after NYE, but I've been known to dawdle until mid-January... -misskitty_79
I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist, so my tree and Christmas decorations go up on December 23rd and stay up until January 7th, the feast of the Epiphany. Until then I just have LED candles in the windows, an Advent wreath in the living room, and a display of the Christmas cards I've received. I love the season of Advent and like to observe it on it's own, and by the time Christmas Eve rolls around I'm really ready for the twelve days of Christmas. - georgiesmom
My mother being from Mexico City and a hardcore Catholic, we would always have to wait till after the day of "Our Lady Of Guadalupe" which is Dec 12th which when we were kids we wished it was sooner. Probably within the past 5 years my mother has gotten very lax on the idea and done it as early as the first of December but never the weekend after thanksgiving. - ninabean
I don't follow other peoples rules so i put mine up when the spirit hits which is usually early November. I love the decorations so the longer i get to bask in their beauty the better...and i have been listening to xmas music for weeks already..love it - Curvatude
I'd just say that if the only thing holiday-like is that the decorations are up, then it's too soon. And they shouldn't go up merely to help you get into a holiday mood. The day you think to yourself, "Hey, it feels like Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Christmas/Whatever, I wish the decorations were up," is the day you put them up. No sooner, or they start to lose meaning and become a chore (personal experience). - Treefingers
When I was a kid, we put the tree up in mid-December, and it always stayed up until the weekend after New Years...after all, if there hadn't been a Xmas tree on display during New Years Eve aboard the SS Poseidon, those poor folks may never have made it out of the Dining Room!;-) - bepsf
Share your perfect decorating schedule in the comments below...and happy (almost) holidays (hope it's not too early to say that)!
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Since I was a child, our family has always decorated the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and we have kept this tradition. The rest of the holiday themed decorations come out any time after Thanksgiving is over (never before!), but the tree is always decorated Christmas Eve. And it stays up until about my birthday, which is the same as Twelfth Night and the day before Little Christmas.
Advent wreath and outside decorations up the first Sunday in Advent, a little more interior decore (and lots of baking) each of the next two Sundays, then the tree goes up (around the 20th, sometimes the last Sunday in Advent is just to close to Christmas LOL). Everything comes down on 12th Night; occasionally the lights stay up if the weather is totally horrid, but I don't turn them on.
I try to make Advent a prayerful, thoughtful time, despite the retail madness, so I try to have the majority of my shopping done before Thanksgiving.
feeling festive, have not felt grinchy ever... being around little kids makes it the best time of year.
i'll be switching out the wreath on the front door this weekend, but the tree will wait for another couple of weeks and stays up until after my "real" xmas in January.
As an adult, December was a time for major work deadlines, and then in graduate school it was a time for final exams. The combination meant 16 yrs of feeling like by the time I finally got to relax and enjoy the season, it was already over. So this is my first year of doing it differently. I started decorating for Xmas on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My house is now replete with my great gr-ma's costume jewelry Xmas tree picture and a 3-D "tree" I made of things I found on walks in the desert: skeletal cactus branches and a downed pinon trunk. I'm quite happy with the early start; it just makes me smile every time I seem these Xmas trees!
I have the tree up and am already listening to holiday tunes and Christmas carols! I love this time of year.
Side Note: The ornaments pictured above look much like the vintage ones I inherited from my grandparents! I adore them and have fun picking different colour combos each year :)
In my childhood, the Advent wreath and calendar were the first things to make an appearance, other things later into December. We also were pretty smug about our $1 Christmas Eve trees. Decorations stayed up till Epiphany.
I went through a holier-than-thou phase where I thought there shouldn't be any celebration until Christmas proper - just Adventy preparation (after all, the Twelve Days of Christmas START on Christmas) but it was a lonely battle and I was fighting my own love of the season, too.
This year we're going away for the week before Christmas so we tried to kick things off early so we could enjoy for as long as possible. We went to the Dickens Faire the day after Thanksgiving and cut our own tree at the tree farm two days later. It was too early. Like someone quoted above said, you can't impose the holiday feeling, it needs to bubble up on its own; THEN you run with it.
as soon after thanksgiving as I feel like putting up the tree, i do! and usually take it down on Jan 2nd. ish :) we always buy a live tree, and so far, they've always lasted (although i become obsessed, for the month, with checking if they're taking water)
Growing up our rule was the weekend after the 8th, which is my mom's birthday, and I still keep to that. I did put a mini potted fir in our bedroom last night, and we did start listening to Christmas songs. But except for a few decorations, nothing is really happening until the weekend after the 8th, and will stay up until the first weekend in January. I like everything to be around long enough to really enjoy it, but I like some real downtime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, where I'm just planning and anticipating :)
Winter decorations any time... holly - ever green swags.. what have you.
When it's time to plant paperwhites for Christmas blooms that's the first thing... followed by advent items, like the advent wreath and candles.
The tree doesn't go up until December 8th - The feast of Mary's Assumption. (My mom did it that way, so I will too - although I think she did it that way because we had that day off from school and it was a good activity for snowbound kids - Catholic school observes such holy days) But I like it because it's not too soon - and shows some restraint.
Then we keep the tree and creche up until Epiphany -jan 6 - which is the end of the Christmas season.
Better I think, to observe the liturgical Christmas season than to just go nuts decorating for no reason. But again... I keep the wreath on my door until the end of winter.
I suggest a distinction between Christmas decorations and winter decorations.
Festive! And if I'm going to take the time to set up all the decor, I want to enjoy it for a while before having to pack it up again for another year. My 5 year old is into it and his spirit carries through the family. I'm on board with the up on 12/1 and down on 1/1. Enjoy the season!
I've been enjoying the Christmas lights that have gone up in our neighborhood over the past week, and I might get ours put up around the balcony this weekend. Or I might not.
We're in Chicago - and one of the only houses on the block without our tree up yet! These people are serious about Christmas.
Usually I put up a wreath sometime in early December and call it a day until sometime in January when it's time to retire the wreath to the compost. As a NON-Christian I love the holiday decorations that are meant to celebrate the Winter Season and the change of seasons as we pass into darkness and back into light again... Especially as many of our western holiday decorations are pagan in origin anyway - not many pine trees in the middle east for little baby Jesus to curl up under, amirite?
This year I decided I wanted a christmas tree - because I wanted more pretty sparkly things during the dark days of winter. To that end, I bought my tree last week and have started to decorate it. I've got my lights on it and mini-disco balls as ornaments. I'm by no means done but it is so soul-satisfying to come home and plug in my little tree and let the lights give some warmth to my home (it gets dark by 4 PM where I live). That, to me, is what celebrating the season is about, regardless of your personal religious orientation. Happy Holidays! and happy winter solstice!
I'm dressing the house for Christmas this weekend. It takes all weekend and it's always the first week in December. By New Year's Day I'm over the gaudiness. Happy Holidays!
When my children were living at home the tree went up around the middle of December, if put up any sooner the excitement wanes by Christmas. Not to mention tinsel hanging askew, balls falling off etc. We would leave the tree up until Jan 1st. The kids are grown so now I wait until around Dec 20th and it comes down Boxing Day (Dec 26th) I cannot stand it another day. I know bah humbug but I live in a tiny place and have to rearrange furniture. If I didn't have grandkids I wouldn't have a tree.
Growing up some decorations (advent calendar and wreath and some Icelandic tradition items) went up earlier, but the tree went up on the 24th and stayed up through Epiphany. Now, since my hubby is used to the tree going up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and I want it up through Epiphany... we have about a month and a half of Christmas decorations. Also, we live in ND so we try to get the lights up the last non-snowy weekend of the year, but don't turn them on until at least after Thanksgiving. This year it still hasn't really snowed so Christmas lights are going up this weekend. They stay on the house until the ice is off the roof, sometime in March? It's either that or no lights on the house, which we've done in years when the snow comes early (October).
I love this time of year so I don't mind the extra Christmas time tacked on. It is nice having the house all decorated and smelling delicious, seeing family and friends that I don't normally get to, and spending the month doing family things that we pull from the advent calendar (we do half activities half trinkets). I also try to get all my shopping done super early, so I can spend the time with my family instead of in stores. I just have 3 left to purchase at this point and I'm done.
*GASP* Did you go take a photo of my mom's Christmas ornaments? I know for a fact that she has all three on the bottom row (all the same colors even) and she has several others (may or may not be identical to the others in the photo).
I have several of those ornaments too! I bet my parents bought them in the 40's- 50's. I have kept them safe since the 70s they made moves to AZ, OR, MT & Cali. But the skier - that one is really rare, mine is very special to me.
I wish I was organized enough to have my home fully decorated by now.But I tend to be a last minute gal. I'm really thinking of doing a bit every night until I get here though. I am. however, decorating my boutique flower shop as we speak!
Everyone here has been very ambitious, in terms of my family! For my entire life, the tree, ornaments, and most of the lights went up on Christmas Eve - because my working parents just never got to it until then. Then, because it took so much work and was so pretty, we left the decorations up until Easter. It worked out pretty well, since my mom would never remember where she'd hidden all the presents she'd bought throughout the year, and all the rest of the family lived across the country, so shipments of presents would arrive intermittently. Christmas lasted a lot longer that way, hee hee.
Festive! My parents were nuts and when I was a kid, they decorated the house AFTER my brother and I went to bed on Christmas eve - like Santa did it! I can only imagine how tired they must have been when we woke up early the next day ready to go. I grew up Presbyterian and we didn't focus too much on any strict dates for when decorating and celebrating should or shouldn't be done (except for Dec 25 obv).
I like a long leisurely season, so I put my stuff up the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend - so the first weekend in December. Its so much effort I want maximum enjoyment.
Things go down January 1 or 2 ish.
I put things up at the start of Advent and take them down after Epiphany.
The tree goes up one week before Christmas and comes own on New Years Day. It always has, and it always will, or at least as long as Christmas continues to fall on December 25th. As much as I admire "eiw"s adherence to the liturgical calendar, that seems like such a long time for decorations, but perfect for the holiday spirit.
I really like to celebrate one holiday in its own time in our house. My favorite is Thanksgiving and I hate if it's "diluted" by holiday decorations.
Also, as someone who celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas, it depends on where Hannukah falls. If it's near the 25th, as it is this year, then I just put all the various decor for both holidays up at once. But if it falls at the beginning of December I usually do my one holiday at a time rule.
I managed to wait until the end of November and that's about as good as it gets. Love to decorate for the holidays.
My husband put up some lighted wreaths outside earlier this week - that's been it so far. We usually don't do indoor stuff until maybe the first weekend in December. I kind of like the St. Nicholas Day/Epiphany time table to put up decorations/take them down. Have to admit I am not really in the Christmas spirit this year- lots of family drama- maybe going to a "Blue Christmas" service is the way to go this year.
This is somewhat off topic but... I have seen so many cool Christmas ornaments out this year but I don't celebrate Christmas. Anyone have creative ideas on how to collect and display ornaments as decor?
Being in the Southern hemisphere it does feel a little ridiculous to be putting up all this cozy winter yuletide stuff while the sun beats down and everything is BBQs and beaches... Nevertheless there is nothing like the smell of a real pine or fir tree, it's absolutely, perfectly magical so I will continue to indulge my inner child and go buy+decorate a tree 2 weeks before xmas day. Just short enough that not too many needles drop off in the heat. I'd have it up all December long if it was practical :)
I am dominican. We usually decorate for Christmas mid of october, but after I moved to NY i decided to wait a least until Halloween. I love Christmas so I rather have all deco up for as long as possible. Everything is removed after the Three Kings Day in January the 6th.
I come from one of those families where we decorated the tree the night before Christmas (the whole family...not just "Santa"). When my sister and I woke up earlyin the a.m., though, we would "sneak" down to see the lit up tree with tons of presents. Very magical. I don't have kids but I still like the idea of doing things as close to the actual day as possible as it makes the day seem a little more special. Having said that, I don't mind listening to Christmas music for a few weeks.