My birthday is early December so growing up, we always put the tree up on the weekend closest to my birthday. My husband would prefer that we wait till later, but he usually caves in and gets into the spirit when it's time. In fact, I'm putting the tree up this monday!

My tree has been set up for almost 3 weeks now! I just couldn't wait- it's my first Christmas living with my boyfriend, and I knew that we would get very busy towards the middle of November. I like to take down decorations right after New Years, though:)

We put up the tree the weekend of Thanksgiving, whether the day after or the Saturday/Sunday just depends on how busy our schedule is. We also keep our decorations up into January as we are Christian and actually celebrate the Christian holiday of Christmas which lasts until Epiphany.

Always the day after Thanksgiving. Then you get four good weeks of enjoying the decorations. I can't imagine going to all that trouble if it would only be for two weeks.

My family always put up the tree the day after thanksgiving. I am not always so good at getting it up right away, but I got it up this year because we have a new, bigger place and I can put up decorations that have been stashed away for years, I have to be out of town for the week of Christmas and want to enjoy it longer, and Hanukkah (I have a parent of each religion) is early this year, so might as well go for the whole holiday spirit thing. While we do put our decorations up right after Thanksgiving, which seems to be too early for some, I think that anything earlier is tacky, BUT, lots of things I do are tacky, so, to each their own.

In our family the Christmas tree always went up the weekend after Thanksgiving and stayed up until the first weekend in the New Year. Same goes for the outdoor lights and other decorations. (I agree though, the stores having Halloween and Christmas decorations out at the same time is just rushing the seasons, I hate that.)

I agree with Squarah, and I think most people do it the weekend after Thanksgiving. We just put our tree up today. I think a month of enjoying the lights and fruits of your decorating labor is worth it! I can't imagine all the work of putting everything up only to take it down a week or two later. I knew people growing up that put up the tree on Christmas Eve and took it down Christmas day. Weirdos.

I think this is regional. In Texas, decorations are up the day after Thanksgiving and down by New Years. Growing up in the midwest, we put the tree up later (mid-December) and left it up for a while past Christmas (I think we did the 12 day thing).

Like the first commenter, I have an early December birthday (the 5th) so, as a kid and adult, I like to have the decorations up by then. They're still so magical to me.

No set schedule for me; I just do it when I have the time and energy. I'm planning on doing it this weekend as part of the prep for guests next weekend.

My honey isn't really into it, so he doesn't really care when I do it. Well, I think he pretends to not be into it, but he always oohs and ahs over it after I get the tree up.

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.

"Lapsed Catholic" question: Is Dec. 8th significant?

Growing up decorations went up sometime after Thanksgiving (still do), but outdoor lights might go up sooner if the weather is good, though they aren't lit on a regular basis until Dec.

Oh and 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.

I'd like to see no lights up until December. Unfortunately where I live we're often waist-deep in snow by early-November and folks like to get the lights up before that happens.

In the Netherlands, St. Nicholas day is a major holiday, so most people don't put their Christmas decorations up until after December 6th.

It's also frowned upon when stores are prematurely decorated with Santa Claus, as it would seem the american traditions are replacing our own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

We generally put things up the first weekend in December and take them down a day or two after Christmas (definitely by the 27th, which is our anniversary).

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.

Generally, the day after Thanksgiving is a-okay with me. NEVER before Thanksgiving!

My family has always done the day after Thanksgiving. In general I think one month of Christmas decor is good. Any more than that is pushing it.

I have neighbors who put up their Christmas lights when they took down their Halloween decorations... way too early imho.

Day after Thanksgiving! Today I switched out the ornaments on our year-round tree, put up the lights inside the house, and set out my Rudolph figurines and sequin-covered stockings. Merry Kitschmas!

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.

My boyfriend and I are putting ours up Sunday (excited cuz this is our first Christmas living together) can't wait.....

I like the day after Thanksgiving to early Dec. as a goal. I also like to take stuff down by the first week of Jan.
I leave some stuff up until Feb. 2 but not the tree. I like to keep the garlands around because that's a tradition I grew up with - plus it makes the house smell wonderful. Candlemas is the end of "winter" decorations.
Since Halloween is actually my favorite holiday and I love "fall" decorations I hate the early Christmas stuff.
In general I like to keep stuff up for at least a month since I spend a lot of time doing the decorations. We put the tree up as quickly as possible and over time the other things are put up.

Australia not really celebrating Halloween (it's becoming more common & many feel it's just bc of too much American tv), and (obviously) not having Thanksgiving, the shops tend to start to stick their Christmas stuff up way too early (October this year), and just keep adding more.

Our family doesnt put the tree up until after my mid December birthday. Mind you, often they dont even start planning until then, either.

My family has always done it the weekend after Thanksgiving. This is my first year living on my own apartment so I put my tree up last night when friends were over for Thanksgiving dinner. It's just not fun putting it up by myself.

Tree comes down before New Years.

Usually the day after Thanksgiving until Jan 2 (no one wants to haul stuff around on New Years) but this year I have to work the weekend so it will wait till Monday

I'm okay with stuff going up in stores AFTER Halloween, but not before, no Christmas music in stores until Dec. 1st.

We never put up decorations at home until the first weekend in December.

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.

Up the day weekend after Thanksgiving and down as soon after new years day that I can.

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.

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!
;-)

I want Thanksgiving back! I want the Pilgrims (even if they were fairly despicable people) with their tall hats and big buckles. I want my Native Americans and turkeys and maize and cornucopeias (sp?), damnit! But since Christmas now starts the day after Halloween all that is difficult to find.

Hubs suggested that we put the tree up tomorrow, but I've opted for next Sat., even though I love having a tree and getting out my big boxes of ornaments and fussing about placement. I just don't want to be pressured.

When I was a kid ('60s and '70s) none of the stores had any Christmas stuff out until the day after Thanksgiving. We always used to wonder about how early the employees had to get to work in order to have the stores decorated for opening on Friday. And no one had house decorations up and lit until after Thanksgiving; anything earlier would have seemed gauche. Those were the days...

Generally the first weekend of December until the weekend after New Year's Day, with adjustments made for which day of the week the months start on.

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.

I start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I think music and decorations before then are premature and ruin the special quality of the holiday season. I try to get my tree up right away (got it today!) so that I can enjoy it as long as possible and take it down right after New Year's (although I have left it up unintentionally until much later than that...) I stop listening to xmas music on Dec 26th - it seems weird after that.

We go back home for Christmas, so unless we decorate the day after Thanksgiving, we barely have time to enjoy the decorations. Plus, with two little kids, it's a nice long weekend to segue into the Christmas season.

This year I put up my mother's decorations, including 2 already decorated fake trees (instant trees), the day before Thanksgiving!

We'll put up our own in a week or two, weather depending.

i don't observe christmas, but it always seemed like the day after thanksgiving was the day the neighbors had the green light on putting up christmas decorations. before thanksgiving seems kinda weird, but after seems fine. i have no idea why.

ebarrett3- Dec 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Mom then keeps the tree up until after the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan 6th so we always get the full month to enjoy the decorations...

This is something I was just thinking about today as the boyfriend and I had been planning on moving in to a new apartment on the 1st, but now its looking like it will be the 15th instead. I was really looking forward to decorating our first apartment together, just the two of us. But now I'm not sure I'll bother with a whole tree, if it'll only be up for two weeks (especially since I'll be out of town for one of those weeks). And I definitely don't want to put one up now and then have to tear it down and re-do it for the move. So, I'll probably just do some stockings or other small decor once we move. Or, I might buy one of those adorable Charlie Brown Christmas trees, instead of a full one!

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 till 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.

I personally blame the big names in the commerce. This year I saw Christmas lights in early October in some cases (in Europe), and that is just ridiculous. Granted they found a way to boost the economy (or did they?) but they killed the Christmas spirit in the process.

I personally got sick of Christmas a decade ago and don't put anything any more in my home. No I'm not Scrooge yet :))) I just got sick of the overdose. Kinda like having had too much ice cream.

Back in my country (Brazil) we put it usually on 16th of november and keep it until 6th of january. Something to do with the catholic church, I guess. The point is that my family and I enjoy it very much!!!!!!!!

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.

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.

The day after Thanksgiving because it's a four day weekend for me. If I get the darn tree up on Friday I still have Sat. and Sun. to relax. I take it down the day after Christmas because I'm sick of looking at it by then.

We put ours up yesterday (day after Thanksgiving). We have nine birthdays between Thanksgiving and the first week of January - it's an awfully hectic season and if I don't get it done this weekend, it'll never get done.

I put up the outdoor lights because we had a nice patch of warm dry weather. Plugged in the lights on TDay because they're festive.

Has to be a real tree, goes up @ 12/10(2 weeks before Christmas Eve) and gets taken down @ 1/1

Growing up in the northeastern US, sometimes we'd put up the outdoor decorations (mainly lights) the weekend before Thanksgiving if the weather forecast was bad for the weekend after. But my folks wouldn't turn on the lights until after Thanksgiving.

I like to start on the first day of December, both for decorations & holiday music. :)

I'm a librarian, so I get Thanksgiving and the Friday after off every year (although this year I'm at work that Saturday.) So I always decorate that Friday after Thanksgiving and take everything down New Years Day, another day off for me.

Part of that has to do with having artificial trees, though. Live ones aren't happy for a whole month, so back when I lived at home with the folks and we got live trees, the time frame was shorter. I don't remember that we had a special day, and my parents did the decorating. I knew it was the beginning of the end, though, when Mom bought a fake tree and exactly 12 large gold and red metallic butterflies to decorate it!

Anytime before Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving comes before Halloween, so retailers tend to start decorating super early. (Dislike)

If it's Christmas you're celebrating, I'd say 1st Advent, or, if you aren't liturgically oriented, December 1st. I also like the live tree lifespan metric.

Otherwise 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).

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

When we were kids, the tree didn't go up until the first Saturday of our school holidays, but since we're in Canada, any outdoor decorations had to go up by the beginning of December, just to make sure that they were up before too much snow fell that we couldn't safely climb about on the roof. And anything that got frozen in stayed out for the rest of the winter! The indoor stuff always came down on December 6th, which is my aunt's birthday, but also "Little Christmas" or Epiphany.

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...

My neighbor's hammering indicate that xmas is a coming. :)

I tend to decorate the weekend of Thanksgiving - and they come down right after New Years. As long as the decorations aren't up before Halloween I wouldn't find it awful.

In Canada, decorating before November 11 (Remembrance Day) is tacky and disrespectful to the war dead. Anytime after that is fair game.

Our city does its Christmas tree lighting during the last weekend of November and that is when people really start to get into the Christmas spirit.

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.

Tree goes up a week before Christmas (its real and its summer here so any earlier and it wouldn't be looking very good on the day) and comes down New Years Day. But all the other decorations go up Dec 1st.

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. :)

I usually take my tree and decorations down on New Years Day.

My birthday is December 6th (so many early Dec. birthdays in these comments!), 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. :)

I put up the decorations on the weekend closest to December 1st, so that meant today! Growing up my parents had a real tree and it didn't arrive until mid-December to make sure it survived the Australian summer 'til Christmas Day. I don't think Christmas decorations should be up any later than New Years Day.

I don't put anything Christmas-like up until at least the 1st of December. I get a live tree and so will wait until the 2nd weekend of the month to put it up. My decorations stay up until the Epiphany...the outdoor lights are only up until January 2nd though.

People are decorating way too early these days! And, no comment on the atrocity my neighbor already has up... :)

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!

Mid-December to the first weekend in January...any longer is too much of a good thing!!!

With offspring birthdays around/on Thanksgiving and the day after New Years, I made a point of keeping their birthdays separate from the "big" celebrations. So decorations up 1st weekend in December and down and stowed by New Year's Eve.

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.

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, but didn't make it today.

Up first of December and down first of January :) Nice and simple

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.

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!

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.

Some stores start selling Christmas decorations already in the end of October and it seems like the date is earlier each year. Soon the kitsch will be there in August, I fear... Makes me both a little mad and sad, as it then is only about the money.

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.

I definitely say after Thanksgiving...I want that holiday back!! I put up the Moravian Star the weekend after Thanksgiving anyway, but most of the other decorations trail behind a few days.

Don't be too cranky with people who put up their lights before Thanksgiving! Some of us just want to look like we're not out of town

Six Tips For Keeping Your Home Secure: #1, set timers for lights

We usually put up our Christmas decorations on my mom's birthday, which is on December 2. These get taken down on the Feast of the Three Kings in early January.

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.

If I have the time and I'm in town, I put decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'll start to think about taking decorations down the first week of January.