Extra-early Holiday Decorating?

[jania]

The day after Thanksgiving I started to notice my neighborhood was already displaying outdoor holiday lights, and even seeing Christmas trees in the windows. This seems so early to me. I'm thinking either they want to keep up with the retailers or they are feeling so down about the economy they want a little "lift" in their life.

Has anyone else noticed this trend?

[Stella]

The weekend after Thanksgiving has always been when my family put up the tree. It was the time we were all home to get it done since we were off for the long weekend.

[Miss Cellane]

I've been noticing this trend for the last 15-20 years.

Back when I was a kid, in the 1960s, most of the people we knew started decorating maybe two weeks before Christmas. My parents put up the tree on Christmas Eve, and took it down on Epiphany.

But as more people do more elaborate decorations--not a lot of people did outside lights and stuff when I was a kid--they want to get their full value out of the decorations. And in colder areas, waiting until mid-December means that it is too cold to set up a lot of the outside lights and things--the ground is frozen, it's too cold to go without gloves, etc.

Also, I think the growing trend towards artificial trees has something to do with it. With a real tree, most people wouldn't want them up in the house for a month--the needles would drop and make a mess. But with a fake tree, that's not an issue and you can have the tree up as long as you want. Some people do have live trees up for the whole month of December--I'm glad I'm not vacuuming their floors!

The flip side of this trend is that while taking a walk around my neighborhood on the evening of Christmas Day last year, I saw about 5 trees already hauled out to the curb. It was kind of sad, as if they couldn't wait to have Christmas over with.

[libby]

Many people in my area start decorating the day after halloween! That is way to early in my opinion.

[Float On]

I can't tell you how many homes I saw with pumpkins and a santa or pumpkins and a nativity scene......in early October. I won't even begin to describe the hodge podge of fall/thanksgiving/christmas decor by local businesses.

I know I'm in a tourism area but I'm so tired of christmas stuff I'm not interested in putting out my own yet. Might change my mind tonight after the area Adoration Parade and annual fireworks and lighting of the Community Christmas Card.

[Simpler at Fifty]

When I was a kid, we put our tree up on Christmas Eve and took it down on New Years Day. We had a real tree every year . We had wood heat which DF kept the house at about 78. The tree dried out very fast and by New Years Eve it was shedding a lot. I always thought that was not much time for a tree to be up based on how much time it took to haul everything out, decorate and undecorate it.

We decorate our home the weekend before or the day before Thanksgiving(depending on time). We take it down on January 1st or 2nd. We enjoy our tree during the time it is up. We put our outside decorations up at the same time and turn them on Thanksgiving night. We do it because we enjoy it. It doesn't matter to us when anyone else does their decorating.

We are neither keeping up with retailers or 'down' about the economy. Some people just enjoy the holidays.

[sweetana3]

We also put up our Xmas tree on Christmas Eve and it was usually the free type (Charlie Brown type) that the tree lot was giving away when the lot closed. Dad would cut off the end and try and fit it into our tiny house and then it would go out the next week sometime.

The smell of a real tree was the best part.

[herbgeek]

Because we always had a fake tree, Mom always did the decorations the day after Thanksgiving. I've always done this too, although the years I had a real tree, I'd still put up the rest of the decorations and leave the tree til a couple of weeks before.

[Anne Lee]

I put the lights up in October when it's warm but I don't turn them on till after Thanksgiving. I take out the decorations a little at a time with the tree going up about 10 days before Christmas, coming down on New Year's (or shortly before). This weekend I brought out the Christmas mugs and will bring up some of the train ornaments.

[iris lily]

I don't think there is anything wrong with putting up Xmas decor on Thanksgiving. That is a day that a lot of people have off work, and if the weather is nice, why not take advantage?

[reader99]

My late DH loved, loved, loved Christmas, and it was all I could do to get him to wait til the Friday after Thanksgiving, and to agree to take it down the day after NEw Years. We, mostly he, would decorate and I would do Christmas cards on that Friday.

[Mighty Frugal]

I see nothing wrong with Xmas decorations after the Am. T.Giving. Why not? Christmas, to many, is a time of joy and to see all the beautiful lights and the trees inside peoples' homes is so sweet to me. I love Christmas, love everything about it, and decorate the last wknd in Nov or first in Dec-whenever I have time. Sitting here looking at my brightly lit tree makes me feel good

[peggy]

We usually wait till my daughters birthday, which is pearl harbor day, or rather the day after to pull out the Christmas decorations. I always felt kids born in Dec got a bum rap with the Holidays overshadowing their special day, so we let her birthday be sort of a corner stone of the celebrations. I take down after new years whenever i get the energy to do so.:)

[Simplemind]

Fall is my favorite time of year and I hate Christmas crowding it out. Respect the bird !!!!! We generally luck out with some nice weather on the long Thanksgiving weekend and I see no problem with putting up lights outside while you can do it comfortably. We will do the tree that weekend too. We usually take the tree down by New years eve.

[Rosemary]

Fall is my favorite time of year, too, and I love the Thanksgiving harvest festival. I do not like hearing Christmas music in the stores before Thanskgiving! However, depending on the weather, we have sometimes put up exterior lights before Thanksgiving, but we don't turn them on until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We live in Minnesota, and we often get our first big snow around Thanksgiving, plus it can be bone-chilling cold by early December... so we take advantage of warm late fall days.

Inside, we decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. DD has a long weekend and she loves decorating with me. Plus, it's a lot of work. Generally the landscape outside is pretty bleak by then and I figure that if we're going to spend hours decorating the house we might as well enjoy it for a month. Decorations come down around New Year's Day, whatever weekend falls then. Exterior lights are usually up until we get a brief thaw in the weather, to at least 30 degrees. Sometimes that is late March. We don't turn them on all that time, though... usually just through Christmas.

[jania]

Looks like a lot of people decorate at Thanksgiving as their tradition. When I was young we would put up lights maybe two weeks before Christmas, the tree a week before then take it down on January 1. The lights are beautiful to look at in the early morning (when I see them) while it is still dark. It still seems early to me though.

[IshbelRobertson]

Whilst we don't have a Thanksgiving holiday in the UK, I have noticed houses are being decorated from about 1 December nowadays. I put advent candles in each window on the First Sunday of advent - we buy the tree a week before Christmas and put a wreath on the door at the same time. I keep all decs to a minimum nowadays (although I ADORE a well-dressed Christmas tree!) - and we remove them all on Twelfth Night.

[Charity]

My brother-in-law just came back from Manila in the Phillipeans and he said that they have Christmas decorations up for all the "ber" months. September through December. He said their philosophy is that if you work that hard to put them up you might as well enjoy them for more than 30 days.

This year I got my tree up and my decorations done by the week after Thanksgiving. Usually I'm way later than that.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I made flower arrangements for myself and my parents with pine and fir tree branches that came down in the wind (all over the place, waiting for the trash to pick them up), plus tree branches with red berries that come down in the wind. Added some white roses that grow outside my place. Absolutely stunningly dramatic, you'd pay a lot for this type of flower arrangement. I laughed at people looking at buying pine braches and the like, haha, and commented "that stuff is free!"

It's a windfall :laff: Of course I'd prefer 100 dollar bills to blow my way, but given that that is not likely to happen, beautiful holiday flower arrangements do blow my way. Just making light at the apocalypse here, I found myself humming while foraging and arranging "it's beginning to look a lot like christmas ...."

[DonkaDoo]

As a kid (in the 80s) we always set up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and took it down the day after New Years.

[leslieann]

Two of my kids have birthdays after Thanksgiving so we always waited for those events to be over before starting with Christmas. I started the litle-by-little decorating some years back when I decided to focus on advent rather than Christmas. Things are very different in my life now, but I still bring things out bit by bit. There are many fewer bits! Also I try to focus on natural and frugal for decorations and gift wrappings so that is different. I also no longer have that awful feeling that if I don't do just everything possible, Christmas won't come or I'll be responsible for everyone's unhappiness, or whatever.

Anyway, we decorate minimally and we wait until December to do it.

[domestic goddess]

The people two doors down from us put their outside decorations up the day after Thanksgiving, and it caused a lot of comment in the neighborhood, most of it not good. But they are an older couple taking care of a disabled adult daughter, so I'm sure that they were taking advantage of the warmer weather, and maybe the daughter likes the decorations. They are pretty understated, though I noticed they have added a small inflatable this year. But I do think they could have waited a little later to turn them on. However, there is the possibility that they have received negative news about the health of their daughter or themselves, so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Our tree was up on 12/1, which is early for us, but their were extenuating circumstances, so I hope we will be forgiven. The kids have really enjoyed it.

[artist]

Goes back generations for my family. The Saturday after Thanskgiving was always when we put up our tree and started to decorate.