In a culture where malls are putting up Christmas decorations as early as October, the question begs to be asked:
When is it time to decorate?
In my debut novel, Wildflowers from Winter, the hero, Evan Price, has this thought about his brother and sister-in-law:
Unlit Christmas lights wrapped around the gutters. Micah always put the lights up at the beginning of November. They were that couple. The couple that skipped right over Thanksgiving in their eagerness to spread yuletide cheer.
On the other hand, the heroine, Bethany, thinks decorating before Thanksgiving should be illegal.
In our house, it’s a tradition to put the tree up on black Friday while all the rest of the crazy world goes shopping.
So this week, as we get ready to gorge ourselves on turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce (bleck) and pumpkin pie, this is what I would like to know….
Let’s Talk: When do you start putting up the Christmas decorations?
Happy Thanksgiving! Join me next Monday as we kick off the Christmas festivities and learn about a whole slew of holiday giveaways.
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Contest ends Sunday, December 2nd.
We put up decorations the day after Thanksgiving.
I usually start after Thanksgiving 🙂 or Dec. 1! 🙂
I’ve been humming Christmas songs but I always wait until at least Dec. 1 to get the tree and decorate. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!
As soon as Kone puts theirs up on their rooftop, my husband can’t stop me from bringing out our decorations. 🙂
I used to put off decorating until December. It turned into a hassle and completely destroyed my love of Christmas. So, now I start on Nov. 1 with a little bit here and there. The tree doesn’t go up until the week after Thanksgiving, though.
Doing this has made my stress levels decrease dramatically.
black friday decorators here too. i still go shopping though. i have a new house to decorate!!
When the children were young we put all the decorations out mid-December… trying to keep the excitement from building too soon. Now that I’m older and time keeps passing faster and faster, I start earlier and earlier to make the season last longer. LOL! The first weekend in Advent the outside lights go on and the tree goes up, but I have Christmas music playing from the time I make the fruitcakes in mid-November. There’s so much beautiful Christmas music and such a short season in which to play it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Decorations are up. We’ll put up the tree this week. To me all the homey Christmas decorations make Thanksgiving even more fun.
I would have put them up this weekend if I had remembered to ask my husband to drag them out of the attic before he went hunting. But I won’t plug in my outside lights until after Thanksgiving.
The day after Thanksgiving, the kids start hauling boxes of decorations up from the basement…this year, we’re getting a new artificial tree, so we’ll have to get on the ball here if we’re going to have it by this Friday. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Artificial, Erica? Oh, somehow that just doesn’t seem right! 🙂
The weekend after Thanksgiving — that’s the tradition. But I’ve started listening to Christmas music earlier this year because my favorite local radio station started playing it several weeks ago. Kinda odd, but I’m going with it.
Slowly before Thanksgiving and then get nutty after Turkey Day.
Thankful for you!
~ Wendy
I do start listening to Christmas music a bit earlier (though not a ton), but we decorate the weekend of Thanksgiving too! Probably will do it Saturday night this year. 🙂
I’m usually a day after Thanksgiving decorator, but since I’m participating in NaNoWrMo this year, it’ll be December 1st…
We’re post-Thanksgiving decorators around here. My husband does sometimes put up his outside lights before Thanksgiving, especially if the weather is nice. (He decks out the house so it blinds our neighbors. :)) But even once they’re up, we don’t actually turn them on until after Thanksgiving.
The little Advent tree goes up on 1. Dec. (or 2nd or 3rd whenever I remember) Decorating the house usually happens in the middle of the month. Decorations stay up until Three Kings Day or a day or two after.
Our DD is one of those who likes to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the holiday out. She starts playing Christmas Carols in October. I used to put off decorating as long as possible, but when I realized how important it is to her, I changed my ways.
We get our tree and decorate on Black Friday like you do. Since our daughter is one of the lucky ones who has to work overnight to usher in the holiday shopping frenzy, she won’t be home until late in the day, but Gwynly and I will have the tree in place so we can decorate when she gets here.