Poll: Do you decorate your house for the Holidays?

[DawnM]

Just curious- multiple choices allowed

Edited October 26, 2011 by DawnM

[Aggie]

Yes! For both autumn and Christmas we go all out!

 

Every few years I'll decorate a bit for spring and July 4th.

[DawnM]

I feel like we are fairly minimal.

 

We have a tree but it is pre-lit and flashes different colors (fiber optic something or other) so we don't put much on it in terms of decorations.

 

We have stockings and a garland for the mantel place.

 

We have a mager scene and some Christmas knick knacks.

 

That is it.

 

We don't put lights on the outside of our house.....we live in the country and are surrounded by trees anyway so noone would be able to see them well.

 

And I make the kids decorate! :lol:

 

Dawn

 

PS: I would love a nice Christmas China set but not sure where I would store them and they are pricey.

[ChristusG]

I decorate for Christmas. I'd love to decorate for fall too, but it's too much of a pain to keep switching themes. Plus, getting everything in and out of the attic is a pain too. So we just decorate quite a bit for Christmas.

[Stacey in NY]

We decorate inside as much as we can, outside not at all except wreath on door. Outside decorations are costly especially with the electricity they take, so this is where we have had to cut back.

[elise1mds]

I'm the crazy woman who goes all out for every. single. holiday. For Halloween and Christmas, that includes lights and sound outdoors. The kids look forward to the first day of each month, because that's typically when I decorate for that month. Summer is the odd time because I leave the 'patriotic' decor up from about Memorial Day until Labor Day.

[Mrs Mungo]

We decorate for Halloween, switch it up until Thanksgiving, then decorate for Christmas.

[silliness7]

I feel like we are fairly minimal.

 

We have a tree but it is pre-lit and flashes different colors (fiber optic something or other) so we don't put much on it in terms of decorations.

 

We have stockings and a garland for the mantel place.

 

We have a mager scene and some Christmas knick knacks.

 

That is it.

 

We don't put lights on the outside of our house.....we live in the country and are surrounded by trees anyway so noone would be able to see them well.

 

And I make the kids decorate! :lol:

 

Dawn

 

PS: I would love a nice Christmas China set but not sure where I would store them and they are pricey.

 

This sounds like what we do. It seems like enough. Just the lighted tree really changes the atmosphere. But then you walk into someone's Better Homes & Garden Home and realize how much more you could be doing. :tongue_smilie: Oh well. Time and money and energy have their limits. I'm content.

[aggieamy]

I'm pretty minimal at Christmas, about like Dawn. Fiber Optic tree and a nativity scene. Little Librarian would like us to go all out but it's just not something I can pull off. DH usually is responsible for all decorating because I'd have blank walls in everyroom if he didn't take over that job.

[Parrothead]

I decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Independence day. I partially decorate for Mother's Day with flowers but that is it.

[Jan in SC]

We decorate for Halloween and for Christmas. I have a Thanksgiving flag and an American flag that fly during other holidays. I also have a Clemson football flag, but I forgot to fly it during the first game, and now I can't fly it and chance breaking the streak.

[Crafty Mathy Mom]

I do pumpkins for Halloween, maybe a harvest themed wreath, and minimal Christmas decorations. The kids have permission to do more, but so far they haven't. I would like to do more, but I don't have the energy for it.

Edited October 26, 2011 by Bradford Academy

[DawnM]

I also won't buy tons of stuff to sit up in the attic for 11 months out of the year! :glare:

 

I just spent quite a bit of time throwing out half of what was up there (see my thread on falling through the floor and through the ceiling below for that little gem of an idea! :lol:)

 

I actually feel that I have a large house and storage areas, but they sure do fill up quickly with curriculum we aren't currently using, suitcases, camping supplies, and the list goes on and on.

 

Dawn

[Cassy]

We decorate for Christmas.

 

I would decorate minimally, tree, stockings etc.

 

DH brings in masses of greenery (fir, holly, etc) and puts it everywhere.

 

I must say, he does a very nice job, but it does drive me a bit crazy. But then I drive him crazy over-catering every time we entertain at Christmas. So we have a kind of deal whereby I don't complain about his greenery if he doesn't complain about the vast quantities of food I produce :D.

[Tap]

I do all the decorating on my own, except for the tree. I keep it minimal, because it doesn't seem to matter to anyone else.

[laughing lioness]

Is Rudolphs nose red? My dh is obssessed with lights. In fact, he put up Christmas light last weekend to beat the wind and cold. We won't turn them on regularly till the week-end of Thanksgiving but they are there, waiting to twinkle!

Fall- pumpkins and gourds.

We decorate for Thanksgiving a bit and then big time for Xmas- which last from the Saturday after Thanksgiving till whenever we take the tree down.

[gardenmom5]

I used to do muiltple holidays, but with dudeling, I just don't have the energy. I do quite a bit at christmas - but it is my reward to myself for enduring thanksgiving. The day after thanksgiving, things start going up, and might not come down until after new years.

[Desert Rat]

Fall is big for decorating here. Living in the desert, we don't get changing colors or even decent weather. So, I bring it all inside. I've got garlands of leaves and other decorations starting in September. I add some stuff for Halloween then change it out in November for a few Thanksgiving things.

Some think it's over the top, but it's my favorite season.

I also decorate for Christmas, but that's mostly for the kids.

I have a few things that come out for Valentine's Day, St. Paddy's and the 4th. Just a few though.

My biggie is fall.

[Denisemomof4]

my parents were HUGE decorators for the holidays. I go all out for Christmas. It takes me many days to do the downstairs alone not including trees. In our new kitchen, I have a really cute area for display. Currently I have pumpkin decorations and one Halloween decoration that was my moms. I will have seasonal/holiday displays there but typically only decorate the entire house for Christmas.

 

My mother had some very expensive glass ornaments by Christopher Radko. She had these on display for every holiday. I have most of them and will be doing the same in memory of her, adding a few of my own items to personalize it a bit.

[Ellie]

At Christmas, my house looks like an explosion in a Christmas factory. :D Keep in mind that I've been married for almost 37 years and so have had lots of time to collect all that stuff.

 

On the first day of Fall, I put out a few things, including some inexpensive dishes I bought at Garden Ridge (aka Garbage Ridge :D), which we use until Thanksgiving, when I put those away and take out the Christmas dishes (which did NOT come from Garbage Ridge).

 

I do a little decorating in the Spring.

 

Summer can take care of itself. :D

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I went a little nuts buying all new ornaments and decorations last year. Kind of had a Whoville theme. I love the winter holidays!

[lorrainejmc]

For halloween I have an autumn garland with pumpkin lights, vintage style postcards in a frame, a few decorative pumpkins and a halloween tree. Then for Christmas it's just the tree and garland in the living room, stockings go up on Christmas Eve, wreath on the front door and a I make a small table top tree with florists foam and off cuts from the tree and put it on the dining table. For Easter we have a tree with egg decorations and a matching wreath. We don't have Thanksgiving here.

[Denisemomof4]

I went a little nuts buying all new ornaments and decorations last year. Kind of had a Whoville theme. I love the winter holidays!

 

Wow! REALLY nice!!! I *LOVE* this!!!

[Mommee & Baba]

I use to go all out for Halloween as well as Christmas. But due to the amount of time it takes to put up and take down I've just cut back on nearly ALL the Halloween decor and the kids don't like it one bit! I think a carved pumpkin and some fall decor is enough since it can stay there until after Thanksgiving, since I would turn the carved pumpkin around to hide it after Halloween. Christmas however we go a little all out and enjoy every bit of it!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Wow! REALLY nice!!! I *LOVE* this!!!

 

Thanks!

[Stacia]

We go all out for Halloween (my fave holiday) & Christmas (dh's fave holiday). (The kids love both holidays.) Our yard has tons of orange lights & quite a few wooden ghosts right now. :D

 

I don't decorate specifically for any other holidays (but we usually do birthday parties at home & decorate for those too -- more so when the dc were younger, less decorating now that they're getting older). I used to have quite a few Spring/Easter decorations, but that generally coincides w/ ds' birthday, so I gave all those decorations away a few years ago. (Couldn't deal w/ doing b-day parties & holiday decorating all near the same time frame....)

 

We don't put lights on the outside of our house.....we live in the country and are surrounded by trees anyway so noone would be able to see them well.

 

Well, then, put them where *you* can see them from the house. :D (That's what we do w/ a lot of our Christmas lights. We look out over the backyard from our kitchen/main living area, so we put a ton of lights in our backyard so we can enjoy them during the holiday season.)

 

I would love a nice Christmas China set but not sure where I would store them and they are pricey.

 

I don't have a 'nice' Christmas china set, but we do have a small set of casual Christmas dishes (adorable snowman plates :001_smile:). I cleaned out our kitchen cabinets enough that I can store them (4 small plates, 4 big plates, 8 small glasses) on a top cabinet shelf during the year. When the holidays come around, I just trade out some of our everyday plates/glasses w/ the holiday ones (so the holiday ones are down low & easy to reach & the everyday ones are on a top shelf).

 

Does tracking in leaves and mud count? If so, we're decorated for fall!

 

:lol: (Um, we are too then.... ;))

[higginszoo]

We put a wreath and a tree and a nativity set up every year. Some years, dh does lights. That's often about it. We don't really decorate much for any other holidays.

[TravelingChris]

I am with Mrs. Mungo on this.

 

With us now being in our hopefully, permanent home (dh is 24.5 years in the military and hopes to retire here in less than 3 years), I am slowly going to be making it more festive. Mainly because I won't have to plan for moving around and can decorate more specifically to our home. Of course, I will have to figure out how to decorate at all once my youngest leaves home. I can manage decorating mantles and pianos, that sort of thing. BUt nobody wants me on any ladders- between my arthritis which make is more likely I will fall and my coumadin medication, which makes it more likely I will bleed heavily if I fall, no one lets me take that risk. I am also forbidden to use some kitchen utensils because of the latter, too. LIke I can use a grater, if I am very careful, but cannot wash it myself.

[DianeW88]

I'm the crazy woman who goes all out for every. single. holiday. For Halloween and Christmas, that includes lights and sound outdoors. The kids look forward to the first day of each month, because that's typically when I decorate for that month. Summer is the odd time because I leave the 'patriotic' decor up from about Memorial Day until Labor Day.

 

:iagree: As I've said before, I'm like Martha Stewart on crack when it comes to holidays around here.:D

[DusksAngel]

We decorate for both Halloween and Christmas usually. This year we've spent so much time at my grandmother's we just didn't get around to doing it at our house.

[justamouse]

I love decorating, and the last few weeks before Christmas are a flurry of making stuff for the house. I love it. So, although we decorate minimally-there are houses MUCH more decorated than mine!-we DO decorate. Actually, this year is going to be a blast, I bought 5 trees last year after the holiday and I plan on making each room themed.

[Stacia]

But yeah...I want to decorate inside more than I have been.

 

One thing that has helped me keep up w/ it more is... declutter. We've decluttered the house a lot, plus I've decluttered our decorations so that we have only stuff we put out & use/love every year. Anything that was in the holiday boxes, but rarely or never got put out, got donated.

 

(I was so excited because when we got out the Halloween decorations this year, everything we have is something we put out. No extra stuff left in the boxes. :hurray:)

 

It helps if you don't have to clear a ton of surfaces first before you can even think about decorating for the holiday.

[DesertDweller]

We decorate for fall. It's still hot here, so the fall decorations help to remind us that it will finally stop being 100 degrees at some point. :tongue_smilie:

 

Then I like to throw in a few turkey decorations witht the fall stuff for Thanksgiving.

 

For Christmas we have quite a bit including a tree. We have at times decorated outside, but we always do inside for sure.

 

Our house is a bit smaller this year. I find myself cutting back a little so that things aren't too cluttered.

[JFSinIL]

October 1 - Halloween stuff is all over the house, inside and out. Nov. 1 - it comes down and the scant few Thanksgiving items come out. Day after turkey day...the tree and heaps and tons and gobs of red and green everything possible is all over the house, inside and out (with lights!). It makes SillyAutismMan happy.

 

Day after Christmas I put is ALL away!!!!!

[BarbecueMom]

I would decorate more if the decorations would quit getting destroyed. I'm down to two boxes of Christmas decorations and a few coloring books. We had to toss the fake tree after last Christmas because it had been torn apart by cats. The nativity scene fell off the mantle and decapitated Joseph. Stuffed bears were missing hats and eyeballs. The boys have smashed more of those ornament balls than I can even guess. The cats have played soccer in the kitchen with them, too.

 

Outside, however, DH buys a new strand of white lights every year in hopes that one Christmas, we'll have enough to go Griswold.