If you haven't started decorating for Christmas,

[LaxMom]

I still have pumpkins and gourds on my porch. It IS still autumn, after all.

 

So no. No Christmas / wintery decorations yet.

[milovany]

Not only have I not started yet, I don't consider myself behind. Dec 1 or the first Sunday of Advent is the soonest one can start putting up decorations, and even then the advent wreath and calendar are the only requirements.

 

Is this a family tradition are a tradition of your faith? Just curious!

[Carol in Cal.]

 

 

 

I'd like to decorate for Advent, but what does that mean? A wreathe and nativity scene won't cut it...we always do that, and it's a small portion of our decorating.

 

And, I always feel like the Christmas tree and decorations are very sad after Christmas. It feels lame and hollow somehow, and I can't wait to take the tree down. I do like leaving the other decorations up for longer, because they are festive and once the presents are gone from the tree it looks bereft. I don't know if I can keep the tree up until Epiphany, but I do want to celebrate that day this year, somehow (I have no idea how).

 

Help!

 

Well, how we decorate for Advent is pretty much everything except the tree and Creche. That means an Advent wreath with real greens, and a bunch of angels and plaques and bells and candles all over the place. Also the Christmas stockings sometimes. And also since we are not currently using our fireplace, I fill the grate with juniper and put red votives in little white lotus dishes in it. Pinecones are also big. There are at least two Advent calendars, and sometimes a Saint Nicholas or nutcracker figure.

 

So then we put up the Christmas tree and put the lights on it the weekend before Christmas, the ornaments go on on Christmas Eve, and the Nativity set goes up then also. That way I am not even remotely tired of it.

 

For the 12 days of Christmas there are some presents under the tree, and some that appear at various times--not every day, but intermittently. There is always something on Jan. 6.

 

Then usually we take the tree down on or around Jan 7.

 

Partly why I started this is I remember what a let down it always was to open everything on Christmas and barely digest it, and then be DONE.

So this way each gift is appreciated, and it's a gradual build up and let down. We don't really celebrate Three Kings Day--I keep planning to, but I never seem to get around to it. But you can bake a special Three Kings Day cake with a bean in it, and the one who finds the bean gets a special treat.

 

Lutheran Public Radio (google it) streams seasonal sacred music 24/7, and their Christmas music is played throughout the 12 days. It's wonderful.

[Melinda in VT]

Is this a family tradition are a tradition of your faith? Just curious!

 

Neither, really. I am a post-Mormon-turned-extremely-liberal-Christian married to a post-Mormon-turned-agnostic. I learned about Advent when I left Mormonism and realized there was a whole wide world of Christianity out there. Although our UCC church (one of two churches our family attends) recognizes Advent, I don't know that most families do so at home, and I am sure we do not do so as much as families in more liturgical churches. (Once the kids leave home, I am becoming an Episcopalian. I prefer more liturgical worship than we get at our churches.)

 

DH and I aren't quite in agreement with each other about starting Christmas on Dec 25 and continuing until Epiphany, but we are in agreement on not stretching the Christmas celebrations out for a month plus before Dec 25.

 

So, we bring out the Advent wreath, etc., at the start of Advent, and slowly bring out the Christmas decorations a week or two before the 25th. We always end up with a tree, etc., but I usually get at least two weeks of more solemn Advent atmosphere first. The tree has to come down before New Year's Day or DH gets twitchy, but the Nativity stays up until Jan 6.

 

Probably way more than you wanted to know, but hopefully somewhere in there I answered your question.

[PuddleJumper1]

I haven't done a thing yet. I still need to put away harvest decos from Thanksgiving :blush:

 

Hoping to get to some of it this weekend.

[HappyCrazyMama]

I have the fall stuff down but not put away. ;) I am purposefully delaying though; I will decorate slowly through Advent and leave everything up at least through Epiphany. We used to decorate the day after Thanksgiving but I am enjoying this down time between holidays.

 

An tradition I started some years ago was slowly adding to the Navitity scene; for the first couple of weeks it's just a stable and shepard, a couple of days before Christmas Mary and Joseph show up, Christ Christmas morning and the Wise Men a few days later.:D

[jkwynn]

We do not decorate until after DD the Elder's birthday, so the tree and decorations go up about two weeks before Christmas and are taken down January 2 or 3. Nobody in our household feels deprived. :)

 

Same here, we have a December 4th bday, and my husband and I decided very early on that we wouldn't decorate until AFTER his bday. DH's brother has a December 14th bday and used to get the shaft all the time.

[DarlaS]

Ours will not go up until after the 14'th. I'll be busy with other things until then.

[milovany]

Same here, we have a December 4th bday, and my husband and I decided very early on that we wouldn't decorate until AFTER his bday. DH's brother has a December 14th bday and used to get the shaft all the time.

 

Twins! Same with my husband, down to the date.

[dangermom]

We don't start until December starts, and we don't really decorate until we get the tree about 10 days beforehand. Tomorrow we'll put my star lamps in the window, maybe put my knitted elf out, and get out the Advent things. That's all.

[Harriet Vane]

I get really sick of holiday decorations if they are up too early. I don't bother with them until mid-December, and I try hard to get them back down by New Year's Day.

[KrissiK]

I still have pumpkins and gourds on my porch. It IS still autumn, after all.

 

So no. No Christmas / wintery decorations yet.

 

I have that and a Christmas wreath (DD begged me to put it up). I'm doing the bi-holiday thing.

[Amy in NH]

Nope. Haven't done a thing here.

[AngieW in Texas]

We have a puppy who would love to completely destroy anything we put up. I'm planning to wait until my oldest comes home from college and then all the kids can put the tree up together (they always do). I'll probably need to take it down the day after Christmas to be able to retain my sanity. Right now Kylie's crate is right where we usually put the Christmas tree. I'm going to have to move everything else to be able to make room for the tree.

 

We haven't put up any lights outside yet either. We'll probably do that after the 19yo is back home too.

[caroljenn]

We are going to do it this weekend, or at least we're going to get the Christmas boxes out of the garage and put the Halloween ones back in! Feeling really slow about it this year, but I did buy a cute foam kitchen mat with snowmen on it yesterday at Rite-Aid for $4.99! Haha!

[Word Nerd]

I've never decorated before December before and don't plan on it. I'll start getting the boxes out this weekend but probably won't do much decorating. We keep ours up until after January and don't do outside lights, so I'm not in any rush. It seems strange to be putting up Christmas stuff when it's been so warm here. The flies aren't even gone yet!

[milovany]

 

Neither, really. I am a post-Mormon-turned-extremely-liberal-Christian married to a post-Mormon-turned-agnostic. I learned about Advent when I left Mormonism and realized there was a whole wide world of Christianity out there. Although our UCC church (one of two churches our family attends) recognizes Advent, I don't know that most families do so at home, and I am sure we do not do so as much as families in more liturgical churches. (Once the kids leave home, I am becoming an Episcopalian. I prefer more liturgical worship than we get at our churches.)

 

DH and I aren't quite in agreement with each other about starting Christmas on Dec 25 and continuing until Epiphany, but we are in agreement on not stretching the Christmas celebrations out for a month plus before Dec 25.

 

So, we bring out the Advent wreath, etc., at the start of Advent, and slowly bring out the Christmas decorations a week or two before the 25th. We always end up with a tree, etc., but I usually get at least two weeks of more solemn Advent atmosphere first. The tree has to come down before New Year's Day or DH gets twitchy, but the Nativity stays up until Jan 6.

 

Probably way more than you wanted to know, but hopefully somewhere in there I answered your question.

 

Thanks for sharing!! I couldn't tell by the way you worded it with "must" if it was something prescribed by your church, or preference in your family. :)

[JeneralMom]

We never decorated unitl after my brothe's and my birthday and now we wait until after DS7"s b-day. We leave stuff up until usually January 6th.

 

This year, we had to lave everything behind when we moved to Aus so not sure if we will decorate and if we do how much we will have.

[tex-mex]

Haven't done squat yet.

:iagree:

 

Heck, I still have Thanksgiving decor and birthday decor up in my house. And a pumpkin I have not carved from Halloween on my kitchen counter.

 

I think I can try to get a tree up (undecorated) this weekend... and put away the Fall decor. But that is it for now. *Yikes*

[A.Balaban]

I have TWO pumpkins still on my porch that we never carved. LOL. and a little autumn garland strung on the railing.

 

No Christmas decorations. Last week we got the decorations out of storage and they went in the basement. We are going to buy Christmas lights (hopefully) this weekend and put those up. Interior decorations... idk yet.

[missmoe]

I spent a ton of time cleaning and de-cluttering before Thanksgiving. I don't want to drag out a bunch of stuff! This weekend I'm attending a fundraiser in which I will have a chance of winning an already decorated tree! That's my plan for decorating!

[Serenade]

Haven't started yet, but we rarely do anything before the first or second week in December. We're trying to start this weekend, though.

[Melinda in VT]

 

Thanks for sharing!! I couldn't tell by the way you worded it with "must" if it was something prescribed by your church, or preference in your family. :)

 

No, no, no. I can set absolute rules for myself, but I now steer clear of any church that tries to do that for me. :-)

[lovinmomma]

Lol. Non DEMON churches? Well, I hope so!

[Elizabeth in MN]

We don't start decorating until AFTER December 1st. Back in the old days Mom wouldn't let us decorate until AFTER the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Do you know what kind of tree you get after midnight on Christmas Eve? Yeah, horrible ones.