Can I ask a potentially loaded question?

kaesha · November 2010

What's with people decorating for Christmas well over a month in advance?

It just makes no sense to me. We never do anything before advent starts and they always come down by 12th night. I'm not a super religious person, but that's how it always went down in my church and at my school. It seems to be more my American friends - does this relate to all the holiday shopping that goes on on Black Friday (tell me it's not all about shopping!)? Is it the desire to get the decorations up before the snow hits? What ever happened to enjoying the anticipation of the season?

And finally, do I sound like a cranky old person? "Back in my day... we respected holidays..." LOL!

karimychel · November 2010

Our traditions had nothing to do with Black Friday shopping. We put up our Christmas tree after dinner on Thanksgiving. This was the most convienent time since weeks/weekends filled up with christmas concerts, holiday parties, birthday parties, etc.. The few years we did lights outside as kids, my dad hung them outside around Halloween, but did not turn them on until after Thanksgiving. That being said, that was in Alaska and weather was questionable in Novemeber and December.

That being said, I'm looking forward to helping my mom decorate a little bit after Thanksgiving this weekend, because I we be coming home for Christmas. (I also married the scrooge, so I'm working on dealing with that as well!(

Soon2BMrsSikes · November 2010

Honestly, I think people just get excited about Christmas. For me, personally, I refuse to decorate until after Thanksgiving. We will probably buy our tree Thanksgiving weekend and decorate the next week. For me, the day after Thanksgiving is the beginning of the "Christmas season."

But I do know a lot of people who have decorated already. I don't think there's any big reason behind it besides the fact that people just enjoy having their house decorated for Christmas and don't really decorate for fall at all. So as soon as Halloween is over, they feel it is ok to decorate for Christmas.

katsblaze · November 2010

For me, we always decorated about 2 -3 weeks before Christmas. This year I am hoping to get things decorated this weekend. Personally I am excited for the boys to see all the lights since they love to look at them. Everyone is different when it comes to decorating for Christmas. With that said, for me, I won't decorate before Thanksgiving.

Auguri · November 2010

Growing up, our Christmas tree went up the week before Christmas and went down a couple days later. My dad always said, "it's a Christmas tree, not a Thanksgiving tree". He wasn't a scrooge, he just couldn't understand why everything was out so early and kind of felt like it was part of the commercialization of Christmas. Our family may have been a little strange though because we also open gifts on Christmas Eve and Santa would come to our house while we were at Evening Mass. I guess it is an older tradition, but I was probably the only one I knew growing up that never opened presents on Christmas morning.

ECHC829 · November 2010

Growing up we put our tree up the day after thanksgiving to mainly to have an excuse to not go shopping with Black Friday crowds. We also always had family in town for Thanksgiving, so it was just tradition. I still do that now.

I attempted to put the lights up last wkd... but most were duds. I wasn't going to plug them in until Thanksgiving, but the weather was decent and I just wanted to get them up. I'm the one who has to do it, P can be a scrooge, and doing it the last two years in the freezing cold sucked... I just thought I'd take advantage of the weather.

I should also note, for my family, Christmas was never really about the "religion" for us, neither of my parent practice what they were raised (jewish-mom, methodist-dad) so it was more about spending time with family and creating traditions, like baking tons of cookies, putting up the angel collection, making ornaments, etc...

blenderdance · November 2010

We always grew up decorating the day after Thanksgiving and taking decorations down on New Year's Day. We don't get our tree until about 2 weeks before Christmas though (because I forget to water it and no one wants a dead tree on Christmas.)

rebaann · November 2010

When I was growing up, we usually did the decorating the first weekend in December and took it down on New Year's Day.

I love Christmas, so I put it up the day after Thanksgiving. This is just the most convenient time, since I'm off work and Jim is not, so he's not in my hair. Plus, he doesn't like Christmas as much as I do, so if I can present it as a done deal, that works better.

MandeeFoFandee · November 2010

yeah, Christmas is totally not about the religion to me... more about spending time with family and all that jazz. we haven't put up our decorations yet, but I plan to do it on Friday. it's always been tradition to put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving and decorate it together as a family.

I'm also going to write out my Christmas cards and wrap the presents that I've already purchased to put under the tree. those type of things are getting done early this year just so I'm not waiting til the last minute.

futuremrsofficer · November 2010

For obvious reasons we aren't doing Christmas decorations at our house this year.

However when do it, it's usually around December 14th or whatever day Sean has off closest to that.

More than anything I just like Christmas music.

auntb86 · November 2010

**raises hand**

Guilty.

I blame it on the "Crazy Christmas Lady" gene that I get from my mother... I always start thinking about putting my tree up the day after Halloween, and wait as long as I possibly can. The way I see it, it's my favorite time of year, so why limit it to just a couple of weeks? It's definitely not just about shopping for me. We start putting our change in a Christmas Bank to donate to St. Jude's, we adopt an angel tree angel (or three), as well as volunteering. It's the spirit of giving, and I just enjoy it, so I don't see any reason to put it off until after Thanksgiving. To each their own, but at least I don't leave it up year round.

abarber340 · November 2010

We generally put ours up toward the beginning of December and take them down early January. No real reason, but this is when my family always put them up. I figure that it takes quite a while to put the decorations up, so I'd like to be able to enjoy them for a little while.

kaesha · November 2010

Hm. So it's more related to Thanksgiving then? I guess because we don't have Thanksgiving in November, there's just no cultural link there for me. I saw some Christmas ornaments up in September this year, and I had this knee jerk reaction to it... It's like, I LOVE Christmas, but what's awesome about it is how special and magical it is. it feels like the longer we spend in Christmas mode, the less meaningful it becomes. As for decorations, I guess the introduction of the fake tree has made a huge difference too. We do a real tree, and if we put one up now, it would be bare by Christmas!

auntb86 · November 2010

kaesha:
Hm. So it's more related to Thanksgiving then? I guess because we don't have Thanksgiving in November, there's just no cultural link there for me. I saw some Christmas ornaments up in September this year, and I had this knee jerk reaction to it... It's like, I LOVE Christmas, but what's awesome about it is how special and magical it is. it feels like the longer we spend in Christmas mode, the less meaningful it becomes. As for decorations, I guess the introduction of the fake tree has made a huge difference too. We do a real tree, and if we put one up now, it would be bare by Christmas!

September is undoubtedly too early. I just have to make it to November. (and I have made it well past the first for several years running! Josh is proud!)

auntb86 · November 2010

kaesha:
Hm. So it's more related to Thanksgiving then? I guess because we don't have Thanksgiving in November, there's just no cultural link there for me. I saw some Christmas ornaments up in September this year, and I had this knee jerk reaction to it... It's like, I LOVE Christmas, but what's awesome about it is how special and magical it is. it feels like the longer we spend in Christmas mode, the less meaningful it becomes. As for decorations, I guess the introduction of the fake tree has made a huge difference too. We do a real tree, and if we put one up now, it would be bare by Christmas!

September is undoubtedly too early. I just have to make it to November. (and I have made it well past the first for several years running! Josh is proud!)

ECHC829 · November 2010

kaesha:
Hm. So it's more related to Thanksgiving then? I guess because we don't have Thanksgiving in November, there's just no cultural link there for me. I saw some Christmas ornaments up in September this year, and I had this knee jerk reaction to it... It's like, I LOVE Christmas, but what's awesome about it is how special and magical it is. it feels like the longer we spend in Christmas mode, the less meaningful it becomes. As for decorations, I guess the introduction of the fake tree has made a huge difference too. We do a real tree, and if we put one up now, it would be bare by Christmas!

I dont know if its related to thanksgiving as much as Americans just use the Holiday weekend (since most people have Black Friday off) to kick off the holiday season, decorate the tree and house as a family.

I also agree with comments above that it can be a lot of work, so I like to enjoy it for the 5wks or so I have everything up. I guess in general America considers the time frame between the day after Thanksgiving - New Years as "The Holiday Season" (also inclusive of Hannakuh and other holidays).... like I know the flags and lights go up on the street lamps then too...

IMO, anything pre Thanksgiving is jumping the gun. I like to get through one holiday at a time - YOU HEAR ME TARGET!!

MandeeFoFandee · November 2010

EHayes1183:
kaesha:
Hm. So it's more related to Thanksgiving then? I guess because we don't have Thanksgiving in November, there's just no cultural link there for me. I saw some Christmas ornaments up in September this year, and I had this knee jerk reaction to it... It's like, I LOVE Christmas, but what's awesome about it is how special and magical it is. it feels like the longer we spend in Christmas mode, the less meaningful it becomes. As for decorations, I guess the introduction of the fake tree has made a huge difference too. We do a real tree, and if we put one up now, it would be bare by Christmas!

I dont know if its related to thanksgiving as much as Americans just use the Holiday weekend (since most people have Black Friday off) to kick off the holiday season, decorate the tree and house as a family.

I also agree with comments above that it can be a lot of work, so I like to enjoy it for the 5wks or so I have everything up. I guess in general America considers the time frame between the day after Thanksgiving - New Years as "The Holiday Season" (also inclusive of Hannakuh and other holidays).... like I know the flags and lights go up on the street lamps then too...

IMO, anything pre Thanksgiving is jumping the gun. I like to get through one holiday at a time - YOU HEAR ME TARGET!!

I have to admit, I've been drooling over Christmas decor at Target for weeks, and have not bought a THING because I felt it was way too early.

abarber340 · November 2010

EHayes1183:

I dont know if its related to thanksgiving as much as Americans just use the Holiday weekend (since most people have Black Friday off) to kick off the holiday season, decorate the tree and house as a family.

I also agree with comments above that it can be a lot of work, so I like to enjoy it for the 5wks or so I have everything up. I guess in general America considers the time frame between the day after Thanksgiving - New Years as "The Holiday Season" (also inclusive of Hannakuh and other holidays).... like I know the flags and lights go up on the street lamps then too...

IMO, anything pre Thanksgiving is jumping the gun. I like to get through one holiday at a time - YOU HEAR ME TARGET!!

I think this is it. I tend to put mine up on a day that Kyle and I are both off work (he usually has to work on Black Friday, so we usually go with a weekend in early December). Then I take it down on New Year's Day because I am off work then as well.

charity5115 · November 2010

I'm kind of with auntb, the whole "crazy Christmas gene" thing. I love Christmas and it's usually just about having a few extra days off to get everything up. It's also about the traditions that our family does, we don't really get much into the religion stuff. J usually makes me hold off til after Thanksgiving and I wait to do our tree til a few weeks before Christmas because we get a real one. Our lights did go up last weekend before snow hit, I don't want J on the roof if it's icey. I do have to admit that I have had them plugged in a few times since then, but only when I saw some neighbors with theirs on. Embarrassed

I do decorate for fall/Thanksgiving so that helps to hold me over. I also think that stores shouldn't skip holidays, it gets worse and worse every year IMO.

Auguri · November 2010

Also, I must say that getting into the Christmas spirit early is not just an American thing. Here in Germany there we have had Christmas decorations for a couple weeks and a couple places have already done Christmas markets. We are also going to Dublin this weekend and they are having a "Taste of Christmas" event this while we are there. I think everyone gets a little excited about Christmas whether it is for religious, family or commercial reasons.

kaesha · November 2010

Well, the November Christmas markets in Germany are a whole 'nother tradition. They were supposed to be associated with advent too (don't most run from the end of November onward?)... but it seems like they need something to dive into after Oktoberfest!

Thanks for all the responses guys! It's been enlightening.

Auguri · November 2010

A lot of the big ones do start the last week in November or the first week in December and run until just after Christmas or New Years. I believe most of them are tied to advent but not entirely sure. The regions in Germany have several differences in traditions, culture and religion so I can't say 100% that it is tied to advent, but I think it is. When I lived in Bavaria almost all the fests and events were Church related.

I am not going to complain about a long Christmas season though, I absolutely love this time of year in Germany.

I can definitely see the Christmas markets as a recovery period in between fest season. The warm gluhwein replaces the kegs of beer!

futuremrsofficer · November 2010

Auguri:
A lot of the big ones do start the last week in November or the first week in December and run until just after Christmas or New Years. I believe most of them are tied to advent but not entirely sure. The regions in Germany have several differences in traditions, culture and religion so I can't say 100% that it is tied to advent, but I think it is. When I lived in Bavaria almost all the fests and events were Church related.
I am not going to complain about a long Christmas season though, I absolutely love this time of year in Germany.
I can definitely see the Christmas markets as a recovery period in between fest season. The warm gluhwein replaces the kegs of beer!

I am having this tomorrow!

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