Best Time to Decorate for Christmas?

I love Christmas - something about the tree and decorations just makes home feel so much warmer and wonderful! I do my decorating the day after Thanksgiving. To be honest, if Thanksgiving isn't going to be at my house and I've taken a few days before Thanksgiving off from work, I've been known to start early! :-)
Happy holidays!

I put up my tree the weekend before Thanksgiving. Since I cook stuff for Thanksgiving dinner every night prior, I have be beautiful tree to look at to keep me cheery :) Plus after Thanksgiving I'm too exhausted from all the grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning to decorate!

We start decorating the Friday after Thanksgiving. My job is to set up the tree and pull everything out of the attic. Then the women and kids of the family decorate while the guys watch football. It's a good balance. The outdoor lights usually go Sunday after everybody leaves.

If we are home, we decorate on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Forget black Friday, we go get our tree and swap from our Thanksgiving decorations to Christmas that day. This year we'll be out of town, so we'll probably decorate the 1st weekend in December. Basically, as soon after Thanksgiving as possible. I'll probably work on the inside stuff while the big kids are at school and save the tree decorating for when we can all go together. If you don't do it right after Thanksgiving, you won't get to enjoy your decorations very long!

Hi!

Our family tradition has been since I was a baby to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as a family on Thanksgiving morning. Then we all got VERY excited when at the very end, Santa arrives! That to us is the beginning of the Christmas season. I have been blessed to be able to pass this onto my own young daughters. My husband never had any kind of traditions and this has become very special to him. After celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with family, friends or by ourselves (we move a lot because of my husband's job), the next day we start to decorate for Christmas. It is such an exciting time of year for our family.

I hope all the responses you receive help you make your own holiday tradition with your growing family.

All the best to you!
P.

The day after Thanksgiving. Partly because of tradition and because it just makes since to me. That's when the Christmas season offially begins to me. And it's usually a work holiday long weeekend so there is time to get stuff done.

This is my favorite time of year too!!! I just cannot wait to get in there and deck the halls. My family growing up always decorated the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and we took them down the weekend after New years.

This year I am pregnant as well and the second time I have been pregnant at this time of year and have the exact same due date as my second boy (due January 10th, born January 4th). So the taking down of the stuff is what hits me the hardest, I don't want anyone to do it for me, they will mess up my great stuff.

Needless to say I plan on getting in there the weekend before Thanksgiving this year and taking down between Christmas and New Years. Then I can be sure I am in charge and get to enjoy every minute of it.

Enjoy, and go ahead and use your pregnancy for whatever you want, that is one of the great benefits of this short lived condition! =)

Happy Holidays!

Updated

This is my favorite time of year too!!! I just cannot wait to get in there and deck the halls. My family growing up always decorated the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and we took them down the weekend after New years.

This year I am pregnant as well and the second time I have been pregnant at this time of year and have the exact same due date as my second boy (due January 10th, born January 4th). So the taking down of the stuff is what hits me the hardest, I don't want anyone to do it for me, they will mess up my great stuff.

Needless to say I plan on getting in there the weekend before Thanksgiving this year and taking down between Christmas and New Years. Then I can be sure I am in charge and get to enjoy every minute of it.

Enjoy, and go ahead and use your pregnancy for whatever you want, that is one of the great benefits of this short lived condition! =)

Happy Holidays!

Since we always get a real tree, we don't put our tree up until about 2 weeks before Christmas. However, we're going out of town for Christmas this year and I'm thinking of putting it up early and then removing it before we leave so I don't come home and have a dead tree and lots to do.

We like to celebrate Thanksgiving first. We will set up the tree and the advent wreath the following weekend.

We decorate the Friday, Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving.

We have a tradition of putting up Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Daddy is off and can help with the outside lights and decorations and we get to enjoy it until the New Year comes.
C.

We decorate the day after Thanksgiving and dont take it down until after New Years. We have always done it like that since I can remeber being a little tot, I love it becuase it gets to stay up for so long!

This year, I'm saying to heck with waiting til after Thanksgiving. Sure, the stores wait to turn on their lights, but they don't wait to get up store decor, outside lights, sell stuff. So, this year, I'm doing it while the weather is nice, health is good, no crush of things around Thanksgiving. Then I'll add turning on the lights, adding the tree ornaments, the Xmas stockings, etc. the day after Thanksgiving. Then I get more enjoyment longer and don't get so razed about leaving them up. Now, if I could find more winter decorations (since Texas usually doesn't get so much of that), I'd decorate with snowmen, etc for January through Valentines!

I have neighbors... that have already, as of yesterday.... put lights on their house and decorated the exterior!
If you want to do it now... why not!
Just be careful of going up any ladders.... get help :)

Personally, we do it after Thanksgiving... and take it down... after New Year's.

The stores put up Christmas stuff immediately after Halloween, so why can't you!

We always do it the day after Thanksgiving. The kids are all out of school anyway and it gives us all something to do! Plus, I love decorating for Christmas with my kids -they have so much fun with it, and they are constantly moving everything around!
~C.

I love the awsome atmosphere and frame of mind that christmas brings, I listen to jazzy christmas music ALL YEAR LONG, theres nothing like "The Christmas song", Or "Its the most wonderfull time of the year" in the middle of summer with the AC blasing, i even light pumpkin and cinnamon apple candle's throughout the year, it just seems to make home a little home-ier,
i usually decorate the day after Halloween (another one of my favorite holidays) for christmas. Christmas is about Christ anyway and lots of the christmas music magnifies Him, so your giving worship to him when u participate in it all year as far as im concerned. He is the reason for the season anyway and that warm fuzzy fealing of LOVE we experience as well.

My sister and her friend already have their trees up..... I think it is too early. I usually go with the weekend after Thanksgiving. I like to let each holiday have its own time....

LaTrina,
Every year we put up our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving. After all of the hussle and bussle of getting the meal prepared, eating, and spending time with the family, my husband, kids and i pull out all the decorations and put up the Christmas stuff. The kids are old enough now to help and they TRULY LOVE IT.

I had all of the halloween stuff away on 31st and christmas stuff up. We dont get T or T so it was not a big deal. My 16 mo was so exctited helping putting the tree together then when she came down from her nap it was all lit and decorated. She has been playing with the lights that play music its the Snoopy song Linus and Lucy she pushes the button all the time. I too love this time of year. Get the stuff out and get decorating I will support you. lol

October 31 every year and leave up til epiphany(Jan 6--- 12 days of Christmas) ....A lot of work to put up and only leave a couple of weeks before you have to start taking it down!!..By that time you feel like you are rested enough to take it down and you have truly enjoyed all you can stand and got all the good of that work of putting it up...; )

We truly get to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday season because we are giving Thanks for the blessings and looking forward to all that is coming in the days to come.. not spending the whole weekend getting ready for the December hustle and bustle....

After all the deep cleaning is done in the next few days.We get a real tree but that's a long way's away yet..

Haha. I got on here looking for someone else who had the Christmas bug early this year. Didn't take long! We usually decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving, but I just can't seem to wait this year. My sis is living with us now and her birthday is that weekend, so she is my excuse for why we need to do it this weekend instead : ) Can't be making everyone work on putting up the decorations when we should be celebrating, right? Don't remind my husband that she lived here last year too and we managed ; )

Smile, Smile - mine is going up next weekend. I have noticed over the past several years that the two weekends before Thanksgiving the weather is really nice. I always want mine up for Thanksgiving so the families that won't be home for Christmas can enjoy the tree. It always seems to put everyone in a good mood! Also, even though I just decorate my fence, I hate doing it in the cold weather. My neighbors know how nuts I am about Christmas, so, they tolerate me! In 1997 I put my tree up in Sept to host a "Christmas Around the World" party - left it up all of 1998 and took it down in March 1999. Yes, it was overkill but it was a beautiful tree that matched my formal living room and the neighbors got use to seeing the lights. When I took it down, everyone noticed!

We decorate clients homes for the holidays and will begin decorating early next week.
I used to decorate so many trees (over 50), I did not have the energy to do our home, but our daughter asked one year, "May we have a tree this year?" Broke my heart, so now I put up the tree, make sure it is lit and let her decorate it.. She is in college now so she will not be home till Dec 22nd or 23rd.. but the tree will be lit and waiting for her.

I also now only decorate about 12 per year, the largest is 18 ft tall. They are all beautiful and very different.. We begin taking them down the week after the new year..
Goes down lots faster than putting up..

I'm decorating already...and so are several of my friends. It's not too soon; heck, Christmas is only 48 days away as it is! Go right ahead and start immediately!

I am with you ILOVE X-Mas to we start the the day after Thanksgiving and it take about a week to finish. I like to keep everything up until the 3rd wk of January. After everything is down and packed away the house looks SO NAKED!!!! It makes me want to go shopping for a new decor every year but YEAH THAT DOESN"T HAPPEN. :o( But I do get something new every year for the house. This I am asking for Slip covers for the sofa and love seat and new curtains.

Anything the moment Thanksgiving is over is fair game!!!!