Christmas decorations

Oh dear gabriella! Isn't it irritating when you go to the trouble of correcting a spelling mistake and your own post appears less than perfect?
Perhaps you are not aware of the convention that says it's rude to pick up the spelling/grammar errors of posters?

I agree Bathsheba. I was surprised at the correction.

I loved Christmas as a child.
I also loved roller skating, eating worms and making 'camps' in the garden.
The novelty wore off though, as the years rolled by, that's all.

I never look forward to Christmas, mainly because all the present buying and organising falls to me.
I'd rather hoped that by now I would be invited to share the day with one or other of my DC and their families. I had this lovely vision of being told to "sit down and play with children while we get the dinner ready".
Life hasn't panned out that way, though. My daughter is a single mother and my son is divorced - consequently I still play 'mum' to everyone, buying and cooking Christmas dinner for 8 or 9 people.

PS FYI, the word Santasdoes not have an apostrophe when used as a plural, only as a possesive noun, 'Santa's sack'.
I would imagine the majority of people are aware of this rule, GabriellaG, but most of us have the good manners not to point it out.

We always get a real tree and put it up a few days before Xmas. It comes down a few days after Xmas though. Other decorations and window lights go up Xmas week and come down on 12th night. I love Xmas but not in October lol

I love other peoples' decorations and lights, but find putting up my own a bit of a chore. Now that the children have all left home, and the grandkids are 17+ I feel that it is hardly worth the effort. I always go to my daughter's for Christmas.

I am in our church choir, and a community choir, though, and love all the singing and concerts at this time of year, especially midnight mass. Singing is never a chore!

My young brother dropped dead from a heart attack related to alcohol on Christmas day a few years ago. We found him lying on the floor when he failed to turn up for lunch. So its never quite the same since. However I love how much December is brightened by all the lights and Christmas trees. It would be such a dark dismal month otherwise. My Christmas is very low key. Can't be doing with all the hype. I do enjoy sending a large box to my two little grandsons. And the Carol Service.

Don't like the Christmas season.....it was at a Xmas party that I discovered my husband's (now ex) affair. He married her.....and lives in the same town. Hate playing happy families....

I love the Christmas season. For me, it begins with Advent and all the church services linked to that time. My first decoration- the advent candles- come out on the first Sunday of Advent, and then by the third week in December, the tree and decorations come out and stay up until 12th night. I love all the Christmas services, especially the Christmas morning one.
I also love all the other seasonal traditions we now have (Carol services, Christmas markets, hearing The Salvation Army playing carols and hymns in town in the run up to Christmas, mince pies, mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, soppy films, watching and reading "A Christmas Carol" to name a few).
I realise Christmas is not an easy time for some, and find it a very difficult time to get through, especially if they have lost loved ones at this time, or if it's the first Christmas without someone close to them. You are so right MOnica, many of us have been faced with what you describe, and had a weep for our those who are no longer with us, but we remember them with fondness and love.

I'm going to try really hard to enjoy Christmas this year. I do struggle with all the hype which overwhelms me so I retreat and wish I could get away from it all. However I do love a few decorations and lights to brighten the darkness. I just wished so many folk didn't get so stressed over it all.

It’s only October. Why are you all discussing Christmas so early. Give it a rest. Or don’t you all have anything more interesting to talk about.

Some people just love Christmas and all the attendant decorations. Not all of them are to my taste, but so what! Some folk do seem so grumpy.

123kittyLove Christmas, but lights all over the garden- so vulgar.

how snooty! Just as well its not compulsory then.Shame you need to look down on people who are just having fun by brightening up their houses.
Very happy you're not MY neighbour.

With you there MissAdventure.

Another Christmas lover here. We have coped in the past with the first Christmas after an expected or untimely death but the repetition of timeless Christmas traditions and customs, both comforted us and reminded us that the presence of death in life is part of the inexorable march of time and we need to accept this - and we had a good family weep for the person who would never be there again.

You are not alone Maggiemaybe I enjoy Christmas as well, as do several other GN posters it seems. I feel for all those people who have had such sad times recently and for whom Christmas will not be a happy time.

I am no longer a churchgoer but Christmas for me is about the traditions, making mincemeat and puddings and cake , carols and other Christmas music and remembering and keeping in touch with old friends and far flung members of the family. Like PECS and several others, I like decorations to go up just before Christmas Eve and down on 12th Night. The remains of the cake keep me cheerful into January - no one else really likes it but me.

etheltbags1: I thought the first lot of lights were for Diwali but the ones I saw today were belonging to British people.
I think that most people who celebrate Diwali in this country are British too.

I love Christmas! It's my favorite holiday! Here in the US, people start decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday in November. By Jan 6th (Feast of the Epiphany) it's all over.....(sigh).

A family on my street don't do a thing to their house all year,filthy net curtains,rubbish outside etc.Yet come December,they have pretty lights all round the lounge,they manage to hang them up.Or maybe they just leave them up all year,as some people have said.Each to their own,if they enjoy it.

I totally agree with hilly and David. I love Christmas and do my best to keep it really special. Advent, celebrates the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas Day and is a time of waiting and preparing so we make or buy decorations and food and plan out festivities. Christmas truly begins on the 25th although I do decorate the house around about the 23rd in readiness. I love the excitement of it all but don't think I could stay excited for a whole month if I decorated at the beginning of December.

Love Christmas, but lights all over the garden- so vulgar.

Outside lights up and on 1st December, I still decorate all downstairs, hall stairs and landing. I have a small Christmas tree in the dining room which will go up first weekend in December, and a big real tree in the lounge which will be brought in around 14th December.

I absolutely love Christmas, the Christian message especially the crib service on Christmas Eve at our local church with some of my GC, the shops look beautiful, even the naff Christmas films which are on the film channels.

I have never liked New Years Eve, even when young, I have no idea/reason why either.

I agree with you David1968. Christmas decorations should be kept for December and NOT be taken down until Twelfth Night. People seem to forget that Christmas Eve is the START of Christmas and it ENDS on Jan 6th!

I have a half Christmas tree which sits on the wall and takes up no space at all,its all packed away with trimmings every year,to gether with some favourite Christmas ornaments and a real Tree in our front garden that is all we do with regards to decorations to the house,they go up on 15th December my eldest son's birthday and come down on 12th night.
We enjoy the festive season but it is creeping in earlier every year.