It is I believe on.y the 18/11 but I have just seen my first Christmas tree in a house.?

Thank you so much, Dickens

Pittcity

I'm with you Sago, a paid up member of the "Keep Christmas in December" club.
I'd prefer it to be every 4 years like the Olympics really!!

Oh that would be brilliant - although still too often for me!

We’re going to put decorations up this weekend, but the tree won’t go up until 1st December. I send fewer cards than I did, but I’d better start making my list for this year.

Zoejory it sounds like you had a fun afternoon with your niece.
Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas x

I'm in two minds about this.

Should it - or does it - matter if people start their Christmas early? November is sometimes a dismal and grey month and the twinkling lights on a dark and dank evening are quite cheering.

On the other hand, my own feeling is that Christmas has become rather fetishised and has lost some of its 'magic' and - for want of a better word - 'specialness' through excessive consumerism. Some of the stuff on offer is, it has to be said, just cheap, plastic 'tat'... badly designed and manufactured 'Santas', blow-up reindeer figurines, nylon Santa hats that start to fall apart within a couple of hours of wear, etc, etc. Supermarket staff walking around adorned with festive bits of apparel attached to their uniforms, badly recorded Christmas songs scratchily echoing through the loudspeakers, whilst they cram more and more 'stuff' on to the shelves. It feels more like a big commercial jamboree where we are encouraged to spend and spend to make Christmas 'happen'. We spend inordinate amounts of money on 'main' presents, stocking fillers, 'extra' presents, and now, apparently, 'Christmas Eve' presents.

I just feel - and this is entirely personal and subjective - that the simple act of giving and receiving gifts and enjoying quality time with family and friends, has been submerged by the frenetic and extended build up to those two special days - Christmas and Boxing Day.

But maybe I'm completely wrong - the way we live and work has changed, and maybe this is all just simply a part of that change.

I'm an atheist so Christmas has no religious meaning for me - though I do always watch Midnight Mass on BBC TV... it's an oasis of calm.

It’s common here for many people to put their trees up here (US) right after our Thanksgiving (next week). This sounds a little early, but I say let people do what makes them happy. Decorating is a lot of work to only enjoy it for a week or two. It isn’t exactly July ??‍♀️

sago I personally don’t mind the lights, in fact I think it would be a good idea to start them later say a week or two - at the earliest before Christmas Day; then leave them up for longer to brighten Gloomy January.

The other Christmassy hype including piped Xmas songs in some stores and repetitive Tv commercials I could well do without though.?

I will put my real tree up about 10 days before Christmas. I dont like to see it in November, but that my choice, others can do what they want.
I love the magic of the season, and to me that starts in December.

I drove past a house yesterday that had the full complement of Christmas lights in the garden. A Father Christmas on the roof and an illuminated rope ladder hanging down the front of the house, 2 x 6 foot illuminated reindeers, an enormous illuminated sleigh with illuminated boxes in it and the whole house bedecked with fairy lights. Every window had a lit Christmas tree in it. I thought it was a tad early but each to their own!

We have a house nearby that never takes their coloured lights down and has them on all year round.

Saw my first tree at the end of October, anything goes nowadays. Mine won’t go up until the week before Christmas, something to look forward to.

I think that after the last 20 months people need a bit of sparkle and happiness, we were under curfew last year, so I look forward to seeing them even though it’s early. I will put mine up in about weeks time.

Always done mine the first weekend in December.

I’m still trying to find 31st November on my calendar….

We put our decorations up about a week before Christmas. I think the more hype the more people are going to be disappointed by their experience of Christmas. I like Christmas but we celebrate it in a modest way materially. I am a Christian and enjoy the church services and love seeing family.I try to be mindful of avoiding waste and not buying excessive plastic stuff.

My daughter put their tree up last week. It is too early for me though I have bought some wooden tree decorations online because the post is so bad I thought they might take months to arrive !

I prefer Christmas to be fairly traditional. I don't like to think about it before December and dislike the tatty commercialism which has been gathering momentum over the last 40years. It should last 12 days (til Epiphany) and decorations come down and stored away on the 6th January. Lots of fun and feasting! We always had a little party on the 5th January before the tree was dismantled on the 6th. However some cultures celebrate differently. I have Filipino friends who start decorating in September! Which is normal for them???. ?

On my way to book club this week I saw a house with outside decorations up and fully lit. Each to their own but Christmas means December for me.

The family across the street have put their tree up. I think it's a bit early for me, but if it makes their sons happy, who am I to judge? When I was working, I put up the tree etc the weekend before Christmas. Now I'm retired, I put it up at the beginning of December as it's nice to look at in the dark nights. It'll come down before New Year though. My friends and I have stopped giving presents as none of us need stuff. We go out for a meal instead. I've radically cut down on the amount of presents and cards I give too. It's all got a bit too materialistic for me.

Even before Covid I had cut down on all the meals out, after work drinks etc that seem to go hand in hand with Christmas nowadays. I found I was just tired and cranky by the time Christmas day arrived and had lost sight of its meaning.
I just concentrated on Carol Services, the children's nativity plays and local stuff like my am dram Group's get together in the village pub.
So much nicer.

I was going to carp about decorations going up in November before reading some tragic reasons behind this. We just don’t know if there’s a very poignant reason for those early illuminations do we? Our (artificial) trees and the decorations (fewer each year) always go up close to 1 December, plus a wreath on the door.

My little tradition has always been to put the tree and decorations up around the 10th December. 3 of our neighbours have had their christmas stuff up since the beginning of November! What the hell is going on? The shops practically start off once the children go back to school in september. I am in the christmas decos up in December club. And if anyone mentions a shortage of turkeys then I will tell them to get stuffed. Bah humbug!!!

I saw one on Wednesday 17th too. On the way home last night I saw a number of houses with outside Christmas lights and trees in the gardens.
Our little town centre lights up on the first Friday and we will probably do the same. We have a single strand of white lights along the garden wall which is o the street and white lights over the porch, Christmas Tree in the window and we are done.
I never had them growing up as my mother was happy being miserable at Christmas.
Incidentally I take them all down on January 1st to start a free New Year.

grannypiper

Christmas in our house starts 15 December and not a day before. If cards arrive before that they sit in a pile. The only exception is the Christmas cake, we start that the last weekend in September.

Same here 15th December is my eldest son's birthday and we have always put up the decorations for his birthday it has become a family tradition.We celebrate two DGS's birthdays on 27th December & 31st December so the house always looks cheerful for their birthdays.

That's true Germanshepherdsmum.
But I honestly don't believe anyone on here would complain about an exceptional situation like that.

It's the many many who just can't wait to start Christmas and are putting up their decorations earlier and earlier every year that some take issue with. There are many who have had tragic or sad losses during any given year and are absolutely dreading Christmas. It can't help their mood to have the whole thing prominently on display from mid Oct on,and trees and lights beginning to appear in many houses from early November.

Obviously people are entitled to do what they like, but others may find it uncomfortable for various reasons.