Christmas Decorating - Yes or No?

If I sell my house I hope to move next year. Have been up in loft and removed most decs. Thought it was a good time to take them to the Hospice shop and get rid of. I am on my own will spend day with friend and go to Chester Cathedral in the morning.

Yes, some people have got there houses decorated already and they are all whipped down after New Year's day. No one understand Advent anymore.

Cherrytree59 I loved your comment about hyacinths... I potted up paper white narcissus for the table at Christmas, and they're in full bloom now.

So beautiful ! So early !

I will be celebrating Christmas by having major ankle surgery and being in some kind of care for the first two weeks afterwards - a very expensive nightmare! Family will be around for part of the time, but they have other commitments, too. Lost my guy five years ago, and feeling very alone.

^ what went wrong there^

WChen we lived in our fisrdt floor flat we never went over the top really just small tree and some xmas ornaments placed around the lounge.
Now moved to our bungalow we can go a wee bit special and put the living tree out in the front garden covered with lights and decorate the door with a nice wreath.
I love to see the little eyes on my youngest DGs when they arrive and see all the colours from the lights

At home our tree/decorations didn't go up until Christmas Eve then down on the twelfth night ( 6th Jan )

Although I'm on my own as well I still make the effort about a week before Christmas with the " boxed " tree,lights and nik-naks around the place. 3 pre-lit twigs for extra ambience and candles in the old glass Victorian danglers on the mantlepiece ( lustres ?) I don't do modern displays.

I live on my own but will spend a lot of Christmas with both daughters and grandchildren. I have always gone a bit mad at Christmas and my youngest daughter is worse than me! We always get the trees on the first Saturday in Dec and decorate all three houses/flat. 4 footer fits in my alcove just right. I also put up other decs, candles, lights, etc and have a lighted santa and sleigh on the balcony. They then come to me for New Year. I love it all but do appreciate if you are alone and won't see anyone or recently bereaved you may not want to.

We have our 'Christmas twig' which consists of a large container with some branches covered in red lights and some huge fat robins, we will have lights round the front door, plus Christmas throws and cushions and of course Christmas cards which i feel always makes things look festive. I have two large ceramics Santa Claus which i bought over 20 years ago which sit on the windowsills and you can put tealights inside and this lights up their eyes so no doubt they will come out to.

Cornergran, if lights lift your spirits, why not have some fairy lights out permanently? I have some on my dresser in the kitchen and some in the dining area. I always have them on at night and in the day when it’s dark and dreary. Lifts my spirits too!

Yes, will definitely put a tree up, but I have just got a smaller pre-lit one, as now I am on my own I simply cannot faff around with a string of 200 lights on a big tree.
I will ask DS to get the decorations down from the loft, but will not be going mad as I used to do. Will just have a few this year, (first Christmas since DH died). And I am spending Christmas with DD and all the close family.

Just the two of us here around Christmas. I can get a bit bah humbug but I do love the two white twiggy pre-lit trees. One for the conservatory and a smaller one for the sitting room. I love the lights, always lift my spirits. Once they are out somehow other things follow. . No rules, whatever works for you.

I solved the Christmas tree problem when we downsized buy buying a small one in a pot which sat on a table. We went away that year so it didn't matter that it was small. I then potted it on and it has lived on the patio ever since. I bring it in every year and the lights and baubles increase as it grows.

It's still only about 3' tall but a perfect size.

Every year I say that I won't bother with a Christmas tree and then, every year, I do! Now that the GC are more involved with the whole Christmas shebang, I'd feel that I was disappointing them if my house was bare, so up with the tree it is. But it will have to be a small one because my house is tiny

DD, SiL,his parents and 2GS here on the day. Thjs will be the first Christmas in my 'downsize', so not a lot of room for decorations but I'll go with lots of candles in the inglenooks and on the table. I'm looking for a tree to fit in a door alcove 5'x3'x18". T I may have to invest in a not-real one which grieves me. (Any recommendations?). We always had an 8' spruce in the kitchen. I can only just about get a couple of people in the new one . I'm quite looking forward to it strangely, as since DH died I'd rather lost the christmas spirit for the last few years.
& {{hugs}} to those who are facing their first Christmas without their DH

The full works for us even if its just two of us. Tree, lights, decorations, Christmas throws and cushions I love it all .

We have builders in so whether we decorate or not is going to depend on if they finish on time. Son and DiL have a seven month old baby boy and are we are all going to them for their first Xmas in their new home. No washing up , no last minute panic, no planning the meal, Bliss!

We always have a small tree and some of those battery operated strings of lights that you can thread through greenery brought in from the garden. Christmas cards finish it all off.

I don't normally put anything up until the middle of December but DD2 and DSIL are coming for the weekend as we can't get together this year so despite DH rolling his eyes, I've been getting stuck in.

We'll spend Christmas Day with DD1 but will be on our own other than that. I think I would feel miserable without some cheerful decs.

We still have a fake tree, and I decorate the fireplace, and have candles at the windows.

I like those little white Hobbycraft trees. They can be used all year round for pretty displays.

There has just been the two of us for many years now but always a tree and outside lights.
This year my H will be in care but my D will be with me for a few days as her C are spending Christmas with their father for the first time.
I will still have a tree and a few indoor bits but no outside lights as I can't be bothered this year.

When it became just the two of us I was a bit
bah humbug.
I enjoyed the day but not the run up to it.
So just cards and small tree in the sideboard.

Now we have three small grandchildren.
Two of which will be in and out including sleepovers over the holiday,
Decorations have been reinstated... But in the conservatory,
Which with the help of 2 small boys it becomes like Santa's grotto?.
When they go home I can close the blinds if I want some calm.

Our sitting room however has just an advent candle at the window and candles around the fireplace.
Poinsettias in the dining room.
Wreath on front door.
Just enough for me.

When the decorations come down its out with the bowls of indoor hyacinths .
yippy

Nudejude would a few battery candles, poinsettias, nice vase of red roses and your Christmas cards be just enough?

Definitely not- a total waste of time. You can see I love Christmas!

Just two of us here now and yep, we do full-on Christmas decs both inside and out. Been searching for the coloured lights as we alternate and last year we had warm white - can't find them anywhere and have braved the loft twice!

Yes. I love to trim up. ?

At the club this morning we were decorating jars and it cheered me up , so I am doing some , outside decorations have had batteries renewed and a few battery candles looked out . I haven't switched them on yet , will do nearer the time . No tree , no room for it . We always had a real tree . I would like a tree in a pot on the patio but it is not on the books this year

There are only myself, my OH and youngest son (30) here so I haven't bothered for the last four/five years. No little ones so see no point.
My son does always ask when the tree is going up. When he finally gets his own house he can decorate to his hearts content lol.