Christmas decorations

That made me raise an eyebrow too, quasidodo

The evenings are darker. Some people enjoy brightening them up.

Not the most environmentally friendly thing to do but many hobbies arent.

I do enjoy all the things that go into making Xmas special, the tree, the decorations, the cards and so on. I just wish it didn’t start so flipping early! This year will be our first on our own in Spain. Not sure how I am feeling about being so far away from family!

I also love Winter Solstice, ethelbags1, and I have read it many times in the run up to Christmas, too. ?

always work all over xmas but we try to put a few decs and the tree up so we can enjoy it for a little while before we leave but thats not usually until 2nd week in dec. we work for ourselves and do home sitting so first year together we were 45 miles apart last year 30 miles. he promises this year we will be at home but im not holding my breath! it doesnt mean as much these days now the kids are grown up and grandchildren live miles away. i have lost folk on xmas day too so tinged with sadness as well

I love the Rosamund Pilcher books, so will try and buy Winter Solstice, thanks ethel

If you wait until near Christmas Eve to put all the decs out then it hardly seems worth all the effort for such a short time, also it’s a very busy time of year, so I usually do this about 2 weeks before Christmas Day.

We are only 3 houses together in our part of the road, us C of E, Muslim and Catholic, we all decorate the front of our houses with lights, I have 2 reindeer on the roof, next door have a Christmas tree with lights on theirs, the other house just lights.

That sounds like a good book ethel.I must read it this year.I always read the Miss Read Christmas books.

Does it really matter when people put the lights up?? It's up to them not anyone else

I like the run up to the festivities. I just wonder why everything starts so much earlier each year. I love reading christmas stories. I read winter solstice by rosamund pilcher each year. I collect holly from the hedges and make a cake but no decs mo tree till after 1st december and down on new years day

My decs are a garland on the fireplace and another over the big mirror. A few festive wreaths and greenery. . Minimal effort for max impact. No tree, some lights on the tall plant in the porch.

This happens about third week in Dec and comes down asap.

I'm not a fan of houses decorated with hundreds of lights, santas & reindeer. IMO small and minimalist is beautiful - and not until at least the 3rd week in December!
Normally, apart from card writing, I don't enter into the C spirit until a few days before the 25th but this year we are having 'Christmas' on 17 November as DD3 and family will be in Oz with middle DD. It's the only weekend everyone is free....So, I will put up minimalist decs for the gc's that weekend and then remove them until C proper in December. I'm embarrassed to admit I bought some sparkly things today in Dunelm to make a door garland - I'm a very slow worker, thats my excuse. ?

I try to buy a very small real tree, and I have battery- powered lights for it. I won’t have a fake tree. Otherwise, apart from cards, I don’t do decorations any more. In recent years I’ve never been at home for Christmas anyway. This year I just might be.

I had a Christmas like you Witzend my father was very ill and died on January 3rd.
I was 11 and it was a very very long time ago but it still colours Christmas. My mother never enjoyed Christmas after that and she tried her hardest to make sure no-one else did.
It is 11 years now since she died but by then we had different problems within our family and my H and I now just have it on our own.
Of course his dementia means it has no significance for him.
Having said all that, I still have a tree and do put some white twinkly lights in the pyracantha outside my front door and icicles over my porch.

You're right sodapop about tongue in cheek but unfortunately neither my hose not my house (flat) is very valuable!
Of course that also means that young folk here can still realistically hope to get on the property ladder.
DGD and her boyfriend hope to be putting up Christmas dec's in their own flat in 2020 and are currently on track to do so.
My Christmas starts on the first Sunday of Advent and goes on until Twelfth Night!

The Bodach and I head to the sun at Christmas, and the offspring make their own arrangements. We give them all money, and I buy one gift for a friend. I loved it all when the children were wee, but then I was left with the elderly relatives to entertain.
We have the same tree as mentioned earlier, which pops out of the box complete with lights and decorations, and it pops up when the children come round.

Regards, Mrs Scrooge.

I love to see the outside of other people's houses decorated for Christmas, but just don't do it myself. I live in an upstairs flat and DO put some 'stained glass effect' things in the windows.

My Christmas Tree - with gold/cream ornaments - goes up on the weekend before Christmas - prefer to have a 'final mad clean up' before it comes out of its box. I also have lots of festive candle holders with perfumed tea-lights/votives burning in them - plus some other Christmas-themed ornaments eg a festive 'miniature grandfather clock' that plays Carols on the hour and a rotating Christmas Tree that plays carols/songs. All these come out at the same time as the tree, so it takes a full weekend to get it all organised - mostly because I'm a control freak and won't let anybody else help, apart from getting OH to lie on the floor to straighten the 'tree skirt' till I'm satisfied that it's even ;-). I've definitely had enough of them by the first week in January though - lucky if they last till 6th Jan :-D.

I knew 'Brexit' would creep in somewhere mcem, I guess that was tongue in cheek whilst sitting in your valuable hose.

No objection at all to the OP and differing opinions but don't like sweeping statement
saying pensioners should have more sense!
We are not one unanimous group!
Same mindset lumps us together as selfish wealthy old misers who are sitting in large valuable hoses and depriving youngsters (or even worse - that we all voted for brexit).

Everyone is different, with different views.
Plenty of room for all.
It would be dull beyond belief if we all thought exactly the same.

Pearl I would entirely support any family celebration of Christmas to accommodate a particular situation that
was not in late December! It would be very churlish not to.

However, seeing homes fully decorated for the festival of Christmas or for Yule at the end of November dilutes the unique excitement and specialness of the mid-winter festivities for me!

We had one very subdued Christmas when I knew my father was dying - he did in fact die in early January - but he'd have been the very last person to want that memory to sadden future Christmases, and although he was very much loved and missed, it never has.

Winter can be cold and dark and dreary enough - I do find it hard to understand how people,object to cheerful lights, even if they are way OTT for our personal taste. There is a house we pass often where the entire front is always covered in lights, a big lit-up Father Christmas and reindeer, etc. - I would never want that for my own house but it makes me smile every time I see it.

I think you are being a little hard on the OP suggesting she is being unreasonable. She opened up a legitimate subject for discussion. and everyone is entitled to their views.

This will make you weep then OP!

We celebrated Christmas in July once! And another time we celebrated it in October as a much loved relative was terminally ill and wanted one last Christmas! So stop and think - there may be a valid reason why the lights have gone up!

What’s wrong with society moaning when others put up a few decorations on their own property because they WANT to? Whether the lights are for Diwali, or if it’s a British family. And why should that matter what religion or nationality the household is? It’s not causing anyone any harm.

Did you know people have fireworks at other times of the year and not just on fireworks night! And that bonfires are not just lit on the 5th November! Isn’t it shocking that people eat Easter eggs before Easter Sunday too!

Are you being unreasonable?

In my opinion - YES! Chill out! Life’s too short to be spent moaning about trivial things.

You could easily walk past and ignore it - but maybe you would have nothing to chat about then.... If anything the decorations have brought YOU a conversation.

So maybe you should be thanking them

poor old Gabs with her virtual red pen.