Do you decorate for *insert your holiday here* right after Thanksgiving?

[fedoragirl]

We will be having a low key Thanksgiving this year because I really don't want to make the entire meal all on my own...again. And I am really getting the itch to decorate for Christmas already. I bought some pointsettias already but am holding back till Thanksgiving to bring out the rest. People in my area don't decorate till the 2nd or 3rd week of Dec. so they'll think I'm crazy. LOL
When do you typically start decorating?

[elephantmeg]

the weekend after thanksgiving. But DH put out the lights today since it was warm but he won't turn them on until after t-giving

[mmommy]

We're planning on decorating for Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend. But generally we don't do too many decorations. MIL will be visiting, and it'll give her and DH something to do with the girls while I go to yoga or the coffee shop :)

[ourbabygirl]

The weekend of Thanksgiving. We used to do it about the 1st weekend or so of December, but since we don't really have plans on Black Friday (no meal to host/ attend or shopping to do), and DH is home from work, we've been going to pick out a tree, then taking it home to decorate. I like squeezing every bit out of the holiday season! :)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Anytime after Thanksgiving is fair game in my book. I've done it that Friday before. It's a nice time to work on it. I like to do it early bc you can enjoy it longer.

[specialp]

I decorate in stages and everything but the trees I pull and out and do during nap times the week after thanksgiving. DH loves helping with the real tree so we wait until the 1st or 2nd weekend before Christmas to go get it and put it and the fake tree up.

[BabyBearsMom]

We will pull out the menorah on Thanksgiving since Hanukah starts that day. Then advent calendar goes up on12/1 but I'm planning to actually decorate when we get the tree on 12/7

[twowhat?]

Anytime after Thanksgiving is fair game in my book. I've done it that Friday before. It's a nice time to work on it. I like to do it early bc you can enjoy it longer.

This! At least we strive for it:) Here people start putting up decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Since having kids, we've been starting to do this because they are excited to do it, and we can enjoy it longer.

[StantonHyde]

We get the tree Dec 14 and leave it up till Jan 1. That's usually the time frame for decorations too unless DD is itching to do something and then I let her have at it!

[TwinFoxes]

Usually the first full weekend of December. Christmas carols are fair game on Thanksgiving evening. ;)

[JdrKuhnert]

We usually decorate and purchase our tree 2 weeks before Christmas. However, this year I feel the itch to decorate after Thanksgiving. I think we'll start with Pointsettias and Amaryllis. I also want to make an Adventskranz for the dining room and a wreath for my door.

[123LuckyMom]

We wait until very late, because we celebrate Advent, so, unlike the secular Christmas culture, we're celebrating Advent until Christmas Eve, Christmas until January 6th, and then Epiphany. Our lights start going up early, but they don't get turned on until the third week of Advent, usually. By Christmas Eve the tree is all decorated and we're going full force. On January 7th, everything comes down.

[maestramommy]

First weekend in December, or first full weekend after Thanksgiving.

[lalasmama]

I start Thanksgiving evening. I put on Christmas music, and get everything upstairs from the garage, then go through everything and decide what I want to display. That weekend, DH and I put up the tree (alternating real/fake every year). By Sunday evening, the already purchased gifts are wrapped and under the tree, and our home is in full Christmas mode.

Everything comes down the weekend after Christmas, generally, or Jan 1st, depending on how the dates fall.

[elliput]

I usually try to get the tree up sometime Thanksgiving weekend. I have some simple outside decorations which will be put out sometime during the week following. I used to put out a couple of lit porch pines, but the front porch of our new house is a bit narrow for them and there isn't an outside outlet in the front. So most likely no outside lights at all this year. :(

[TxCat]

We're going to put up our outdoor Christmas lights next weekend so that way we can turn them on the night of Thanksgiving. Other decorations will come out the weekend after Thanksgiving.

[belovedgandp]

The week of Thanksgiving. We don't host anything that week and not a lot of commitments. I have an embarrassing amount of decorations - 5 full sized tress and many others - over 40 tubs of decorations. Christmas is my thing. I want the house fully ready by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

I also leave it up until Epiphany. If I go to all this trouble I'm going to enjoy it for a while. I hate it when everything disappears on the 26th.

[queenmama]

Thanksgiving afternoon isn't too soon, IMO. I would love to do it earlier, even, but I do want to enjoy each holiday.

Henry helps me set up while we have White Christmas and Going My Way playing on the tube.

I leave my stuff out until the epiphany, at least. I gradually remove Christmas stuff and leave up the more generic "winter" things (snowmen, etc) until Valentines Day.

I have a HUGE collection of Christmas stuff (from the 40s-60s) so I want to enjoy it as long as possible!

Lara

[swissair81]

My Chanukah decorations will go up as soon as they get sent home from school. If I don't hang them up right away, they won't ever grace our walls.

[geochick]

We're fully decorated as of last night. We're doing TG at a hotel this year with the entire extended family, so I'm off the hook. It feels so good to be done with all of the decorating at this point. Bring on the shopping.

[mommyp]

This year, since Thanksgiving is so late, we'll do it that weekend. I think last year, we waited until the weekend after Thanksgiving. So I guess early December for us in general! Our tree is artificial, though, if we did real we'd wait until mid-December. We take it down between New Year's and Epiphany though, because we want DD to feel her birthday is separate from the Christmas holidays.

[ellies mom]

I collect nativity scenes so I like to put them out Thanksgiving night so that I can enjoy them later. Everything else goes up sometime after the first of December.

It is just the four of us on Thanksgiving so it is pretty low key. We go out to dinner and then the girls get their Christmas PJs and we put up all my scenes.

[klwa]

I try to decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving for Christmas, but it seems to be pushed further out every year. Decorations stay up through Epiphany, though, so we have a logn time to enjoy them.

[brittone2]

We usually pick out a tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, and frequently do it Black Friday. We've found the fresh cut trees last just fine through Christmas. December is busy for everyone, but we also have multiple Dec. bdays, Dh and I have a Dec. anniversary, DD's Nutcracker performance takes up a weekend, etc. For us, it would be hard to find the time unless we did it that weekend. I like doing it Black Friday as we can get the tree cut, home, and up, maybe lights on, and then finish decorating it over the weekend. That way we also have time to clean up the mess from decorating (all of the bins, boxes, you name it...maybe we are the only people who have a big mess when we pull out all of the decor!). That long weekend makes it easier to get everything up and then the remnants put away all in one weekend.

[hellokitty]

I grew up in a family that put up the tree up the evening of thanksgiving. However, my dh's family basically has no traditions. So, he balks at putting up the tree, at all! I usually spend at least the first two wks after Thanksgiving, bugging him to help me with the tree, and it's gone from an activity that I once really enjoyed to one that now feels like a chore, thanks to his bad attitude, due to his upbringing.

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[carolinacool]

We put a real tree up, so we tend to wait until the first weekend of December. We leave everything up through Jan. 1 or the weekend after that.

I seriously have about six or seven people on my Facebook who have EVERYTHING up already. Lights, tree, presents under the tree. And if I recall, these people also have everything down and in boxes on Dec. 26 or so. I guess it just depends on what you grew up with.

[waitingforgrace]

We usually decorate the Sunday after Thanksgiving but since turkey day is late this year and it's only 3 weeks until Christmas we will decorate this coming weekend. I take it all down by Jan 1 so I like to get a full 4 weeks out of it.

[Simon]

We sometimes do outdoor lights before Thanksgiving just because it can mean the difference between decorating in 50 degree or 10 degree weather! Inside we decorate either the first weekend of December or Tgiving weekend, but much later if we have a young toddler. I think the 2nd or even 3rd weekend in Dec is our usual with an 11-18 month old in the house. Too much of a health hazard for the little one.

Like others, this year we'll start Thanksgiving weekend because the date is so late. I don't want to do all that work and not enjoy the results.

[kellyd]

I start over Thanksgiving weekend. Growing up we always had dinner at home w/ just the 4 of us. Once we were awake and mom was cooking the rest of us were outside doing outdoor lights, once dad was done with the dishes we started on the inside. By the end of the day we had 60-75% of the house done.
We get our Christmas tree about 2 weeks before Christmas. We do a live tree... and no matter how frequently I water it always stops taking water after 2-3 days. so 2 weekends before is about all it lasts.

[BabbyO]

Not typically, but since Thanksgiving is late this year, we will probably decorate over the weekend. Maybe it will get pushed to Dec. 7/8 weekend? I usually decorate (that is pretty much just putting the tree up and the nativity out) the 2nd (or so) weekend in Dec. and take everything down after the Epiphany.

No other decorations since DH doesn't help at all with the decorating and I don't feel the need to have a lot of other things.

[lizzywednesday]

In an ideal world, the first Sunday of Advent. We leave things up 'til Epiphany.

In reality ... whenever it gets done.

Also, and I had it out (nicely) with my sister last year over this, if you put up a Nativity/Creche set, do you put all your figures out at once? Or do you hold off and not put baby Jesus out until Christmas Eve-ish? (Same goes for the Magi/Wise Men - they weren't present at the Nativity, so they shouldn't be there, but they're often the most spectacular features of a Nativity set! I know that some families put them in diff't parts of their houses & move them closer each day from Christmas Eve through Epiphany; I think this is a nice idea.)

I put the Nativity figures up (we have a basic LP set, nothing fancy) but do not put Baby Jesus up until Christmas Eve. Last year, this bothered my sister, so she commented that Jesus was "missing." I explained that I couldn't possibly put Baby Jesus out yet because He hadn't been born yet, duh. My SIL backed me up on this and my sister dropped it, but maybe I'm a freak?