Burning Question: Premature Decoration?
Ok, Christmas decorations. How soon is too soon to put them up? With stores beginning to display them on Halloween Day (someone even mentioned seeing Valentine’s Day stuff already at Target!) we’re dying to know what everyone thinks about this phenomenon. Are some of you so giddy for the holidays that you’re turning on the Christmas music in October? Are others so miffed by the ever-encroaching seasonal spirit that you go on a decorating strike until the week before Christmas? In short, if you were elected as the official person in charge of picking the exact date for people to start decorating (and no one could deviate), what date would it be?
And while we’re on the subject, how long after the holiday season are lights and seasonal decor permitted to be on display? Is there a two week rule? Do people get a month of leeway? Do tell.
Image courtesy of Inhabitat.
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Dec 1-Jan 15
I live in Canada and we celebrate Thanksgiving in October, so the notion of putting up decorations on Thanksgiving weekend doesn’t work.
We wait until after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas and all it has to offer, but I get sad when people gloss over Thanksgiving. We get a live tree, so my husband wants us to wait until at least Dec. 1 to get it. He caved this year and we got it Nov 30 instead :)
I wish stores would not rush the holidays for us.
Dec 1st. I like Christmas and all, but I don’t want to go into Christmas overload and be sick of it before it’s even over.
Plus I used to work in retail so it’s nice to be able to choose when I want it to be Christmas. Be prepared to see swimsuits and beach towels right after you get your tree taken down! It never fails!!!
I held off for Christmas music until after Halloween… but barely!
Music is free game after Halloween – after all, it’s the “Holiday Season.”
Decorations go Black Friday – Jan 15.
I think it is okay to put christmas decor up starting the week of thanksgiving and decorations should be taken down right after new years. Any longer than that is just plain tacky!
I think that the Day after Thanksgiving is the perfect day for Christmas decor. It puts you in the holiday spirit and gives you a month of enjoying everything you put up. As for when to put it away… I think that the weekend after New Years is the ideal time. Happy Holidays!
In our family, Christmas decorations always went up the weekend after Thanksgiving, because we had so many holiday events at the house in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Our New Years Day tradition is to take the decorations down, or at least the tree and lights – some of the seasonal winter decorations stay out until close to Easter, though.
Yes! We believe the day after Thanksgiving is fair game for trees, lights, music… bring it on. (US Thanksgiving) On the flip side, I think two weeks into January at the latest is a good rule of thumb. You don’t want to be THAT neighbor that everyone talks about ;)
I think decorations should be put up on the day/weekend after Thanksgiving and can stay up until after the new year. Hopefully they’d be taken down by a week or so into the year. :)
I understand that stores want to make money – that’s how they survive, and I understand that Christmas decorations and stuff are a huge money-maker for them, so even though I don’t like seeing Christmas things in stores as early as October – I think that’s ridiculous, and I think they should wait until at least mid-November to start putting out Christmas things, although December 1st would be best in my opinion – I do understand that they are stores, and their means of existance is making money, and so they do what they feel they have to do. Ok.
The thing that really upset me this year was that I felt like Fall decorations, Thanksgiving in particular, got completely shut out by Christmas. Basically, in October there were Halloween and fall decorations in the stores, and then as soon as Halloween hit, all fall merchandise was removed, and only Christmas was left.
I went to the stores in EARLY November to look for decorations for Thanksgiving since I was hosting a lot of family, and there was ONE SMALL CLEARANCE table of “fallish” things left. That’s it! By the time it got to the week before Thanksgiving, I went to a store, and asked one of the employees if they might have any fall themed items left, since I was trying to decorate my house for Thanksgiving the following week, and she looked at me like I was crazy. Nope, only Christmas decorations.
So here’s my request to the stores:
I understand that Christmas decorations make you money so you like to display them ridiculously early in the year. But please put out the decorations that are actually in season as well, so that those of us crazy enough to try to get our Thanksgiving decor in the month of November aren’t left empty handed. Thanks.
Hi Sherry!
I’m new to your blog and have been obsessing over it for the past week. Thanks!
Christmas decoration is something near and dear to my heart. For my first Christmas with the husband, we decorated early. Bought a (fake) tree as soon as we got home from our honeymoon in October and decided we didn’t want to put it in storage for a month. Ever since then, though, I’ve felt uneasy about bringing it out before Thanksgiving. Especially since we hosted this year. Also, I’m in Oklahoma, and it tends to stay pretty warm until that time. It seems a bit odd to have a Christmas tree up and be wearing flip-flops at the same time.
As far as when to take decorations down, I personally judge those that have them up past MLK Day. But that’s just me.
my holiday party is always the first weekend in december. that means everything has to be up before…tomorrow! yikes. i should really start decorating earlier…
How timely! I just wrote a blog post about decorating early. I think anytime AFTER Thanksgiving is reasonable, but by the time the New Year rolls around I’m ready to take down the decorations asap.
We put our decorations up starting about two or three days after Thanksgiving and take them down around Jan. 1.
I love Christmas decorations, but I feel that putting them up in early November is too soon. I decorate for Thanksgiving with harvest type decor and then after Thanksgiving I decorate for Christmas and then New Years. I feel keeping decorations up till the end of Jan is too much though. But hey…to each it’s own, right?!
Up Thanksgiving weekend, down by New Year’s…..admittedly though, both the decorating and undecorating are more than a one day project!
My grandmother used to enforce no Christmas tree until Dec. 24 and down promptly Jan.6 to emphasize observing Advent and then the appropriate Christmas season (12 days of Christmas). My mom was a lot more “eh, whenever” although she was usually anxious to get the tree DOWN once Christmas was over as our living room is TINY and the tree ate a lot of space. :) We’re going to get ours up this weekend so clearly no defined starting point there…
Call me a traditonalist, but I think that Christmas decorations shouldn’t go up any earlier than the day after Thanksgiving. As for taking them down? No later than than New Year’s Day.
Of course, I understand that people (including myself) get too busy to take things down in a timely manner, and sometimes the weekend before Thanksgiving is the best for a person’s schedule to decorate.
I don’t really have a problem with individual’s getting (or staying) into the holiday spirit early or late…it is the retailers who do this that really bug me!
In my town people have already started! Wreaths and lights go up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and we are putting up our tree this weekend. I can’t wait! I love this time of year.
I don’t want to give Thanksgiving the short shrift, so the red and green (well, this year, it’s red and silver at my house) has to wait until after Turkey Day to make its appearance.
Christmas decorations seem sort of anticlimactic once the holiday is over…I’m ready for them to come down by, say, January 2.
We bust out the tree as early as Thanksgiving evening, but no later than the weekend after Thanksgiving. That way the decorations are up a full month before Christmas.
We usually tear down after the new year.
I think Christmas decorating is fine starting the day after Thanksgiving and going to the 1st of the year. I always like having the lights, tree, etc up for any New Year festivities.
Day after Turkey day we have always gone and cut down our live tree. We used to wait to put it up about a week after that and then took it down after New Years. This year we had it up the weekend after Thanksgiving but it will be down before New Years. My husbands family has a tradition of not carrying the holiday over into the new year. They want New Years to be a fresh start.
I get so irritated hearing and seeing Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. Let’s celebrate one holiday at a time :-) We usually put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving (although after Thanksgiving dinner is also acceptable) and take it down the day after New Years (I suppose a week leeway is ok… but no more. hehe) by that time it’s time to move onto my birthdy and then Valentine’s day :-)
I’m in Canada, so I differentiate between “decorations/lights up” and “decorations/lights on”.
Where we live, if you want lights on your house you’d better get them up in early/mid November, or else a snowstorm might make it unsafe/impossible to get them up after that time.
Lights can’t come down until spring, either, for the same snow safety reasons.
That said, don’t turn on your lights until December 1st at the earliest. And don’t turn them on after the first week of January.
Christmas decorations should in no way be seen until after Thanksgiving. I used to really love Christmas but the commercialism of the season gets worse every year and I am beginning to despise it. I hate having such a bah humbug attitude but the meaning of Christmas has faded over the years. I am not religious at all so even for me the meaning of Christmas isn’t entirely there anyway but for me it should be about being with friends and family and celebrating being with each other not about the plethera of gifts the media tries to tell us we need to give.
Usually about 5 days before Christmas I am more in the mood for the holiday but it is more about being excited to see friends and family and having some great food amongst each other.
What a thought provoking post!
Made me SMILE!
I adore each holiday!
Don’t care for one to overshadow another.
The first weekend in December seems perfect to bring in
THE CHRISTMAS!
Last weekend we TAGGED our Christmas tree and this weekend we will go and cut it down to bring home…then Christmas will officialy begin in our house!
As far as an OFFICIAL date that Christmas must come down…
Well…this is an ongoig chuckle in our family!
When I was single I use to leave Christmas up until…DON’T LAUGH…Valentines! There…I admitted it…I’m out of the closet!
Our Mother decorates a gigantic…25 foot tree in our home in the country…it’s a masterpiece.
Well…one year…that tree was still up at Easter!
We joked about just cutting a hole in the great room ceiling and lifting it up into the attic decorated!
Ha! Can’t believe I am revealing such shameful secrets! Ha!
Today…married and such…I will have all of Christmas put up by mid January!
I do not get these people that decorate so lovely and take it down the day after Christmas!
Just to let you know…I added your lovely button to my sidebar…I found the button on another blog and couldn’t resist! I do hope this was okay…I couldn’t find a button to grab on your site. If not…I will be happy to remove it.
Love your blog!
Wow!
This blog is fabulous! Thanks for all that you share!
Happy Holidays!
I love a reason to celebrate. And heck, in this economy, we need it to keep the blues from our doors. I don’t have a set day for decorating for holidays except for Christmas. It’s a family tradition to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. And why not? Thanksgiving is a time when families are already together. Why not have fun going through the special ornaments you’ve collected over the years?
As for taking them down? I say they can stay up until after you’ve celebrated the New Year, and then put them away. It’s a good time after all when you’re motivated with resolutions and organization plans.
Well, as a perpetual Scrooge (ok not really!) I think Christmas is for December and the first Saturday in the month should be sufficient! But it doesn’t really bother me when others do it early. My grandmother puts her tree up so early (October. Early October) that she’s sick of it by Christmas and usually takes it down the day of. I take all my Christmas stuff down around New Year’s but leave anything that could just be considered “winter decor” until sometime in February when I get sick of looking at it =)
I don’t think that Christmas celebrations should begin until after Thanksgiving is over. We gotta give Thanksgiving some love too, right? As for taking everything down, I probably wouldn’t leave mine up for more than a week after new years, but if people want to stay in the spirt (or are too lazy to take things down) I say more power to them!
The week of the holidays is when I want the house decorated. I am mystified by people putting them up so early. I think just after American Thanksgiving is way too early. That means they’re up for a good month. They need dusted for goodness sake! Too long! I’d introduce a law that the middle of December is when people could start. This year, my tree is going up on December 20. It was tradition in my family to have the tree down before the new year, but I’ve always taken it down on New Year’s Day, viewing New Year’s Eve as part of the holidays.
We put ours up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We have fun breakfast (cinnamon rolls!) and then we get started. I put up the tree and the lights and all outside decorations and then my wife and girls do the ornaments and any indoor decorations.
We usually take it down in the week after Christmas.
My mother puts hers up mid-December and leaves it up until Jan 6, the day the 3 Wise Men supposedly showed up.
I think that Thanksgiving Weekend is the perfect time for putting up the tree and decorations. Especially because most people have a 4 day weekend off of work. This means you have extra time to get things done. And it’s close enough to the beginning of December, so you get to enjoy your tree for over a month! They should go down the weekend after New Years. I think anything past the first 1-2 weeks of January is tacky and seems lazy.
Tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving and comes down the weekend after New Years. But that’s only if you have a fake tree. It’s so hard to take down all that festiveness.
Well we like to celebrate advent to build up the anticipation of Christmas, so we tend to do a little at a time till Christmas; draw it out. Right now we just have the tree up with lights…more to come! AND The official end of Christmas is not until Jan 6th!!! That is the 12th day of Chrristmas! So we never take stuff down before then!!
I agree with most everyone about the Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s rule. Christmas decor is just so pretty.
About the stores thing, I do know that the reason they put stock out so early dates back to when fashionable society women bought their clothes. They got catalogs and had to pre-order for their clothes to be specially tailored for them for the next season, and as catalogs gave way to retail stores, the one-cycle-ahead thing stuck. Apparently for the retail people to change the cycle would be too much effort so they just keep it that way. I do share the frustration in that by the time it’s appropriate to start decorating, the stores are usually done with the holiday. I learned to hit up Michael’s eaaarrrly to get things!
the christmas decorations go up on the day after thanksgiving and they come down after new years, they are supose to stay up until 12 days after new years
Great question! I resist mightily putting up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving – the day after is fine, but when I was teaching, it was usually not until Christmas break began! However, I don’t think it’s bad to break out the Christmas music anytime in November that you feel the urge! Growing up, we always took the tree down Jan 1, but now I like to wait a few days after New Year’s so it’s not such a let-down. But no more than a week.
In our family, Christmas decorations go up the day after Thanksgiving or sometime that weekend. They stay up until New Year’s Day and then we take it all down. We have to have the Christmas decorations put away before January 14 – my birthday :)!
I don’t have a set time frame for decorating, just whenever I get around to it, same goes for removing them….however back in winter 2007/2008, per my ex-fiance, I was not allowed to take down the enormous (faux) Christmas tree in my living room until the NY Giants won the Superbowl which wasn’t until Feb 3rd…how stupidstitious~ :)
Up here in Northern VT there is a radio station that starts playing non-stop Christmas music starting November 1st- one year they started in October and I think the locals had a fit!
Due to our divorced parents we actually have to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at least three times each…so I have to admit, while I love Christmas lights, I get a little peeved seeing them for sale before Thanksgiving.
We’re getting our tree in a couple weeks and it will come down probably a week after New Years.
Just think, NEXT Christmas you’ll have a little one to celebrate it with- how special!!! :)
Deck your halls starting Black Friday. But. . . if you’re going to have a crazy busy holiday season, Christmas decor can be put up the week of Thanksgiving, but only if you keep the Thanksgiving spirit and feel going strong during the holiday.
Take it down by Jan 8! However, I’m not opposed to simple white lights on trees and candles in house windows throughout the entire winter (Jan/Feb). It’s a cheerful look. But all other Christmas-y outdoor decor? It’s gotta go.
Stores: I don’t mind if they start selling Christmas gear in early Nov. It gives me time to look over all the goodies, then take the ideas home with me and figure out how to DIY a cheaper version!!
I think there’s a Southern law that says the tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving, and Sunny’s Law says it stays up until my birthday the first week of January. It’s my favorite time of year, and I’d hate to miss a day.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I resent retailers trying to overshadow it by decorating for Christmas so early. I think stores should decorate on the day before Thanksgiving so they will be ready for Black Friday. When the stores start putting up their decorations too early, I stay home and don’t go shopping except for grocerites.
Another vote for weekend-after-Thanksgiving-to-weekend-of-New-Year’s. I think Miss Manners may have even made a ruling on this, though I’m not 100%…I hate seeing Christmas stuff out right after Halloween, but I do like seeing it all through December. My Grandmother notoriously left a (fake) tree up until Easter one year, when we finally took it down by force in protest.
I put up decorations last weekend, as sunday was the first Advent. Sooner than that would be too soon for me, even though I absolutely LOVE Christmas.
However, I would NEVER get the tree up and decorated that early. I live in Germany, and we get the tree inside and decorate it on December 23rd. It just makes it so much more special, compared to having it around for weeks before Christmas. I could imagine getting it up a week before, but that’s it.
Oh, and the tree has to be real! I’m sorry to say, but anything plastic is just plain tacky!
For those who think it’s tacky to leave the decorations up into the beginning of January, read the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree#Dates
We’re leaving them up until around the 10th… my husband will be coming home from Afghanistan in January!!!!
I’m definitely a Day After Thanksgiving decorating person. From that point forward it is full throttle with the music, decor and cheer.
This year I was a little grumpy with Target having their holiday stuff out sooooo early. Mainly because since I love the music so much, I like to “save” myself for that day after (and it is always always kicked off with John Denver and the Muppets Christmas) and I found myself hearing the tunes whilst shopping for clearance Halloween candy!
Taking stuff down is a bit more flexible but I prefer around New Years :)
I really hate it when people put up Christmas lights and decorations before Thanksgiving!
I think Christmas gets rolled out a bit early. I’m a huge fan of Christmas, so it would take a lot for me to get tired of Christmas lights, garland, and cheesy carols, but as a result of late fall Christmas celebrations in stores and commercials I think we’re losing something really important – Thanksgiving. I’m tired of people viewing Thanksgiving as nothing more than the big meal they eat before camping out in lines to wait for Target to open at 3am. I want to give Thanksgiving its due – so I concentrate on decorating and shopping the weekend after.
As far as how long to leave them up? A lot of people in my family keep all their decorations up until January 6th- the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. My Grandmother used to leaved them up until January 12th, her father’s birthday, which is what her mother had done when she was a child. As for my husband and I – we take them down whenever we feel like it, usually a weekend or two after the new year.