What date do you decorate for autumn?

[justflewinfromthewindycity]

I have got some lovely autumn decorative bits but not sure what date I should start putting them out.
Is 1st September too early ?

I was just round my y friend's house, she has a display of pumpkins in the living room and autumnal dried flowers around the house.

She's definitely not doing it for social media as she's not on it at all.

She's someone who's made a lovely house, and is into nature so she likes bringing the seasons in.

It's a lovely thing to do and those who are sneering at it are a bit joyless IMO.

I like the idea of bringing the seasons in, it’s not something I’ve ever thought about before and didn’t even know it was a thing until this thread. I agree you’d have to be pretty joyless to at least not see how that can be appealing especially if it’s natural ornaments rather than plastic tat. I may go on Pinterest etc and look for myself (although I’m not going to actually do it) but I can appreciate other’s efforts.

I'm envisioning rotting pumpkins as the months wear on and embracing the "joyless" label.

Agree so much!

I have a couple of ceramic pumpkins, a copy of Sleepy Hollow, some leftover autumnal leaves from a crafting project a few years back, and some fairy lights on my coffee table, alongside a load of gorge pumpkin spice/poison apple type flavour candles from TK Maxx. They look lovely and smell delicious, and after a long day at work lighting my candles and turning on the lights etc give me joy and make my living room feel cosy. I love how these touches seem to completely transform the ambience of the room.

And, this may be incomprehensible to some of the negative nancys on here who believe anyone who decorates like this does it for the “likes”… I am pretty active on fb and Instagram, but have never felt a need to share pics of my pumpkins and candles! I do it purely because I love it.

Stinky candles = instant nausea and, frequently, migraines. It's hard not to be "joyless" when you walk into someone's house and start feeling queasy.

Agreed. The air quality in some houses must be appalling but they are so used to it they don't even notice.

I just always wonder what people who come on threads to sniff nastily about other people and their choices get out of it?

Meant to tag @MaidOfAle and @Skyrainlight

Well, theirs is as valid a POV as anyone else’s, surely? The people who burn scented candles, use plug-in air fresheners, or anoint their houses with Zooflora are probably not going to have friends who say ‘No offence, Maureen, but your house gives me a violent headache. Either I open a window or I go home.’ Just like the people contemplating calling their baby girl Beaubelle are probably not going to be told it’s a monumentally stupid name.

Of course it's valid. I'm not an Autumn decorator, plug in air freshener, zooflora user myself. But the thread title wasn't 'does air freshener give you a headache?', it was, What date do you decorate for Autumn? Because I don't decorate for Autumn myself, I wasn't able to answer the question. I've just been amazed by the self-congratulatory, sniffy, superiority of many of the replies and am wondering what people get from making a stranger on the internet feel bad about something that makes them happy without affecting any one of us in any way?

I posted this on another, similar thread. Very apt.

It's a valid POV, but doesn't answer OP's question.

e.g.
Me: Do you think I should get these boots in black or brown?
Person: Well, personally, I hate those boots so I wouldn't get either colour.
Me: [goes off to find more helpful friends]

What is D&D? Dick and Dom is all I can come up with.

So what, though? 'Fruitloop is a stupid name' isn't technically an answer to the question of 'Which do you prefer, Fruitloop or George?' in the baby names forum, but it's not such a wild idea to expose people to the idea that the thing they think they're doing to make their living space nicer (scenting it) may be making it deeply unpleasant to people other than them.

An uncarved pumpkin will last for one month at room temperature. Which pretty much covers the October period you want for your joyful display.

Then, depending on the variety, it could be composted, donated to a farm for geese to enjoy joyfully, or to a zoo for the elephants to snack on, which is a joyful thing to participate in (our zoo asks for the donations and you can enjoy watching the elephants smash and devour them.)

I refuse to stop feeling joyful about it. I love celebrating Autumn, it's very beautiful time of year with breathtaking displays of nature which I like to replicate in my home.

I couldn't even imagine just existing for half the year, waiting for a change in seasons, and hating weather conditions.

I think Dungeons and Dragons.

Ah, so the unpleasant pile on is for the OP's own good? In reply to a question she didn't ask, she's being saved by strangers on the internet, from social ostracism by the scent-sensitive. Tough love for the autumn spice Febreeze addicts out there. All while mocking her for the question she did ask.

And the vast majority of the unpleasant replies were actually not even about that, but sneering at the very idea of something that might give her joy that didn't compute for others. That's different from, I get a headache from strong scents, so you might want to take that into account when you have visitors.

I think making this about having guests round is quite a drop in the ocean.
I’ve had my pumpkin spice candles up/lit for over a month now and in that time we’ve had one occasion where we’ve hosted, and it was two friends and their boyfriends who I know also love a seasonal candle… a few weeks prior we’d been sending each other photos of our pumpkin based finds from TK Maxx, so I knew there would be no issues giving them or their boyfriends a headache.
Im thinking ahead now to the end of October and we have no other guests due round before then. Plenty of social plans, but none in our home.

So I’ll quite happily sit back and enjoy all my delicious scents, knowing it doesn’t bother anyone (apart from a few people on mumsnet)!

Aah! Thanks @HÆLTHEPAIN

The only decorating for autumn I do is spray a bit of an autumn themed air freshener and use a pumpkin spice candle… which I’ve been doing for a couple of weeks now

If you'd read the thread, you'd have seen that the naysayers were concerned about the environmental impact of buying tat to fill your house with for a couple of months, only to then replace it with more tat for another couple of months, rinse-repeat. I want there to be real autumns and real winters and real springs and real summers, forever, and climate change and pollution endanger that. Buying something that is purely decorative just to use it for a couple of months and then bin it contributes needlessly to climate change and pollution.

I take onboard that some people reuse the same decorations annually. That wasn't something I had thought people would do when I first posted on this thread.

I have read the thread.

There are some people talking about the environmental impact, although I'd be interested in their self-stock-taking on that score around fast fashion, Christmas, Easter and children's birthday parties, supermarket food and packaging, holidays and SUVs.

But there are also loads and loads that are just condescending and smug nastiness, taking the piss out of OP, which seems wholly unnecessary on a lighthearted thread. Have another skim from the first post. I'd be surprised if you don't agree.

I think a lot of the ‘naysayers’ were agog at starting a thread about autumn decoration in 1st of September!! In answer Op, I’d say we’re in autumn now, not 1/9!