Early Christmas decorations = working class

[FaLaLaLaLaaaar]

I know Mumsnet loves a class debate, so thought I’d share an argument I had with a friend last night.

She insists that only working class people put their Christmas decorations up in November, I insisted she’s a snob and class is more redundant these days so it’s a ridiculous argument.

So Vipers, I’ll ask the question as if it is coming from me to make it easier:

AIBU to think only working class people put their Christmas decorations up in November?

Yabu - No, don’t be such a snob, middle class people do too.

YANBU - Yes, it’s a working class thing.

I will be showing her the results of this.

December only. I am old enough to remember that decorating the tree once belonged to Christmas Eve. But that's boring. Let's have lovely little lights for longer.

@GoodVibesHere

YANBU

Eeeek, I do think there is truth in what you're saying.

Maybe the working class life is that little bit harder, so people seek joy in simple things, like sparkly lights and tinsel.

People who have had less opportunities throughout their life tend to want everything to be perfect for their children, and want to make everything grand and fun and 'more'.

This is such a good point. If what you have is your tinsel and lights then of course you want to get them out. If you have many other opportunities for joy during the year it is not as important to get the decorations out early. Your friend has a point. I’m getting mine out this weekend!

I wonder if there's an age thing to this too. I do think that with the passage of time, the Christmas 'celebration' period has considerably extended. So what were the twelve days of Christmas to (great) grandparents' generation is now the five/six weeks of Christmas to much younger people?

Isn't it that those who are considered a 'better' class with more money have people come to them and bedeck their homes with decorations so that's why they're up later?

Blue lights just aren't very Christmassy, cold and unwelcoming. Don't envy friend who lives in a small town where the council bought a whole bunch of blue lights a few years ago together with a couple of enormous un-Christmassy giant illuminated animals. It's now a place that people visit to see the jaw-dropping Christmas display which is recycled every year. Not in a good way. It's, um, different.

Until the pandemic I had always put my decorations and tree up 12 days before Christmas, last year I put up late November, this year I will put up early December. I feel more inclined to rebel now against what 'should' be done.

I think your friend is broadly right. This is based on my Facebook feed nothing more scientific. It matters not by the way ... personal preference. Will be mid December here when kids come back from university

NewModelArmyMayhem18
You might be onto something there. There also seems to be a big push on decorations over time.

When I was a child Halloween decorations meant carving a pumpkin and putting it by the door/in the window. Now there seems to be a push on having Halloween decorations up, door decorations etc and no sooner has Halloween gone, it's straight into Christmas.

Each holiday window seems to run straight into the next so there's always something to sell people. Shops with Christmas decorations up from November 1st probably do because people will pick up a few extras go be organised, put them at the back of the wardrobe, forget and still spend the same amount later.

Even Black Friday has gone from a day to a fortnight.

Who cares what 'class' anyone is?
Who cares when people put up their decorations?

Talk about Joyless...

@LolaSmiles I also think the Americanisation of British culture plays a big part in this. And doesn't the Thanksgiving (this week?) celebration then just roll straight into full-on Christmas cheer?

[quote Kanaloa]@LittleDandelionClock

Isn’t it absolute insanity? What a number the class system has done on us when we can’t even recognise that realistically the grand majority of us are working class. And we’re so busy tearing each other down for such crimes as live laugh love signs and colourful Christmas lights that we don’t even bother to see we’re all mainly in the same low paid boat and doing our best to enjoy the Christmas season.

Wish I’d known years ago all I had to do to be middle class was hold off on the Christmas decs. Must jot that down on the Eton application for ds, I do want them to know we’re solidly middle class.[/quote]

Good points @Kanaloa

You won’t be coming inside my house, I won’t be coming inside your house. The day we all start listening to strangers about what we should do in our own homes, as long as we aren’t harming anyone, is a sad day.

I have a theory about that. I think we've lost a lot of our shared spaces and shared experiences. I'm an atheist so you won't see me worrying about the declining role of religion but I think it leaves a gap. A lot of other things that provided shared experiences have eroded too. The declining prominence of the high street in people's lives, loss of libraries, community centres...hell, even the telly has exploded into so many options that ...did you see [insert new thing] on the telly last night isn't the same shared landing point it used to be.

But I think putting out decorations to brighten up the place and throw something into the pot to share an experience with your neighbours and your community is something that is accessible to just about anyone who wants to join in and so I think people but more effort in and more enthusiastic than they once were.

I have a deep interest in anthropology and our class system. We have a very strong sense of a class system in the UK, albeit without a clear idea of where the lines are drawn. But the higher the class you identify with, the more you are expected to be restrained.

Going OTT on anything is seen as tacky in the UK where we frown upon unbridled excess and value restraint. This is our culture. There will be people who don't agree with this but culture isn't about how individuals behave, but social norms.

Historically and traditionally, Christmas decorations go up on Christmas Eve and stay up till epiphany. So acting widely outside this is also seen as not understanding either the tradition, the religious aspect, or what/when epiphany is. So as well as not behaving in a proper manner and being seen as going OTT, this is also seen as ignorance and in some cases conflated with being working class.

The working classes have the most freedom in how they behave. They care the least of anyone, so are quite happy having their decorations up for months, or having exuberant street parties, focussing only on enjoying themselves. The middle classes do care what others think and they care greatly what class they're in. The upper classes don't care what the other classes think. They know they're posh, but have evolved the least. They do care about their peers and they follow tradition and exercise restraint. They are very very unlikely to have a flashing Santa on their house.

The Queen btw is seen as upper middle class by the aristocracy and isn't the pinnacle.

@Raaaaaaarr I'd be curious about which because i've never heard of a country that doesn't have some sort of class system, though it may not be called that and be based on a different criteria!
I live in solidly middle class Wimbledon and there are a few wreaths up and I imagine trees. They must be artificial though - which I think many might consider more a class thing.

Well of course in days past, when much work was labour intensive, the people who worked long hours, in manual repetitive work, needed a festive dream to help them get through their drudgery. So they put up the festive decorations early. So the working people in the past were putting up the bunting early. But as society becomes more wealthy and work becomes less manual, people become more equal. Is is not so much as them and us, but more us and us, all of us.

@SirChenjins

The best option for the environment is a real live tree (provided you keep it alive and use it again), second best is a dead real tree and third is a fake tree

Unless your fake tree is more than 10 years old - in which case it’s greener (eco and otherwise)

But surely that's only part of the story - it might be greener to produce a fake tree that is then used for 10 years than to cut down 10 real trees, but when it's eventually chucked it will take 500 years to decompose. Whereas real trees are collected by the council and chipped for compost. Plus artificial trees are often imported from far away places, whereas real trees tend to be at least UK grown, and often locally grown.

Also, there are about 100m trees currently growing in the UK because of the christmas tree market, and they wouldn't exist without the demand for real trees. That's a big environmental benefit.

Obviously if you already have an artificial tree the best thing is to use it until it can't be used any more, but if you currently have no tree and are trying to make a green choice, I think real trees will always win (especially if it's a living tree in a pot!)

@RadioSixMusicLover

You won’t be coming inside my house, I won’t be coming inside your house. The day we all start listening to strangers about what we should do in our own homes, as long as we aren’t harming anyone, is a sad day.

This. ^ IDGAF what anyone on here thinks, and shall be putting my decorations, lights, AND tree this weekend, and will be switching all the lights on, on the 1st of December. Lights all around the house and garden too.

Around 10 of the homes in my village have lights around them, and the tree up already, and around then of them are the middle and upper classes too. I know! Weird right. The rest of the homes will follow suit in the next 10 to 15 days.

@KurtWildesChristmasNamechange, are you implying that the only reason anyone doesn’t change their decorations every year is because they can’t afford to?

It couldn’t possibly be because they’ve collected them over the years and they like them? And don’t give a toss about ‘colour coordination’ or ‘themes’? Not to mention environmental factors?

The only person I knew who bought a different colour set every year (she once asked me what colour tree we were having that year. Er, green?) would also frequently complain about being hard up! She was also solidly MC, just to confuse the issue.

My MIL once told me that I was as WC as she was as we both worked... She owned her own company, and I had just finished my Masters.
Her family Christmas background was fake tree up 1st Dec and mine was real tree start of Christmas week.
My DH found it terribly amusing - still does!

@MurielSpriggs, in Ireland the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec 8th is strongly related to Christmas, in that it was traditionally the start of Christmas, the day country people went to the cities to do their Christmas shopping, see the lights etc -- some department stores in the past offered free train fares, the cities were very busy, and shops would do weeks' worth of trading in a single day. Some people would also put up initial decorations that day for the same reason, though obviously its importance is diluted now.

Bracketed with Epiphany, which is still a big deal -as the official end of festivities - known in Ireland as 'Little Christmas' or 'Women's Christmas' (because it was when women, traditionally, were supposed to be able to celebrate because much of the work of actual Christmas devolved on them -- in practice, this was either 'Ladies' Nights' in pubs, and weirdly, once a brief vogue for Chippendale-type strip events.)

@myfaceismyown what does "finishing my masters" have to do with class? Or are you (not so) subtly trying to say that only middle class people complete postgraduate degrees?

@Rosehip10 if you start off WC and you get a degree you become MC whether you like it or not. Its not relevant into which class I was born. Similarly you cannot be a company director and working class. No subtlety here.

@myfaceismyown "Getting a degree makes you middle class" - what a ridiculous statement.

So, a hypothetical, working class lad who gets a degree in say film studies and now works in a coffee shop as he can't get a graduate job is middle class?

[quote myfaceismyown]@Rosehip10 if you start off WC and you get a degree you become MC whether you like it or not. Its not relevant into which class I was born. Similarly you cannot be a company director and working class. No subtlety here.[/quote]
That really isn't true. I'm an academic, and my students are overwhelmingly WC and often the first of their families to pursue higher education -- they don't magically become middle class on graduation day.