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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish my neighbours would take down their Christmas decs!

202 replies

daysoffin · 20/01/2022 12:28

Lovely display of houses

And yet 3 out of the 10 houses nearby have their Christmas decs up still!

So all 3 have their lights up still, proper Christmas ones, and then one of them, I can still see the bloody tree through the window!

AIBU to say take the bloody things down ffs?!

OP posts:
CousinKrispy · 20/01/2022 14:11

How do people have the time and energy to be this judgmental about their neighbours?

rainrainraincamedowndowndown · 20/01/2022 14:14

Meh. I don't understand why it bothers you. Unless the lights are visible when you are inside the house and distracting you, no issue.

Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:17

Yanbu, it would annoy me too, it's just lazy.. anyone that pretends like how a neighbours house looks shouldn't matter are lying

CA0932017 · 20/01/2022 14:19

Is it outside or inside? Outside I would understand your frustration but if it's inside, leave them be. I would love mine up still! 😅 it doesn't really affect you does it?!

There's a house near me that had their decs up til last week. Nothing major, a little tree and some cosy lights but definitely Christmassy. You could see it through the window, I loved seeing it! My Christmas was crap due to covid so I was a bit sad seeing it go..

I'm sure the queen has her tree up til Feb?

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 20/01/2022 14:20

@Keke94LND

Yanbu, it would annoy me too, it's just lazy.. anyone that pretends like how a neighbours house looks shouldn't matter are lying
They're christmas decorations, not a load of old white goods piled up in the front garden.
TheKeatingFive · 20/01/2022 14:21

Yanbu, it would annoy me too, it's just lazy

I never understand this kind of thinking. My next door neighbour is a single mum to two kids, works a demanding job and is studying for a masters on top of this. Yet if she leaves her decorations up, that makes her lazy? I mean, seriously?

TheKeatingFive · 20/01/2022 14:21

anyone that pretends like how a neighbours house looks shouldn't matter are lying

Maybe if you live on Privet Drive?

BungleandGeorge · 20/01/2022 14:22

There’s people around here who have had them up since 2020 🤷‍♀️

Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:23

@Lillith111

Why is it anyones business how someone chooses to decorate their house. Tacky, not tacky how someone decorates their home is their business only
Not related to the OP but you do realise that how your neighbours house looks can affect the value of your house?
TheMoth · 20/01/2022 14:27

It would depress me. I'm a decorations up a week or so before Christmas and down before 12th night kind of person though. Decs=anticipation. After Jan 1, what's to look forward to? It's survival until we get more light. Decs just remind you of that nice bit, where you eat shit and do nothing.

JuergenSchwarzwald · 20/01/2022 14:29

@Pleasegodgotosleep

Some people keep their decs up until Candlemas which is 2 Feb this year.
It's always 2nd Feb.

Maybe these people observe Christmas later. I follow a guy on Twitter who is travelling around Romania and Ukraine and the railway stations have Christmas trees up.

It wouldn't bother me as long as they are not flashing. I think you can reasonably ask them to turn flashing ones off/put them on a "stationary" setting.

CoastalWave · 20/01/2022 14:29

My neighbours are annoying me by keeping their bins on the front drive the entire time (instead of putting them away in the back)

I hear you.

Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:31

Tbh it depends what the decorations are like, the tree in the house wouldn't bother me as that's inside their own house, some twinkle lights or a wreath wouldn't bother me, but if it was big inflatable snowmen and Santa clauses outside it would bother me

Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:32

@TheKeatingFive

anyone that pretends like how a neighbours house looks shouldn't matter are lying

Maybe if you live on Privet Drive?

Don't get the reference but how your neighbours house looks will always matter in one way or another, have you ever tried selling a house?
FrothyB · 20/01/2022 14:34

We had the decorations down New Years Day, but it's threads like this that remind me how freeing it is really not giving a shit what my neighbours think of how I keep my house/garden or anything like that.

TheKeatingFive · 20/01/2022 14:36

Don't get the reference

Really? It's pretty mainstream.

have you ever tried selling a house?

Yup and as far as I'm aware, no one was particularly interested in peering through my next door neighbours window. I expect they would be in privet drive though. Google it.

TheOriginalEmu · 20/01/2022 14:36

Mine are still up, it makes me feel less suicidal In January. Is that ok with you?

Strugglingtodomybest · 20/01/2022 14:37

Hellooo Daisy @Strugglingtodomybest.

🤣

Toddlerteaplease · 20/01/2022 14:38

Technically it's not candle mass yet. So it's ok/

Pootle40 · 20/01/2022 14:39

If I see this on a house I think 'lazy'

Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:39

@TheKeatingFive

Don't get the reference

Really? It's pretty mainstream.

have you ever tried selling a house?

Yup and as far as I'm aware, no one was particularly interested in peering through my next door neighbours window. I expect they would be in privet drive though. Google it.

Tbh I'm talking about decorations outside, not the tree in the window. I wouldn't care about a tree in the house but if I went to view a house and the neighbours still had Xmas decorations outside I'd notice it.

I've never read or watched Harry Potter

TheKeatingFive · 20/01/2022 14:40

I've never read or watched Harry Potter

Too busy taking your tree down at the 'right' time? 😉

PurBal · 20/01/2022 14:43
  1. Some people leave their decorations up until Candlemas (Feb 2) for religious reasons.
  2. They can leave them up for however long they like.
Keke94LND · 20/01/2022 14:44

@TheKeatingFive

I've never read or watched Harry Potter

Too busy taking your tree down at the 'right' time? 😉

Haha I guess so.. Harry Potter just wasn't really a big thing where I grew up
pictish · 20/01/2022 14:45

We’ve left some of the Christmas lights up in the living room. Love a bit of year round twinkle.

I couldn’t care less about other peoples decorations being up or not. What is this arbitrary code of conduct that is being presented as the done thing here?

That said, I’m not fond of the horrible blue, cold, starey lights that you see these days. They do resemble a visit from the emergency services. Not festive or twinkly at all.