AIBU or is decorating the Christmas tree excruciating?

[slippersandfleece]

All the furniture being moved around and the mess it reveals. All the tangled lights and mess of stuff everywhere. Clutter. So much clutter. My kids suggesting frankly ugly arrangements that I just have to suck up and allow for the sake of Christmas spirit, it's all so triggering. Every year I feel claustrophobic and panicky. Is it just me?

Ours is always in the same place - the bay window - so nothing needs moving in preparation. My husband and I put it in its stand, remove the netting and hoover up the needles from taking it through the house. I put the lights on (I’m a perfectionist) and my kids help me hang the baubles and candy canes. They’re well-trained so do a good job! We listen to Christmas music whilst doing it and my husband supplied coffee and Danish cookies. I hate clutter so our decorations are beautiful but take up no space (garlands across mantles, snowflakes hanging from chandelier). I put my decorations and lights away carefully each year so no untangling required.

Wrong. If something normal makes you panicky, work towards doing it, or you will feed your anxiety.

Teen DD is autistic, the cat eats these threads of the baubles and we don't have much room so we didn't bother for a couple of years and just put fairy lights up. This year we've got a slimline pop up pre lit pre-decorated tree takes 30 seconds to put together, takes up next to no room.

I freed myself from the tyranny of the tree several years ago, I bought a gorgeous Balsam Hill pre lit garland for my fireplace, and I love it.
Like pp's I hate the disruption and the mess, our DC are grown up so I don't have to take children into consideration.

Takes all of 30 minutes to unpack and fluff it up, put the batteries in, and voila!

We decorated the house yesterday ( me and dd(15). Dh will go and get a real tree next weekend and he is in charge of getting it in situ. Several years ago when kids were little and we were constantly knackered we put the lights on the tree and couldn’t be bothered with the rest - naked tree ever since!!

We’ve got 3 trees and the only thing that had to move was my treadmill so no great upheaval. My husband did the trees this year and made a really good job of it .

We don’t have any mess or clutter but I don’t enjoy the tree assembly.

Love it , love it, love it ….don’t move any furniture tho

Nevermind OP, once the kids are away you can leave the festive stuff in the attic.

I use the cat as an excuse not to bother with any decorations 😁

I think if I had to move furniture I might think it better to get a smaller tree that fits in a space already there.

Decorating by myself with a glass of wine, BBC Radio 3 playing the Nutcracker Suite in the background = amazing

Over-excited children and their sticky hands, haphazardly shoving decorations everywhere before refusing to go to bed on time = stressful af

Some years I've felt like that.
But I've got to the age where every decoration has a memory attached, starting with the last remaining one from my very 1st set, bought at Woolworths in The Cut, London. 43 years ago. So that's nice.
Also, I have a Xmas twig (a big one) that I stick in a flower pot filled with plaster. Then stick the decorations on that. Very naice, I know, but much easier.

For years i had images of xmas music playing softly in the background, mulled wine (all hone made) heating gently on the stove, kids happily helping and getting on great, me explaining all the history of the decorations and artfully dressing the real tree.

In reality the kids weren't interested in any decorations except the chocolate ones, mulled wine gave me a headache, the tree is artificial and I'm sick of xmas music by 1st December.

Usually now i bugger off and dh does it.

Yabu. You have very serious problems that you should address before you kill any spark of joy in anyone who lives with you quite urgently.

this is me to a tee. All the familiar baubles and decorations are like old friends and I get v nostalgic and misty eyed over it all.
My youngest daughter and I did it on Monday last week and it had only been up.a day when one set of lights broke! And it was looking so good! I had to cut them off and try to thread a new set through without wrecking it too much ! So it doesn't look quite as good but I can't be bothered to take it all off and start again.
I do love christmas and having the tree up.

No kids here but we all love Christmas

YABU check your privilege.

I absolutely love it -but my kids are 19 and 17 and just leave me to it. DS has a little tree in his own room that he decorates as he wishes.
I'm really fussy about putting my decorations and lights away properly in named boxes every year so I can find everything with no clutter and no untangling lights etc. It really helps. I luckily don't have to move or rearrange much furniture.
I'd try and minimise it if possible OP. Could your DD have a little tree of her own in her room for her to go wild on, while downstairs is more minimal? DS is also autistic and really enjoys his own tree.

Yabu

This exactly

I'm starting to think there is something seriously wrong with my 2 cats as they have never shown any interest in the christmas tree 😂 the only thing they go mad for is the ribbon on presents.

I do decorating in stages. I have ceiling stuff that goes up first (high ceilings so need a ladder). Then it's the wall stuff and ornaments. Then the tree itself. Then lights, then finally tree decorations. All done on different days. It's the only way I can deal with it.

This year I actually started mid November! And finished yesterday. It'll all get taken down in stages too.

My kids are huge pains in the arse a lot of the time but this is one thing that is absolutely lovely - we get out all the decorations and they reminisce about them all, half of them are silly lopsided handmade ones from when they were at nursery, most of the decorating end up at child height but it makes me happy

Just ignore the kids and do what you like. Or do what I used to do and get them to put stuff on the tree, and then calmly rearrange them "oh that one looks lovely there darling, this one is a bit too heavy for that branch so I'll just move it". Etc etc etc. worked fine and I ended up with a lovely tree and they felt involved. Win win.

That is genius!

I love it. I do it with my adult dd. We did hers on Friday and she's coming to help do ours next weekend. My only problem is we've moved from a 3bed semi to a small park home and my dh is under the impression that we won't have anywhere for my collection of soft toy reindeer but I have a plan.