When is it acceptable to decorate???

[yorkshireyummymummy]

As a child in the 70's I was told that it was ' incredibly common' to hang your Christmas decorations early.
Our tree went up the weekend before Christmas. Decorations were limited to a tree, a card tree, a wreath on the door and some pieces of wood with real holly stuck into them in an arty way and some mistletoe if there was any for sale that year. School friends had all sorts of foil decorations hanging from the ceiling and lots of glittery things. These were also classed as ' horribly common'
Fast forward 40 years and I decorate how I want to. Everything is incredibly tasteful ( of course) and it takes me three days to do it properly .
But when is it socially acceptable to hang your decs/ put the tree up?
Mother has mellowed somewhat after I had DD and puts her tree up on about the 12th Dec that's if she is not on one of her billion holidays
But she does still consider earlier than that common.
I have ignored her ever since I got my own home in 1988 and done it my way. Since I had DD tree goes up on 1st December because she is as excited every year as I am.
People do seem to put their trees up earlier than they did when I was a kid.
The first weekend of December this year is the 2nd - but we might be going to visit family.
So when should I decorate? Daughter wants to be part of it so it should be on a weekend- is it just horribly horrendous to decorate in November? Am I getting obsessed? Does this mean by the time I'm 65 that as soon as I take the fake cobwebs down from Halloween I will be putting the Christmas tree up?
What do you all do? ( I am Christmas obsessed BTW. I now think,of Christmas a more of a season than a single day event!)

I don't do advent, nothing religious happens in my house at christmas time.

DH's birthday is on the 17th December so we wait for that before putting up decorations.

I've suggested we celebrate his birthday in June instead but quite unreasonably he refused.

Second weekend in December here, we have a real tree and want it to last. Also any earlier just feels too soon for me.

It's around the 20th of November for us, sorry! I love it.

I like to keep ours up until Jan 6th so anything earlier than 2 weeks before Christmas gets a bit much!

I don't do advent, nothing religious happens in my house at christmas time

Have to laugh really...

Christmas
noun

the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on 25 December in the Western Church.

Nope, nothing religious happens at all... nothing.

It can be a transition to Christmas decorations once Halloween is gone - moving through pumpkins (nice for US Thanksgiving at the end of November - 4th Thursday to be precise!), and getting more reds and golds than the oranges of autumn.

I don't do a lot, but I start doing things like paper chains with DD from late November, and putting up a few things like a Santa spinner (cheap and tacky from the Euroshop - but she loves it!) hanging from the sloping ceiling on the way up to her room in the attic around 1st December. The advent calendar also goes up for 1st Dec - and that hangs in the kitchen (big fabric panel style), and a festive fleece blanket comes out for the sofa in the sitting room (DD is always curling up under rugs year round, and we have this for the Christmas season). I keep meaning to do an advent wreath with the 3 purple, 1 red and 1 white candle - and keep forgetting.

I change DD's sheets anytime from 1st onwards, whenever I get around to it, for the red sheets and festive duvet cover set. We only have 1 but I do try and wash that before Christmas again to have it fresh and lasting until the tree comes down (6th January - although DH wants it down earlier some years before we all go back to work/school).

The wreath goes on the door about the 2nd weekend. And a few snowglobes get positioned around the house. And I have a few Christmassy mugs and a plastic plate and glass for DD that come out at some stage too. And the crib - we have a tiny wooden one for the hall table usually as the big one takes up that whole table (so no place for the lamp, keys container or phone charger etc).

The tree goes up later in the month. Usually because it's a real tree and I don't want too much needle drop indoors.

The towels in the kitchen and handtowel in the bathroom are the last to change as I only have a couple of those and they get very well used. So I want those for Christmas itself. I also only take out the other festive crockery items for Christmas week (a couple of serving dishes, a tiny cream jug, and another couple of mugs).

Everything gets put away on the same day in early January. So its a gradual build-up but a massive clear-out and "sterilization" back to "normal" at the end.

First weekend in December here. Thats soon enough otherwise I feel it makes actual Xmas period less special. If your decs are up months before then its just 'normal' by Xmas.

We have Halloween and Bonfire night still to come fgs! We go mad at Halloween with outside 'decorations'/props (not much indoors) for all the guisers.

Did see a post on NM the other day from someone just joined asking about Xmas traditions and she has started putting decorations up already. I stepped away from the thread The whole point of celebrations/festive periods is that they are at certain times of the year, not for months on end. (JMHO)

Isadora2007

So you are happy to celebrate the pagan festival of Easter ( Oestre)?

The name does not dictate the celebration. You christians are happy to use the name Easter to celebrate your sacrifice.

Do you daub your face on Thursdays to give praise to Thor?

Christmas mean many things.
Is is of course a bastardisation of the pagan midwinter festival.

For some christmas may be religious, but for most it is a secular festival involving Santa, Christmas trees, hanging stockings- none of it christian in origin.

Your christian celebrations don't trump my secular/pagan ones I'm afraid.

As I say nothing religious happens in my home at christmas.

We do it two weeks before Christmas usually. Any longer and the tree doesn't look fresh by Christmas Day. In DH's culture the tree is decorated on Christmas Eve so I think two weeks before Christmas is a good compromise. I like seeing Christmas decorations around from 1 December onwards though. But not in November!

Eostre was nicked from the older Mithraic religion if you want to play festival history Top Trumps.

The pagan Yule is of course still celebrated by some, but Christmas is a Christian festival and is currently in the ascendancy.

As close to the 1st as I can get OH in the loft, he would put the tree up Christmas Eve if he had his way. Although the loft in our new house is easier to get into, still don't think I could manage ALL the boxes on my own though. Will have DS aid my pestering for the tree this year from mid November this year though. Might have to show my mum this thread the mere suggestion that anything she does could be conceived as common might give her a heart attack

Christmas is a secular festival for the majority.

I'm assuming therefore in your home speak you have no lights (symbol of Christ the light of the world), tree (symbol of the Tree of Life), nor the fairy on it (just an angel really), Santa (Turkish saint), holly (symbol of the crown of thorns and Christ's blood), and of course no cards with biblical scenes, no dressing up for the school nativity play or going to the Christingle service, no religious carols ever play on the radio and your DCs are forbidden from singing them (and not even any Christmas music without words such as Bach)? No presents (symbol of the presents brought by the Wise Men)? No nativity scene I assume of course. And definitely no Advent calendar.

Of course, many of these things are used for other celebrations and/or have been co-opted into Christianity but they have become mainstream British festive symbols through their use as religious symbols.

If it were not for Christmas then maybe some of these symbols would have persisted as part of a midwinter celebration but many (Santa, biblical scenes on cards, nativity play, carols) have heavy Christian symbolism and wouldn't exist at all in their current form if it weren't for the Christian celebration. And I doubt that some others (holly, trees, candles/lights) would be such icons of the end of December without their association with the Christmas celebration.

Of course, there are a few symbols of pre-Christian times that didn't really make the transition to Christianity - yule logs, solstice bonfire, lots of Norse gods. I assume your midwinter celebration majors on those?

I wouldn't worry about whether your desired time to decorate fit within your own or an aspired to social class! I do December 1st and it comes down shortly after Christmas. I would take it down on boxing day but I'm never allowed.

drspouse you have no authority to "claim" these symbols for christianity.

Santa Claus could equally be traced back to Cernunnos.

I see no mention of christmas trees or stockings or mistletoe in the bible.

No matter I am happy for christians to share my secular christmas

just as easily Yes because EVERYONE calls him Cernunnos (I had to check the spelling having never heard of him till today!). Google says he has horns...

I'm still assuming you bin all Christmas cards with nativity scenes, don't allow any religious carols on the radio or any practicing of them by your DC, nor any nativity play costumes to be worn in the house.

(and perhaps I don't have the authority but centuries of tradition seem to have managed it without me, don't they?)

speakout

Who even says I am a Christian? I simply think it’s inaccurate to suggest that anyone who celebrates Christmas (not Yule or whatever) is not involved in “anything religious”. As Christmas itself is Christian. Hence the name.

It’s like being happy to go have a costa at the local hospital whilst perfectly well- that’s fine. You’re quite right to say you are not unwell. However it’s not correct to say “there is nothing medical at all about my coffee shop visits” when they’re clearly in a hospital. So the setting Is medical- your actual use of the time and event isn’t. Similarly Christmas IS religious. Your chosen way of celebrating it isn’t.

As early as I can. Usually start if December a sky birthday is 6th and I like the tree up. I'm due end of November this year so contemplating putting it up on my maternity leave 😂

Um, you guys just up there, this is the Christmas Board which is about preparing for, and celebrating, a season of goodwill and happiness that occurs in December every year, whether that is in the Christian sense or the secular sense or the Pagan sense or any other sense.

It IS a board where there may be bad feeling as people figure out ways to deal with crises and stresses in real life.

But it is NOT intended to be a board where we take swipes out of each other.

Could normal service please resume?

(I almost feel like MaryZ in reverse - she didn't want any talk of Christmas before the start of December, but could tolerate it on this board)

sorry Biddy.

Christmas Eve here. Maybe a nativity scene and a candle before then.

My Dad is a very devout Christian. Interestingly, he doesn't celebrate Christ's birth on the 25th of December as that's not the correct date. He does happily join in our pagan traditions though. Most of them predate Christianity by a long way and some of them we nicked from the Victorians.

I'm a rubbish atheist because I embrace all sorts of things which came from the Christian hijack of the 25th. I have a knitted nativity for example. I've also pinched some Scandi folklore such as tomtes and some Russian mythology. I just like the celebratory and multicultural, multi-traditional mish mash.

Regardless, I tend to start around the last week of term as that's a fine time to start ramping up the joy. Well, I decorate then. I'm already making decorations now.

My sister is a deeply religious christian.

She won't have a christmas tree in her house and shuns the idea of santa claus- all pagan symbols her church tells her.