I shouldn’t need to be reminded ...

[thelegohooverer]

That putting up the tree as a family event is asking for trouble.

For the last few years, I’ve put the tree up and put on the lights while the dc were in school and dh safely at work.

Oh dear Lord the drama! I’ve had to have another Baileys to recover.

What else has slipped my mind since last year?

It is ridiculously stressful... 🤯

I just let my teenagers do it.
Dh put lights on tree in silence as he spent an hour looking for them
One bauble on tree dd1 huffed went to bed so dd2 and ds did if all.
I put star on top, ds said that was dh job

I’ve always let DC decorate the tree. Even when they were toddlers. The only input DH had was putting the fairy on because they couldn’t reach, and me only helping when they couldn’t properly get the decorations on. This year they are at Uni so the tree will wait until they come home.

DH insists on doing the lights, I do everything else and then he rearranges it, every bloody year.

We buy the tree together (or cut one down if we can), my son helps me put it up and I do the lights. Then my daughter and I decorate. I do the extra decorations around the house. No trauma - it's fun!

Other thing to remember - present wrapping is not enjoyable. It's back breaking and stressful as you constantly hunt for sellotape and scissors amongst all the wrapping paper and then despair when you find wrapped presents without labels. It will also take you at least 3 times longer than you think and you won't get to watch more than 10 seconds of the festive film playing in the background as you'll be wrestling with ridiculous shapes boxes and the festive drink you poured yourself will be knocked over by a roll of paper. Leave it til Christmas Eve at you own peril!

We did our tree yesterday (holiday here), DH decided he didn’t want to watch the film we were watching whilst doing the tree so DD (11) and I got on with it. We got as far as the last 5 branches (tall tree) with the lights and without arguing. DH comes down and he took over. So much drama, apparently we were doing it wrong.

I don't bother with a tree these days, but always used to put mine up late on Christmas Eve, once everyone was sound asleep. It was a lovely calm peaceful job at the end of all the hectic weeks and hours, it was when Christmas really began for me. When it was done I would sit in the glow from the lights and have the sherry & mince pie left out for Father Christmas.

My best wrapping tip is pour a large G&T before you start!

I got our out of the loft last night. What a hullabaloo it was. I was shouting. 'Don't worry you lot, I'll do it'. Things have broken and my outside door wreath has bits falling off it and plastic fatigue. And I haven't even put up the tree yet.

I'm going to start wrapping this weekend. I never leave anything till the last minute. Laughed at marmalade's wrapping post!

This reminds me of an awful row dh and I had one year decorating the tree, one of those silent hissing ones . Ds1 then started singing a carol, and I felt so ashamed. He was about 5.

Still feel bad about it.

I put the (boxed) tree & dex out & they get on with it. I just tidy boxes away.

As I said on another thread... Baileys before putting the tree up. That was your mistake

It is stressful, and it takes so long when you've got young kids around. But it seems to be like childbirth in that you quickly forget the pain!

My mother had some interesting idea, but when she had an artificial tree she left the lights and decorations on, folded ti down and stored it for next year.

We’ve never done it as a family until this year. It was always done as a surprise. As the kids couldn’t go to my parents this year we did it together and it was a nightmare.

What Maramalade said about wrapping.

You think oh what a lovely thing to do, get a Bailey's, Christmas movie on and do the wrapping. Five hours later there you are with bleeding fingers squashing random bits of paper onto things and each parcel looks like a football in a carrier bag.

I now do it in little bursts. Ugh.

Getting the DC to make decorations as a fun arts and crafts activity sounds lovely...until you have to hang up the monstrosities!! 😂

Last year I put the tree up while DD was at her dad’s. It was lovely, I had a bottleglass of wine, listened to Christmas music and took my time getting it just right. I thought it would be a lovely surprise for her when she got home. Boy was I wrong, she was gutted that she hadn’t got to do it with me and I had to go to asda and buy a second small tree for her bedroom so she could have one to decorate 🤣

The children all do it themselves and have done since the oldest was about 10. They each have their own set of decorations which they add a new one to each year. I just sit back with a drink and relax then address any imbalance when they are in bed

My tree is only 4 ft high fibre optic. I’m lucky to have a spare room with an empty wardrobe so it just gets carried upstairs decorations and all and put away in the wardrobe. Getting it out and up takes as long as just walking downstairs.

We all erect the tree (actually I just supervise with getting it straight) then I put the lights on as these can't so easily be moved. Then once the tree looks good we all pile on with decorations. I am in charge of my half dozen or so glass baubles so once I've done that I follow everyone around moving stuff. If I get caught I say it fell off. Works well. They still think I'm a control freak but can't complain they don't get to decorate the tree

Christmas cards take 3x longer than you expect because you get hand cramp after the first 5. You always think you will write nice personalised messages, but get sick of this after 10 cards, then just sign your name, then wonder why you’re bothering at all as your handwriting becomes less legible and finish off with huffing at the price of stamps. Resolve to not bother next year. Insist that next year DH will do it (never happens).

Repeat this process annually!

Cry.

You will have carefully hidden the presents as you've done your shopping, and there will one that you just cannot find.
Usually an important one that will cause some upset on the day.
You'll spend most of Christmas Eve turning the house over in desperation and at some point in January (having bought a replacement) you'll find it tucked away in the tool shed.

So check you know where all the presents are now!

Aw, to be fair that does sound like high drama, but I don't have children and I have often enjoyed having friends over to decorate the tree with me. Wine, christmas songs and food - there's always some hysterical laughing because it brings out the inner child in a lot of folks. It's funny how resistant some adults are to accept that I genuinely mean for them to go ahead and do what they like, they don't believe me that I won't rearrange it later - but I like spending the rest of december knowing the festive season was kick started this way and looking at the tree and remembering how funny it was when this or that friend did this or that thing during the evening. I shall miss it this year and can't see yet when I'll have the motivation to go ahead and decorate.

Pre lit tree (artificial, I can't bear to watch a dead tree wither in my lounge purely for our enjoyment), DD6 clusters everything together in a 1 square foot area while I get my Lawrence Lewellen-Bowen on and try to make the tree look a bit smart and fancy. I drink too much booze, DD eats too many tree chocolates DDog gets in the way and makes a mess. Ultimately as long as none of my Thomas Pacconi baubles get broken and we have fun, we're good.