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Original poster

Do Americans really decorate .....

201 replies

BeaLola · 05/12/2022 23:40

Every room and outside at Christmas ir is it just in the cheesy Christmas films currently on Netflix and the like ? I mean poinsettias and wreaths in the kitchen and huge displays outside ? In many ways it's amazing but is it just in the films ????

OP posts:
onlythreenow · 06/12/2022 04:17

Americans buy an incredible volume of single-use, plastic seasonal CRAP. Their shops are full of this junk; row upon row of throwaway consumer tat. Not just christmas, it's halloween, 4th of July, thanksgiving. It's anti-humanity, anti-species and not something anyone should aspire to

You sound full of the spirit of Christmas!

They build bigger and bigger houses and garages to store all this useless stuff. It's revolting when you really think about it.

Oh do get over yourself! What a load of utter crap (or are you just jealous that American houses are bigger than UK houses)

mathanxiety · 06/12/2022 04:22

I love walking past the high rise apartment buildings where I live and seeing the many individual Christmas trees and different residents' lights on balconies. It's nice to see random twinkling lights 22 storeys up.

I have two boxes of Christmas tree ornaments and items I've collected over the years plus ornaments made by the DCs. I've bought some nice old glass baubles in a thrift store. They're really old.

I have a few nativity sets in different styles. The big one goes on tbe mantelpiece and we have small stockings hanging there too. We have a fabric Santa Claus filled with sand that Dcat knocks off the sideboard daily until she's finally satisfied that he doesn't bounce.

I don't buy any poinsettias because I have a cat, and also because I have a deck full of plants wintering over in all the south facing windows and there's nowhere else to put a plant.

Local Boy Scout troops sell wreaths - I've never bought one but they're nice amd lots of people do buy them. There are several blocks where the residents all put out luminaria on the sidewalk on Christmas Eve.

Some people decorate with big inflatables on the front lawn and some go to town with huge OTT displays. Local news broadcasts feature nominated displays of this sort. I drive past a few houses you would have to see to believe. They stand out not just because of the wattage but because that level of garishness is unusual. Most people put up lights on their front porches, maybe a wreath, or they put lights on a tree or two in the front yard. Some people have candle style lights in all the front windows. Then there are a good few people celebrating Hannukah, mainly with blue lights and decor, and menorahs.

Normally if people are having a holiday open house or a party their house or apartment would have more attention paid to decoration than the average home does. I'll be heading to a shindig at a friend's home about a week before Christmas and she'll have her house decorated in a very comprehensive fashion.

To each their own, right?

MintyFreshOne · 06/12/2022 04:24

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If it’s one-time use (it’s not) then they wouldn’t be storing it in their homes 🙄

Imagine thinking holiday decorations are anti-humanity … you must be a real joy to be around

onlythreenow · 06/12/2022 04:36

In response to your original query OP, I don't live in the UK or the US and plenty of people here decorate the outside of their houses, I don't think it is a particularly American thing.

Nancydrawn · 06/12/2022 04:49

Most people in my neighbourhood have a tree inside, some lights outside, and a wreath on the door.

Some people go all out, but they're not the majority.

FleasNavidad · 06/12/2022 05:02

"You feel better now Karen?"

Vile. The consumer rant wasn't ideal but this comment is disgusting. Why do you think that's ok?

starrynight21 · 06/12/2022 05:08

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I know a few Americans and they do bring out huge boxes of decorations every Christmas ( and every Thanksgiving too). They like it and I think their houses look lovely. None of their decorations are single-use, most of them are home made and some are vintage decorations handed down in the family.

KickAssAngel · 06/12/2022 05:40

I live in the US and love Christmas so I used to decorate a lot, particularly inside. Then we got kittens, so very few things get out of now.

But it's about as varied as the UK for lights etc.

OrangeCinnamonLatte · 06/12/2022 05:47

RLScott · 06/12/2022 04:00

In Ireland (where I am) it is common to have a Christmas tree with lights on display in the living room window...it’s wonderful going past the houses and seeing them (especially when the room light is off which is common). You will then also get a house that is completely covered in lights/decorations.

Its an interesting topic this as Christmas is very un-American. Christmas was not widely celebrated in America until 1870 (it was seen as an English custom after the revolutionary war and it wasn’t celebrated by many including g.washington). It has always been a public holiday in England and Ireland, but only became a federal holiday in the US in 1870. Thanksgiving (which marks Pilgrims (puritans) getting fed) is more a US custom. I find it strange they also mark Christmas a month later as the bigoted, persecuting Protestant pilgrims shunned Christmas (“catholic invention” and “rags of the beast”) and fined anyone caught celebrating it, before it was outlawed completely. The puritans in England also banned Christmas but their influence was tiny in England (puritan laws were declared null and void following the restoration in 1660) in comparison to America.

I love Christmas even more for its rebellious aspect in defying bigots. BBC article on this:

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141219-when-christmas-carols-were-banned

“During the Puritans’ rule of England, celebrating on 25 December was forbidden. Singing yuletide songs then was a political act, writes Clemency Burton-Hill.

When it comes to revolutionary protest songs, what springs to mind? Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit? Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind? Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come? I’m guessing the humble Christmas carol is probably low on your list of contenders, but in mid-17thCentury England, during the English Civil War, the singing of such things as The Holly and the Ivy would have landed you in serious trouble. Oliver Cromwell, the statesman responsible for leading the parliamentary army (and later Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland), was on a mission to cleanse the nation of its most decadent excesses. On the top of the list was Christmas and all its festive trappings.

To Cromwell and his fellow Puritans, though, singing and related Christmas festivities were not only abhorrent but sinful. According to historical sources, they viewed the celebration of Christ’s birth on 25 December as a “popish” and wasteful tradition that derived – with no biblical justification – from the Roman Catholic Church (‘Christ’s Mass’), thus threatening their core Christian beliefs. Nowhere, they argued, had God called upon mankind to celebrate Christ’s nativity in such fashion. In 1644, an Act of Parliament effectively banned the festival and in June 1647, the Long Parliament passed an ordinance confirming the abolition of the feast of Christmas.

But the voices and festive spirits of English men, women and children were not to be so easily silenced. For the nearly two decades that the ban on Christmas was in place, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ’s nativity continued to be held on 25 December, and people continued to sing in secret. Christmas carols essentially went underground – although some of those rebellious types determined to keep carols alive did so more loudly than others. On 25 December 1656, a a member of parliament in the House of Commons made clear his anger at getting little sleep the previous night because of the noise of their neighbours’ “preparations for this foolish day…” Come the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, when legislation between 1642-60 was declared null and void, both the religious and the secular elements of the Twelve Days of Christmas were allowed to be celebrated freely. And not only had the popular Christmas carols of previous eras survived triumphant but interest in them was renewed with passion and exuberance: both the 18th Century and Victorian periods were golden eras in carol-writing, producing many of the treasures that we know and love today – including O Come All Ye Faithful and God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.“

Lucy is that you?

Great Post 😍

PAFMO · 06/12/2022 05:50

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 06/12/2022 02:37

As if none of that happens in the UK? Hmm

Show quote history

Was going to say at least in the US it looks well thought out and attractive.
Any excuse to bash "the Americans" though.

PaperDoves · 06/12/2022 05:53

Indoor decorating is more or less like here. Most people (who celebrate Christmas) put up a tree, stocking, wreath, maybe a little bit more. Outside varies massively. A lot of people will do nothing or just a little bit of lights, but some people will go all out. My SIL in LA lives here a street where, legend has it, you have to agree to join in the annual street decorating before you're allowed to buy a house there. The entire street is one enormous Christmas display, set to music. It's fun to visit but I wouldn't want to live within five blocks of the place.

Movies are always imagined perfection (especially Hallmark movies). Very few people have houses that look like movie sets!

schnoodle1357 · 06/12/2022 05:55

I'm not sure if American homes really go all out with the decorations, but I love it when they do in the movies! I've been overdosing on Hallmark Christmas films while I'm washing up/ doing the laundry etc and I love the magic!

Trollsintheforest · 06/12/2022 05:59

I hope not, so much single use of plastic isn’t good for anyone. It’s like going shopping at Walmart, buy 10 items and you get them packed in 10 single bags..

Josette77 · 06/12/2022 06:01

I am in Canada and I do. I decorate my son's bedroom and mine. Even our bathrooms.

PaperDoves · 06/12/2022 06:05

Why is everyone going on about single use plastic? What decorations are you talking about? Christmas decorations are expensive and last for years, they're not plastic forks or shopping bags.

SpangoDweller · 06/12/2022 06:05

To be fair the UK does this too. The Range, B&M, Wilko, pound shops, supermarkets all stuffed with cheap and disposable plastic and electrical crap. I hate it.

ChristmasCrackler · 06/12/2022 06:06

And this is why I love MN @RLScott Thanks for that!

SpangoDweller · 06/12/2022 06:08

@PaperDoves many people buy fresh Christmas decorations and tat each year, to change the theme or to keep up with trends or whatever. A box of mixed baubles from B&M, made in a Chinese factory for pennies doesn’t break the bank.

Oblomov22 · 06/12/2022 06:08

Love the way the Americans do it. Most of my decorations are 20 years old from Costco and as it is American it explains why my hallway humongous wreath and garter have so many poinsettias. It's like this but less brash, more poinsettias. I love it, as soon as I put up my Christmas decorations, I just love it.

Do Americans really decorate .....
GabrielAgreste · 06/12/2022 06:10

My kids and I love the Christmas decoration reels on Instagram - Turtle Creek Lane is a particularly stunning example!

PaperDoves · 06/12/2022 06:16

@SpangoDweller Oh, baubles. Yes, I have some cheap ones too from when I was first getting started with my own home. Still lovingly hang them up many years later! It's true, I know some people who do a different color theme every year and post it all over social media, but most people I know have a mishmash of old ornaments from their childhood, a couple fancy baubles, hideous but much loved one their kids made in nursery, and a few filler baubles.

ChristmasCrackler · 06/12/2022 06:25

My childhood memories of Christmas (70s child) are of coming home from school as it was getting dark and seeing Christmas lights inside people's homes. To me it seems so much cosier than massive flashing displays outside.
So as a public service, we keep our Christmas tree, complete with non flashing coloured lights, in our front room window. And we keep the curtains open so people cam see it when they go by!
I haven't bought any decorations for years, but mine are getting a bit shabby now so I'm planning a few extras this year.
We do the front room and the dining room. Individuals living in the house do their bedrooms if they want to. I consider mine a Christmas-free sanctuary!

JamMakingWannaBe · 06/12/2022 06:30

I'm not sure if it's still available but have a look for "Mr Christmas" on Netflix. He's a professional Christmas home stager.

SuffolkBargeWoman · 06/12/2022 06:31

Really @Cantstandbullshit ?
You're on Mumsnet and you think misogyny is ok?????

Aussiegirl123456 · 06/12/2022 06:36

When my parents moved us to New York when I was 6, I was just overwhelmed by the decor. Everywhere. Our apartment lobby resembled Santa’s grotto and my parents (mum) even got in professional decorators for our apartment. Every room would be transformed into a ‘winter wonderland’. Dad said it looked as though a reindeer had shat glitter and baubles 🙄
In Russia, we barely decorated. Small tree in one room only with some clay decorations. This was all in the 80’s.

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