Festive traditions and when to put the decs up

[Lottiefranks]

I’d love to know when everyone puts their tree/christmas decs up. I love, LOVE Christmas and I’m thinking to put my tree up around the 21st November.

I’d also love to know what your family traditions are that differ from the ‘norm’ my children are 2 and 4, so any suggestions for simple traditions they may enjoy would be great. We have a couple already, such as a Christmas Eve walk, 1st of December box which I put their advents, Christmas jumpers and some crafts in.

What’s everyone’s festive plans? X

It’s my daughter’s birthday end of November, so will keep putting up the Christmas stuff till after this, as don’t want it to blur into one for her. I’m very much a decorations down the day after Boxing Day kind of person though! Booked a few Christmas things for November such as their Christmas picture and a reindeer meeting, so will start to get into the spirit of it already

Whenever we get a warmish, windless day from now onward, I'll get the ladders out and put up the gable lights, but they won't be switched on until the 20th December.

DS is home from uni on the 12th December and likes to decorate the tree. I'll do the rest of the decorations that weekend.

For 2 and 4, you could make one paper decoration each and write their age and the year on the back. Keep them with the decorations so next year they can find their old ones before making another. A little collection that grows with them, without needing to plan something for every day of December.

When I was a kid, decorations went up Xmas Eve. I think that’s the tradition. Seems to have got earlier and earlier. Probably driven by retail.

I like to put a wreath on the door on 1st December but leave the rest until mid month. Otherwise I get tired of it.

When I was a child, we used to play a game of "listen out for the sleigh" on Christmas Eve, when it was dark outside. We all wrapped up warm in our winter coats, gloves, boots and hats, went into the back garden; and my brother and I were blindfolded.

After we had been spun round, we were told to keep very silent, and to listen out for the sleigh bells, and to point when we heard them. (It always felt like an eternity. They were actually shaken from an upstairs window, but we couldn't see that!) Then we'd hear thumps on the lawn, and were told it was presents dropped from the sleigh. When our eyes were uncovered, all the lights had been turned off so the garden was very dark, and we were given torches: we had to find the fallen presents by torchlight. We were told that we could open them the same evening. We loved this game!

Doesn't it depend on whether you put up a real tree or an artificial one? Go too soon, and have it too close to a radiator and it will have lost half its needles by Christmas

do whatever you want.

i love Xmas and decorations go up in mid to late November , we have a fake tree in the dining room and that goes up too then. The real tree goes up in the lounge in the second weekend in December , my children all loved having a small tree in their rooms too and Xmas lights etc , we do whatever we fancy, Lapland uk is booked and we are going in November ( it’s cheaper ) hogwarts in the snow in december, annual trip to imax for polar express in December , Panto is just before Xmas , we do trial run of cinnamon biscuits and mince pies for Santa in December , I have never done a Xmas Eve box , never understood that tbh,

my kids love Christmas and whilst my DH would likely rather do nothing he embraces it because he knows I love it too.

We buy a real tree in early December, but it stays outside until school/college/uni has broken up - the DC decorate it when they get home with Christmas music and hot chocolate, and there’s a big reveal when DH and I get in from work later. It goes down when school starts again.

We still have Advent calendars, Christmas stockings and “Nikolaus”, as a nod to our German heritage, but a lot of the other things we did when they were little, like Santa train, or pantomime have been outgrown.

Dd sings in a choir and plays in an orchestra, so we usually have a couple of Christmas concerts and Carol singing sessions to attend, which take up several December weekends.

What a wonderful idea!

We have lots of birthdays in October and Halloween. November Is time for fireworks bonfires enjoying autumn walks. I never feel like there is enough time between them all. I do like to slowly start Christmas early ish because it takes ages to get the decorations up and then I want to enjoy them. So latest Wed start is 1st December. But I don't want to start late November it's just a time thing. Also helpful to spread the cost of it all.

Traditions
We make sausage rolls gingerbread house and people.
We will do lego and puzzles.
Watching Christmas films.
New bauble or making something for the tree/house.
We have a firepit and do marshmallows.
A light walk.
I'd like to add in a Christmas Market at some point but not super expensive ones.
Advent calenders we have our own fabric ones that we put coins in or small things. I like seeds for my advent calender.
We do the elf. Christmas eve family box new pj's new book.
We watch the new Julia Donaldson and the gruffalo ones they always feel very Christmassy to us.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some traditions.

I am a Christmas obsessed weirdo who spends most of the year looking forward to the festive season, I really need a 365 day advent calendar. I start Christmas planning in September and our decorations always go up in early November, so, I have already begun the decorating process at home! I have also got mine and our toddler's seasonal wardrobes ready as we will be in festive-themed outfits for the rest of the year now, mostly wintry themed in November leading to full on Christmas imagery in December. I recognise this is all excessive and that I have a problem, but I have always been mad about Christmas, it just brings me so much joy and I like to drag it out as long as possible!

I don't decorate at all now but 25 years ago when dc were small the tree would go up around 15th December. And come down 2nd January.

We had very simple Xmases...no hosting or visiting family as we didn't have anyone we wanted to spend time with! We always got the train into London Xmas Eve...home by 4. A walk Xmas day morning to see the tired reindeer and we would go to friends for lunchtime drinks 12 till 2.
Never cooked a traditional dinner but they were lovely times.

Mine will be going up in few weeks. Mainly because I have a business that specialises in Christmas and December is way too busy for me to do anything else 🙈

Our first tree goes up before 'the Late late toy show' (ireland) so that is usually late November/early December.

Real tree goes up around 8th December.

Mini 3ft tree in games room is usually mid November. I actually have it out already as it was used for halloween so we might decorate it next weekend.

7yo Xmas duvet cover went on yesterday.
We really look forward to xmas and don't get sick of it or find the build up too long if we start early.

We bought a singing and dancing santa that DC want to put up soon. My youngest is 7 so realistically I only have a few more years of this level of excitement so I'm going to milk it as much as I can.

My Dsis buys them 1st Dec boxes.

My eldest now has diabetes so were going to switch to non chocolate homemade advent calendars.

We do a visit to santa with the cousins.

I'll be making the desserts for extended family with DC. We're going to pick them out later.

We always get a real tree so one tradition is visiting a local farm to choose it together then struggling to strap it to the roof of the car to drive home! We love it and do this as close to December 1st as possible so the weekend before if it’s a weekday. We decorate when we get home from the farm with Christmas music playing and mince pies.

Other traditions: new tree decoration, advent calendar and Christmas themed books on December 1st when the elf on the shelf arrives (we have done the elf for 13 years so nothing new here!). Each weekend we do something Christmas themed- cinema, light festivals, light switch ons, theatre, Santa visits with the younger two, nativity processions, brass bands, Christmas market, ice skating etc.

Christmas Eve I always make Santa Claus and snowman pancakes for breakfast and “the elves” leave their Christmas Eve boxes behind - just Christmas pjs, socks and choc coins. We always go to a crib service on Christmas Eve during the day and have hot chocolate and cream with a film before bed. Obvs also read The Night Before Christmas.

Around the 20th December, down on the 5th Jan. I like a real tree so don’t put it up too early. I’d like to wait until 24th but realistically it gets busy round the 20th.

Putting decs up early is bowing to consumerism . Christmas should start on 24th and run through first days of January. Then in liturgical terms epiphany is until early February.

I adore Christmas and think it’s worth waiting for and then savouring when it comes.

Putting decs up too early and then pulling them down on the 26th dec and going to the sales /booking summer holidays is what commercialism wants you to do.

If you’re desperate to put something up early, get an advent candle in a pretty holder and light for a little while each day.

First Sunday of advent is 29th November and the theme is hope. The idea is that it’s the dark part of the year and each day you bring a little light in.

Whether you’re religious or not (I am) it’s lovely to do Christmas in a gentle and tender way. Anticipating what’s to come.

I do it Dec 1st, as a kid it was 2 weeks before Xmas but I got in the habit of Dec 1st as I lived miles from family abd visited at Xmas, boyfriend (not husband) went to his family so we had our own festive season in our home together by having tree up.

I have a 3 year old, we bake Santa's biscuits on Christmas eve and sample them of course! It's a lovely activity, so festive and wholesome.

We buy fat balls and hang them on the tree outside like a Christmas tree, as the birds Christmas Dinner too :) he lights up doing that. I had a Christmas book beautifully illustrated as a kid and there was a scene with a pig family feeding the birds and what kind of birds ate what, always loved that so nice to recreate it a bit now I'm a mum.

We do a local tractor run too as we're rural, went from London to rural so fun to embrace how the countryside does Xmas and a big line of tractors lot up blaring Xmas tunes is so festive!

We don't do elf on the shelf or Xmas eve boxes but we watch a Xmas short like gruffly or father Christmas etc, and new Jim jams and new book.

Everything goes up on Advent (4th Sunday before Christmas) and comes down on Epiphany (January 6th) as that is the Christmas period.

We do St Nicks day on December 6th with chocolate in their shoes and a feast on the day.

'Putting decs up early is bowing to consumerism'

No.

Trees and decorates existed long before Jesus and while they have become intertwined with peoples ideas of Christmas time they are actually nothing to do with the nativity or the birth and journey at all.

The Winter celebrations with decorated trees leading up to Solstice are in the early half of December and then follow on through and up to Wassail. Christianity was moved to fit into the pre-existing holiday.

I know all that but even taking that on board, I believe the fun is in the waiting and anticipation. It is bound up in my Christian beliefs too but even if you’re insistent on having a pagan Yuletide or whatever, it’s not until the last third of December. Wassailing should also, by tradition, be after Christmas. These are old festivals for the people, we don’t have to make them all about shopping!

No one except you made it about shopping and commercialism. How is it even commercialism to put decoration you already own up?

I know when Wassail is, I celebrate it and I also said its afterwards. That was the whole point of my post, Christianity was moved a crammed in to fit into our pre-existing native traditions.

Decoration traditionally go up all throughout autumn, winter and even spring it was to lighten up the miserable dark wet cold days.

1st Dec or first weekend after. Before is too early and after there’s just too much going on. DH always said strictly 12 days before and 12 days after before we had DD. That said the stuff comes down on 1st Jan

100% agree that it’s lovely to put lights up and bring evergreen in when it’s the darkest time of year. Many religions and customs have some kind of light festival during the darkest days and quite right too.

But people putting their decs up in their houses in November is following what shops do. And it’s relatively new. I don’t so much have a problem with that (it’s absolutely non of my business and definitely prefer Christmas decs to the ghastly Halloween tat) but tearing down decs on the 26th December seems sad.

I think people, who put them up too early, are probably sick of them by then; plus the decs themselves look tired by then.

I think that it’s nice to keep Christmas going for the interim until new year and relax, make merry, take some time to do nothing in particular.

last weekend of November. It’s the earliest I can get away with as we have a real tree and it would be a bit crunchy by Christmas Day otherwise!

Ours will be going up at the end of next week.

It is early, however there is reason for the madness-

• I have annual leave next week
• Myself and DH work in retail management so we have no leave over December (also means we work weekends and due to childcare typically work “around” each other)
• Due to the chaos of work, December absolutely flies in. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t really had time to enjoy them

We do two trees- one real, one fake. The real one will be done in December for obvious reasons but being able to get the rest of the decorations done now just makes it a lot easier. For the sake of being 2 weeks early, while I have the time, it makes sense.