When Is the Right Time to Start Putting Up Christmas Decorations?
I know, "'Tis the season!" But when does "the season" start?
I have a few friends that start putting up Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween. Which is RIDICULOUS to me. You do know there's a holiday between Halloween and Christmas, right?
So my vote is: Day after Halloween? WAY too soon.
I also know some people that put up their tree on the 22nd or 23rd of December. That is WAY too late!!! Christmas is already here! What's the point in putting it all up only to take it down a week later? (Or maybe you're one of those weird people that keeps your tree up until March....)
My family likes to celebrate the holidays IN ORDER. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. NO decorations go up BEFORE Thanksgiving. In fact, we kind of have a system in our family and it goes like this:
Thanksgiving Night:
-We eat Thanksgiving dinner and watch football.
-After we rest from eating way too much, we make Black Friday plans. Cut all the coupons out, make a list of all the store openings, go through all the kids Christmas lists and see who wants what and where it's going to be on sale. (Because you show up to Thanksgiving dinner with a Christmas list, or you're getting fuzzy socks for Christmas and that's it.)
-After Black Friday plans are made, we go home and nap. (If store opening times allow us to.)
Black Friday:
-Most of the the family goes out and prepares for battle in the wee hours of the morning. Some of us stay behind and start putting up ALL the Christmas decorations. Tree, ornaments, stockings, figurines, nativity sets, tinsel, the works. That way, when the shoppers come home, we can immediately wrap all the gifts and put them under the tree.
-Clean up.
-Pass out from exhaustion and sleep for 2 days.
When it comes to outside decorations, I'm on the fence about when to put those up. My family doesn't really do 'holiday lights on the house'. We're more of a "Look at this cute giant plastic Santa! He lights up and we can put him on the porch!" If you have one of those things, I say hold off until at least the day after Thanksgiving. It's weird showing up to Thanksgiving dinner and already having Santa there to greet you on the porch...Wait your turn, you jolly ol' bastard.
If you do have lights you put on your house, I say it's okay to put them up in November, so that you can put them up without freezing your appendages off. But don't turn them on yet. That's just my opinion. It just makes me feel weird when I'm driving around in November and I see these Christmas lights lit up on houses. Thanksgiving is FIRST. BEFORE Christmas. Let me have my food holiday before you start celebrating your presents holiday!!! Let Thanksgiving have it's 15 seconds of tryptophan fame before you start shoving your holly jolliness in my face! (I just have a lot of feelings about Thanksgiving, okay?)
And, try not to go too overboard with the lights...