What and When Holiday Decor

What and when do you decorate for the holidays.
We usually buy the tree by the second week in Dec.Out door decorations are pretty normal,Icicle lights on the house, trees in the yard.

Start decorating after Thanksgiving. Tree is also about the send week.

Yes, same here...we can't put the tree up before the 15th or it will be a Charlie Brown Tree with no needles by Christmas. This year however...it would suit Oryanna just fine!

When I was young, my parents switched from real trees to an artificial one. I HATED it! I would never get one.

Me either...it's a real tree or NO tree!

Of course one year our tree cost us almost $1,000.00

I dont mind the clean up after the holidays. The smell of a real tree is something wonderful.
Pixie - So you had a grand tree that year ?

Not that grand! LOL DH was cutting it down w/a chain saw and didn't have his chaps on. The saw kicked back and cut his leg. Stiches, x-rays, ect..cost upwards of $1,000.

We get our tree very late so it can sit outside on the lot, bring home & put in cool garqage. One string of lights outside, wish DH would put it up while warmer, it doesn't have to be turned on. We used to hang a cone wreath on the door, but since wood was replaced by fiber-glass, no longer do so. Traditional stuff inside, especially a pair of Swedish X-mas trees on the mantel. don't like many dropping needles/

I usually hang a fresh wreath on the side of the house, & get a small, real tree for the living room, several cyclamens for inside, and maybe an amaryllis.....used to put small white lights on the porch columns, but haven't done that for a few years. One year, Boy Scouts or some group was selling pine swags, & I decorated the white board fence along the road with the swags & red ribbons.....not as ambitious anymore!

Ouch, Celeste!

$1000???!!!!! Geez.

Buying a tree is totally up to hubby. I never know what mood he'll be in. We do have 3 trees...one for the living room, a "man" tree for my son's room and a mini tree for my daughter's room
Day after Thanksgiving I do winter decor, which is basically snowmen, that will stay up to Valentine's Day then 2 weeks before Christmas I start doing my Christmas decorations which stays thru Russian Christmas(Jan 7)...once again depends on hubby when I do the tree...even though he doesn't help do the decorating anymore....geez just typing this I realize how much of a grinch he's turning into. UGH.

anyhoo... I just LOVE decorating, can't wait to start. I rotate the color scheme on the living room tree...one year silver next year gold.
Last years was gold

This was the year before

Your ornaments look like ours, many sentimental ones.

Randy will only have a real tree... I never had one until we bought the house.. love them though.. other than they are harder to decorate than the fake ones... fake ones have the branches in the right spots

True, but it's worth it.

I won't put any breakables on the real tree.... unless there is a real good branch... most of my ornaments are from my childhood from my mom.. like hand painted ones from Poland .. and more that my mom hand made... those stay in the box for me to look at ... esp with the dogs... and this year it will be mostly ones I put together with kits from oriental trading with the puppies.. THEY EAT EVERYTHING

I keep the kitties in the basement for the duration. Only Crash comes up.

don't know if Eros will still be here to see our tree... not sure when his mom is coming home .. she is not at liberty to say yet... but should be the 1st or 2nd week of dec ... YOU KNOW I am going to cry like a big ole baby... but I know just having Hope will make it easier with the decorations... right now when the two of them chase each other... they have no clue what they are running into... walls, people, table legs... all game to just run into full force... if Hope has no one to run with... it would be easier... I keep hoping that she will think Eros is too big or something and not want him... LOL... was a bad idea agreeing to keep him for her until she came home from being overseas.. how could I say no to someone fighting for our country????

So Hope will be the last? And you're keeping her?

yes... she is my crazy baby!!!.. that girl is a handful... LOL

Allison you ever see those metal display trees youuse for the heirloom ornaments.

yeah... then I have Randy to worry about... LOL

Thankfully, I have French doors to close off the living room from the airedale who sneaks in every chance he gets.....a Christmas tree is too much for him!

We have 3 cats but they are so old they dont bother the tree.
SIL usually buys it but its always too tall and last year it was a long needled one. We had to wire everything on the branches because the slippery needles made the lights and ornaments slide off.
DD will make sure to go with him this year.

A lot of people in the south use scotch pines insead of the shorter needled trees. I wonder how they keep ornaments on.

LOL at that description, JoAnn!

I like a nice Balsam or Fir. I have many handblown glass ornaments from glassblower friends. These are made from Mt.St.Helens ashes.Too big (baseball size) and heavy to hang in a tight space.

I have a Mt St. Helen's ball. It really is heavy--We don't hang it anymore.

Randy is too young to remember Mt. St. Helen's.... I was watching a documentary... made me feel old... LOL

I remember it well.

I like balsam or frasier fir.

Frasier firs are my favorite.Needles are just long enough.

My neighbor across the road worked for the CT DEP....he was sent out to fight wildfires on Mt. St. Helen's the year before she blew......

Frasiers never dry out. They last forever.

Another point in their favor.

I have ornaments on my tree that were my parents. ^_^
We used to tie the tree up when the cat was little, past experience taught me that. No need to tie up anymore, kids are grown and the animals are older.

Wow, Pixie....that brings back memories....we had to tie the tree when we had cats, too! Totally forgot that! You're lucky to have those ornaments....Doug's niece has her mother's & my DH's childhood ornaments....they are so fragile, she doesn't hang them anymore.

So glad we never had to worry about the tree with our dogs. Except once my Keeshond ate an ornament that my friend had made, it was a mini needlepoint frame filled with potpourri, she ate everything but the metal screw part.

My cats drinking the tree water isnt so bad then?

we will wait a couple weeks before decorating - still need to get the yard raked before i can think of xmass deocrations.