I suppose I'm the traditional sort, although not overly religious I suppose. I put the tree (fake) up because I can't physically cope with getting a real tree each year and decorations as late as I can get away with - the week before Xmas probably and it all comes down on New Year's Day if I feel like it. I like clearing it all away and getting ready for the new year. Interesting different points of view though.
I normally put up my outside tree the first weekend in December - bit late this year as I am not feeling too well. However, it may go up tomorrow as I have a tea party in the afternoon. My neighbours were asking me in the middle of November when was I putting it up! Having flirted over the years with real, artificial, fibre optic etc (and the ravages of passing kids knocking it over or pulling it apart)I have now settled on one of the twiggy ones - 7 ft high, multi coloured lights and outside the front of my house. As I live down a dark lane with no street lights, everyone comments on how cheery it is when they pass. Fairly traditional - go to the midnight service every year although not a churchgoer. It's all part of Christmas for me. I live on my own, no close family, spend Christmas on my own (and enjoy cooking a full Christmas dinner for myself) or get invited out by friends. Inside the house I only have a table top tree and all my cards up. I don't buy into the e-cards thing - I like them to come through the letterbox.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
We are atheists too but I do like to mark the passing of the winter solstice and OH is very soppy about Xmas trees. In all the years we spent in Belgium he did his best to have an Xmas tree up for his birthday on the 7th, pretending it was for St Nicholas on the 6th which is when Belgian kids get their big presents.
Now we're in France and Possum is older and not living here full time he has to wait. We have already bought it and stuck it in a pot of water as buying one that's been sitting in a shop with no water for weeks means even Nordmans go limp by Xmas. Ours will be up and decorated on the 20th or 21st as Possum flies home for Xmas on the 22nd.
We have a group of 3 metal obelisks which we put out the front with a garland of lights - plain white, no flashing. Don't do any other outdoor lights.
We have loads of candles about the place and this year we'll have a home-made Scandinavian thingy in the dining room - bare branches cut in different lengths and wired together in a triangle/Xmas tree shape and hung with a garland of lights and some decs. Given two dogs with waggy tails and two young cats I shall be making more tree decs from felt and beads for that and the real tree. Unbreakable.
I only do Xmas cards for close family and friends we don't see often.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Outdoor lights go up the first weekend in December if I can. Our tree is fake and I got it second hand 10 years ago from my sister who asked me to take it to the tip for her. That will go up next week sometime. My wife has already decorated my crassula ovata which is tree sized now. Generally we start decorating when the advent calendars go up. We both have refillable ones but I'm yet to get one large enough to fit 24 beers in it Xmas is about brightening up a dark and wet month for us so we do whatever works for us. It's my least favourite month as I always have a ton of work to clear before the xmas shutdown and have no free time to do fun stuff. I'd rather have no time off for xmas and save it up for the spring when I can be outside more to enjoy it.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I refuse to countenance anything festive until December, much to the chagrin of my children, who insist on taunting me with Mariah Carey etc from Halloween onwards...
But happy to get a bit Christmassy from now on. The tree goes up a week or so before the 25th, sometimes two weeks depending on when the weekends fall. No earlier. Decorations elsewhere in the house at around the same time.
Wildeges, you do know that lots of these exist, don't you? You can even get empty ones to fill yourself, but they're rather expensive for what is essentially a cardboard box.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Youngest son's birthday on 11th so tree never goes up until after. He's 41 this year but we still stick to that. If left to OH wouldn't bother but it does brighten a gloomy time of year and when its over it feels like nearly spring.
No outside lights, cannot stand the light pollution, I live away from streetlights for a reason! Our neighbor has a large tree lit up outside every year, but it's 100m away behind our barn so we can't see it. There is a house just down the road from me that spells out God Jul (equivalent of merry Christmas) on it's roof. as we are right next to the trainline and my middle barns roof is perpendicular to it and old rusty iron (so I don't care about scratches) I have considered it, but never gotten round to it.
I have not decorated for Christmas in 10 years? not since I left Uni we're never normally home so what's the point, but this year we are home so I'll see what I can do, been looking for greenery but I found one tiny holy bush that it would just be mean to cut, and no ivy there's a couple of people in the village selling Christmas trees so I'll go down to one of them and pick one, it will at least be fresh!
There's acres and acres of Christmas trees grown up here, some of you will probably have one!
Two of the three people in my house are Christians so Christmas isn't a big deal for us, as we rejoice all year round about our saviour's coming. No-one knows the date Jesus was born, the Bible doesn't say, and most traditions have a midwinter festival. We don't put up decorations (you can't eat them!) just hang the cards round the room as they arrive. We're all pensioners so we've got everything we need and are impossible to choose presents for, except me. Money to spend on the garden is always acceptable!
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Fairly traditional - go to the midnight service every year although not a churchgoer. It's all part of Christmas for me. I live on my own, no close family, spend Christmas on my own (and enjoy cooking a full Christmas dinner for myself) or get invited out by friends. Inside the house I only have a table top tree and all my cards up. I don't buy into the e-cards thing - I like them to come through the letterbox.
Now we're in France and Possum is older and not living here full time he has to wait. We have already bought it and stuck it in a pot of water as buying one that's been sitting in a shop with no water for weeks means even Nordmans go limp by Xmas. Ours will be up and decorated on the 20th or 21st as Possum flies home for Xmas on the 22nd.
We have a group of 3 metal obelisks which we put out the front with a garland of lights - plain white, no flashing. Don't do any other outdoor lights.
We have loads of candles about the place and this year we'll have a home-made Scandinavian thingy in the dining room - bare branches cut in different lengths and wired together in a triangle/Xmas tree shape and hung with a garland of lights and some decs. Given two dogs with waggy tails and two young cats I shall be making more tree decs from felt and beads for that and the real tree. Unbreakable.
I only do Xmas cards for close family and friends we don't see often.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
But happy to get a bit Christmassy from now on. The tree goes up a week or so before the 25th, sometimes two weeks depending on when the weekends fall. No earlier. Decorations elsewhere in the house at around the same time.
Wildeges, you do know that lots of these exist, don't you? You can even get empty ones to fill yourself, but they're rather expensive for what is essentially a cardboard box.
But we do light the trees out side the Lounge, Dining room and Study and the one by the road.
Christmas cards go up as they arrive and that's about it. usually have a house full from Christmas eve till new year. 10 is the count so far
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog