The Christmas decorations don't go up until 2 weeks or so before Christmas. But the Christmas prep (I'm a crafter - every year my family gets new homemade ornaments and usually something knit, my partner is a florist so our wrapping paper has to have a "scheme" so all the packages match and are pretty, we make homemade baskets for everyone every year and those have to be planned, and our holiday card list is ridiculously long) has already started. Otherwise I'd never have time to get it done!
Side question - do your holiday decorations have a theme? Again, florist partner - our tree decorations are all silver, ice blue, and white. Is your tree a mixed collection of different colors, ornaments, (like the one I grew up with)etc, or is it themed?
Height: Tall enough for my feet to reach the ground
I usually decorate the Friday right after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) since I dont dare go to the stores. But this year I am not going to decorate much...just not in the festive mood. So who knows if the tree will even get put up this year.
Time depending, I usually decorate between 10 days and the w/e before Xmas, and leave them up until January 6 or so. We use a fake tree, real ones are just too much a pain in the butt to keep watered and keep straight, and the ornaments are just a mish-mosh of stuff we've bought over the years, no matchy-matchy themes.
I consider Christmas decorations fair game the day after Thanksgiving. It takes so much time to get everything decorated, I want to enjoy it for a while! (I have to admit, I have 2 things out already that I just bought!)
My trees have themes of a sort also. I have a small (3 feet I think) one in the kitchen that is in red and greens, rustic to traditional decorations. The tree in the living room is decorated in whites, silvers and golds. Most of those ornaments are more on the elegant side. I've done artificial trees for the last few years.
I like to collect Christmas ornaments from vacation spots for our (fake) tree. It started the year I had a bunch of seashells from the family summer vaca, and my DH loves to use his dremmel tool to drill little holes into things. I slip a red ribbon thru the hole, and hang it! This year, we'll have some pesos and British coins to add...(went on a cruise this past Feb).
But it ain't Christmas in my house till I fire up Smokin' Santa. He's an 8-inch tall, poly-resin hollow statue of an old Santa Claus standing in a long robe, holding a pipe. You light a piece of cone incense and put it in the base, and then put Santa over it. He has his mouth open, so the smoke comes curling out.
I don't do any of this before mid-December. I want to keep it special. I was dissappointed to see that my local mall was putting up last year's tired decorations up before Halloween. I'm already tired of them.
I usually do it around Thanksgiving. For some people, it may be an issue of doing it when they can find the time. Maybe they're out of town on Thanksgiving, or going to be too busy from that point, that getting it up is the main priority right now.
My parents are and always have been Christmas fanatics. Dad will be 90 the day after Thanksgiving and for all of my 52 years, Christmas was such a special and magical time. I have taken the traditions to our family and in the 30 years dh and I have been married, have accumulated quite a bit of decorations for the big day. We always plan to start the day after Thanksgiving, but usually end up cleaning the house really good that Fri. and Sat. and start decorating that Sunday. We don't finish until the next weekend usually. We leave everything up until Jan. 6 for the Feast of the Epiphany. When we used to get a real tree, that would have to come down earlier due to the dryness and fire hazard. With my rowdy 9 and 10 year old boys, we don't do fire hazards anymore - so the artificial tree it is, but still beautiful.
We usually decorate for Christmas the friday after Thanksgiving, if I don't have to work.
We will be playing our TransSiberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD's non-stop...with a lot of traditional Christmas CD's in the mix. Loving every minute of it!
We always have a theme...same one each year...the birth of Jesus
Our family puts Christ in Christmas before everything else....the presents...the tree...the parties. We do enjoy the season, we do celebrate and give gifts...but we do try to focus on the gift we were given the day of Christ's birth.
Oh yea I usually take down the outside decorations and Angie usually takes down the inside decorations on Jan. 1....unless my USC TROJANS are on TV....then NOBODY...and I mean NOBODY moves in front of my TV....NOBODY...not even Angie....unless...of course she wants to...wink
I start as soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers are in the fridge
I used to hate the holidays. My family sucks at them otherwise I was just alone (which was sometimes the better scenario). But as cheesy as it sounds, since DF and I have been together (3 years), it is my favorite time of year. I guess it's just my opportunity to "redo" and I've really gotten into it. DF is a real Clark Griswold type himself as well.
The most sickening thing is that the day after Halloween I went on an iTunes binge and downloaded $40 worth of Christmas music Eartha Kitt, Brenda Lee, Sinatra, Crosby, all the greats.
We usually decorate for Christmas the friday after Thanksgiving, if I don't have to work.
We will be playing our TransSiberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD's non-stop...with a lot of traditional Christmas CD's in the mix. Loving every minute of it!
We always have a theme...same one each year...the birth of Jesus
Our family puts Christ in Christmas before everything else....the presents...the tree...the parties. We do enjoy the season, we do celebrate and give gifts...but we do try to focus on the gift we were given the day of Christ's birth.
Now does Neil Diamond have a Christmas album is the real question...
...................
The most sickening thing is that the day after Halloween I went on an iTunes binge and downloaded $40 worth of Christmas music Eartha Kitt, Brenda Lee, Sinatra, Crosby, all the greats.
Sick and wrong.
JEN I probably could have copied that for you for free off my CD's
decorate for Christmas the friday after 
Thanksgiving, if I don't have to work.
presents...the 
tree...the 
parties. We do enjoy the season, we do celebrate and give gifts...but we do try to focus on the gift we were given the day of Christ's birth.
Eartha Kitt, Brenda Lee, Sinatra, Crosby, all the greats. 
