s/o when do you put up and take down Holiday decorations?

[lavenderblue]

I host Thanksgiving and my house is always decorated for Autumn so I leave that up until Thanksgiving. I don't usually shop on Black Friday so I start decorating then and we do a big family trip to the farm that Saturday to cut down our Christmas Tree. I always leave Christmas up until at least the Epiphany, but it usually stays up a bit longer than that because it's pretty, though I'll take the live tree down sooner if it starts dropping too many needles.

[hermione]

We decorate for Christmas outside any nice day in November that we have time. We always do the tree and the inside the day after Thanksgiving. I love it all but on December 26th I am ready for it to be done so we usually take down sometime the week after Christmas.

[penelope]

I usually leave all of my fall decorations up until Thanksgiving, then on Friday pull out all the Christmas stuff. After New Year's, actual Christmas stuff comes down but I leave out a lot winter decorations. So snowmen, greenery, pinecones, etc. all stay out. I like the coziness of it through January, February and March (we are lucky to get spring here by May...) Then around Easter-ish that all goes away and I have normal household decor until fall comes around again.

I'm not cooking for Thanksgiving this year and I am leaving town on Friday with future daughter in law to wedding dress shop so this year my fall items are going away tonight and Christmas stuff is going up this week. It should all be up before Thanksgiving.

[JayhawkGirl]

I used to stay right after Thanksgiving but with Thanksgiving so late this year I am doing it now. Our son’s birthday is this coming Thursday, and I also used to say never before his birthday… Then I had a December 12 baby so we just go ahead and set up whenever I get the whimsy and we have the time :-)

I will have to keep some stuff back - I put some decorations on a buffet that we will need for Thanksgiving dinner, and I usually put some decorations on our dining room table since we don’t really use it except for Thanksgiving 😂

[janegold]

I like decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving but we are going away that weekend and are busy all the following weekend, so we actually started this weekend and will hopefully finish next weekend.

I take them down the first or second weekend of January.

[Susie]

I take a phased approach because frankly I can't do it all at once.

End of DST - Candles in the windows go up, so I don't have to come home to a dark house
Black Friday - Christmas decos come out over the course of post-Thanksgiving weekend
Early Dec - live tree goes up
...
Early Jan - Tree comes down
Winter - rest of the decos eventually make their way down little by little
DST begins - candles come out of the windows if not sooner

[abs]

Whenever we have a free day in November. This year that was on Election Day. Good thing the pretty lights have been soothing.

Weekends in November and December are generally jam packed with band and holiday stuff so we just do it whenever we can.

[circa1978]

Growing up, our tree went up as close to St Nicholas Day as feasible (often the weekend before or after) and stayed up until Epiphany. I follow roughly the same schedule but never up before December or down before January. I only really decorate for DH (who loves Christmas) and DS13, though. I find the holidays hard in general and having them start in like September in stores and October in media is really unpleasant for me personally.

(I do like lights though, because SAD.)

[dexteroni]

Nov 18, 2024 9:48:14 GMT -5 lavenderblue said:

I host Thanksgiving and my house is always decorated for Autumn so I leave that up until Thanksgiving. I don't usually shop on Black Friday so I start decorating then

Same. We usually host too, so I want it to feel like Thanksgiving, not Christmas. I would decorate on Friday, but we usually have overnight guests so I start on Saturday or whenever they leave. Maybe I should start putting them to work though. lol.

I leave everything up until after New Years. I don’t have a set date when I start to take it down, just any day after New Year’s Day that’s convenient.

I hate how taking down Christmas makes the house look so bare, so a few years ago I started looking out for winter decor. So now I have some white, silver, and woodsy type stuff that I put out after Christmas, some of which lights up to help the house continue to feel cozy. And I keep our window candles up all winter, usually until the spring time change.

[ssmjlm]

We usually do inside and outside mid-Nov/before Thanksgiving. Outside usually happens when the weather works out and it does take a good couple days to get everything up, so we want to enjoy it.

E always puts her tree up pretty soon after Halloween and will leave it up into January.

Everything is usually down the first weekend in January.

[CrazyLucky]

We always put decorations up during Thanksgiving weekend. I feel like a lot of people are putting decorations up earlier this year and I get that because we could all use a little joy! We wait until Epiphany to take them down.

[leahcar]

We decorate Black Friday and that weekend. We live in a warm place so weather rarely impacts our outside decorating.

I try to get everything down before my school teacher husband goes back to work in early January. That varies wildly though; we are often still finishing the inside stuff over MLK weekend.

[dexteroni]

Nov 18, 2024 10:03:37 GMT -5 abs said:

Whenever we have a free day in November. This year that was on Election Day. Good thing the pretty lights have been soothing

omg I bet. I don’t decorate that early, but browsing Christmas stuff in stores has definitely been a nice distraction.

[moreace01]

I'm outside of Chicago so I tend to want to put up outside decorations before I need to use gloves - it's just easier. Some lights went up this past weekend - more will go up this week.

The tree generally goes up after thanksgiving.

I've decided this year that the outside lights are staying up till at least MLK day. Maybe I'll take them down when it's not totally frigid out.

[beerlover]

We get home from traveling for Thanksgiving on the evening of Black Friday. Sometimes we'll start then, but typically we'll do the bulk of the decorating on Saturday. Our decorations stay up through Epiphany (Jan 6) or usually whatever weekend comes after that.

[wildrice]

We usually do Thanksgiving weekend, or ASAP after that if we are traveling. I have never put them up before Thanksgiving. This year, we are getting back to town the Saturday after Thanksgiving so my plan is to put them up on Sunday. We do not have lights on our house - if we did, I might want to do those earlier just to spread out the work a bit more.

Usually I just take them down when I'm sick of them! It's typically after new years but I don't think we've made it to mid-January. At some point, they start to feel depressing because Christmas is over and it's just a reminder that you no longer have something fun to look forward to!

[expectantsteelerfan]

I start the day after thanksgiving, and it usually takes me a week or so to get everything out and all the bins put back away.

I understand people wanting to find joy where they can and esp. with thanksgiving being late this year, decorating early this year, but I am also ready to be done on dec. 26 (though I wait till jan. 1 to put away) and my kids are very annoyed with all the early decorations, so we won't be decorating early. Although my dh is randomly off work this week and is already annoying me with having nothing to do, so maybe I should task him with putting up the outside decorations even if we don't turn them on...

[fernweh]

I usually put them up the day after Thanksgiving and take them down on New Years Eve/Day.

I think this year I will put up decor next weekend though since Thanksgiving is so late and seeing other people’s decor out is making me happy.

[starburst604]

I start the weekend after Thanksgiving with the home decor and since I do a real tree I don't get that until a week or so later. I usually take it all down on New Year's Day. I like having the festive stuff up through the new year.

[nicolewi]

I used to decorate Thanksgiving weekend, and but we do a lot for Christmas and it’s a big job now so I’ve been starting earlier and earlier. This year, with Thanksgiving, being so late, and also us being out of town part of the weekend, which usually never happens, I’m planning to do our indoor decorations next weekend, except for trees.

We did outdoor decorations mostly yesterday because that is somewhat weather dependent.

We will get our trees the week or weekend after Thanksgiving. Hopefully we will actually get them up Dec 7/8 weekend.

I always leave everything up until at least Epiphany. Usually we have family events all through late December, and I’m not even ready to take anything down before then. I feel like I finally have time to relax and enjoy the lights. Also we usually have a family birthday party for her kids the first Friday after New Year’s, so it’s easier just to leave everything up and have a house still looking pretty.

Usually decorations come down in phases also. Usually the tree doesn’t come down until mid January.

I also @dextetoni don’t like how bear the house looks after Christmas comes down, so I have added more “winter decorations to keep it a little more cozy.

[timorousbeastie]

I used to have a strict rule of no Christmas anything until after Thanksgiving, and everything taken down by early January. But that first COVID Christmas season broke me, so now decorations can go up after my birthday (first week of November) and come down after DD’s birthday (first week of February). DD likes having her bday presents under the tree, so it stays up until then.

[lindyanne]

Up - the weekend after Thanksgiving. We are gone a little bit later this year so I might get the tree out and set it up before we leave.
Down - before NYE usually. A few years ago we started traveling over winter break and we still had a real tree so we took it down the day after Christmas. Last year we got a fake tree because we hadn’t been able to get a big enough real tree for a few years. I will probably leave it up until after we get back this year. Or I’ll be sick of it and tear it all down again.

[rosiebear]

Halloween: October 1
Thanksgiving/general Fall: November 1
Christmas: December 1

Now that you asked the question, I detect a pattern, lol.

[circa1978]

I do have to appreciate that of all the things I've abandoned about Catholicism, Epiphany is my line in the sand.

[CurlyQ284]

I decorate for fall before my birthday, mid August. I add in Halloween stuff late Sept/early October. That all comes down first weekend after Halloween and then Christmas goes up. Christmas comes down at different times depending on vibes lol. Some years I want to deep clean and refresh for the new year so it'll come down before NYE, some years I want it to stay and it comes down mid-January.

[candreco]

Day after Thanksgiving for most of the Christmas stuff since we generally host. We usually get the tree sometime the first week of December and decorate it the next evening.

Depending on how much we've been home, how the tree is doing, when the cleaners are coming, everything comes down sometime between Dec 31 and Jan 6.

[lavenderblue]

Nov 18, 2024 10:55:44 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

I do have to appreciate that of all the things I've abandoned about Catholicism, Epiphany is my line in the sand.

Haha! Same. 

[glitzy07]

We usually decorate sometime the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then take everything down on January 1. We host both Thanksgiving and a NYE party, but by Jan 1 I'm ready for a fresh start and no clutter.

[rachers]

Usually after Thanksgiving but we’re traveling so we’re slowly putting things up my. My DD’s little tree went up last night. H will put up lights and outdoor this week or early next.

We usually take down after NYE. I have SO much stuff out so I actually look forward to putting it all away.

[dexteroni]

Nov 18, 2024 10:55:44 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

I do have to appreciate that of all the things I've abandoned about Catholicism, Epiphany is my line in the sand.

lol. Mine is meat on Fridays during Lent.