Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We decorate the house differently for each season recognizing five 'seasons' instead of four: Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Christmas.
We keep a live tree in the house, usually a variety of a dwarf pine. It's kept potted for about 4 years until it gets too big. Then we plant it outdoors and start with another small one. (Last time we used a Norfolk Pine, which unfortunately could not endure the harsh New Jersey winter outdoors. Yes, it died.)
UP — Decorations go on the tree (and elsewhere round the house) beginning the weekend of Thanksgiving (Saturday or Sunday) and completed by Saint Nicholas Eve (December 5). To really get the spirit moving, our household awakens to treat-filled shoes on December 6, Saint Nicholas Day.
DOWN — Decorations come down after my family's official end to the Christmas season — Three Kings Day (January 6) and/or Orthodox Christmas (January 7). By the following weekend, indicators of Christmas are gone as we're out of Christmas mode and into winter mode.
Real tree, sometime early to mid December we go out and cut one down ourselves, hopefully in the snow so the children can get the maximum complaints in about the process.
Normally about 2-3 weeks before Christmas and a real tree. So this year it'll probably be the 6th or 7th. I have a son now but even before he was here and one day in the far future when he moves out( he's only 3 lol) I'd still have a tree. It's not about just doing it for kids. I enjoy a nice tree and some christmas decor. I don't however decorate too early....that nonsense needs to stop. Santa at the Thanksgiving parade kicks off Christmas season. No decorations until the day after at the earliest
I always thought so, too, and I did have a tree before I had my daughter, but wait until you're 56. Dragging a tree from the car into the house, trying to set it up straight in the stand with no one to help, climbing up into the attic to get the lights and decorations...it's not fun, even though I'm stronger than most women and still in pretty good health. It was a pain in the ass to do the tree last year but worth it when my daughter came home from where she lived upstate NY on Christmas Eve and was thrilled to find the house looking Christmassy. There's nobody but me this year. There's also something not-happy-feeling about being alone in a house with a decorated Christmas tree.
Love real trees too. My wife's a neat freak and just about had it with the needles/daily watering so we decided to go with a fake blue spruce from a company called Balsam Hill. I have to say it's a great looking tree and it looks pretty real to me.
I'll definitely miss the smell of the fraser fir....
Love real trees too. My wife's a neat freak and just about had it with the needles/daily watering so we decided to go with a fake blue spruce from a company called Balsam Hill. I have to say it's a great looking tree and it looks pretty real to me.
I'll definitely miss the smell of the fraser fir....
I like real trees too except when you get woken up at 4am to a loud CRASH, run downstairs, water and sap EVERYWHERE and have your cat looking at you like "I didn't do anything.".
I like real trees too except when you get woken up at 4am to a loud CRASH, run downstairs, water and sap EVERYWHERE and have your cat looking at you like "I didn't do anything.".
Ha ha ha!!! I'm sure the cat was just trying to catch what (s)he thought she saw lurking in the tree. Just trying to save you from untold evils, you know.
Somewhere I have a really cute picture of one of my cats peeking out from deep within the branches. All you can see are his eyes!
Always a real tree, always cut on a tree farm, always with the same saw. It's a tradition that stretches back to my grandparents at least and now I'm handing it down to my kids. We even got to go in the snow last year We put ours up about two weeks before Christmas Day and take it down as part of the New Year's Day festivities.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We put ours up about two weeks before Christmas Day and take it down as part of the New Year's Day festivities.
