When do you put up your Christmas lights? (loft, condo)

[nuts2uiam]

Just thought I may as well get the premature ball rolling. The commercials have been on here in De. for at least a week, maybe 10 days, the first one was sort of an anti-Christmas-Commercial-it's-too-early-for Christmas-Commercial from Walmart.

When do you put your Christmas lights up? (assuming they are not still there from last year)
When do you turn them on?
When do you turn them off?
When do you take your tree down?
Artificial or real tree.

I will answer first since I asked.

Any warm day toward Thanksgiving.
Around Dec 10th
Little Christmas, Jan 6 is the last day
The tree will remain lit til the 6th and then ornaments will be taken off.
Real

[doctorjef]

After the 4th Sunday in Advent and down after Epiphany (Jan 6).

[Chickahominy]

I put my artificial tree up the day after Thanksgiving and I light it that night.
The outside decorations start that day also and finished up on Saturday. They get lit immediately also.
Everything is turned off and taken down on New Years Day.

[CarrieM]

I usually put decorations and tree up somewhere between the 10th and 15th of December, it's a weekend project. So this year it will be the 12th/13th. Lights get turned on at dusk the day they are put up. Everything gets turned off on January 6th, and comes down and gets put away over the next few days after that, as I have the time and energy.

We've done an artificial tree most years. Now we have a kitten, so an artificial tree is pretty much a must this year.

[EnjoyEveryDay]

We love Christmas lights, and feel it contributes to the most beautiful time of the year. Accordingly, we try to maximize the amount of time we have them on.

We turn the outside decorations on Thanksgiving night, a family tradition. Inside decorations follow within the week.

We turn off the outside lights sometime after January 1st but no later than January 6th.

We take down the inside decorations around that time as the mood (and available time) moves us. Outside lights get taken down the first warm-ish opportunity thereafter.

[DelawareLiz]

I LOVE the holiday season, and I have a massive collection of decorations. However, everything is stored in a loft in my shed (except the tree which is in my closet), and I do all the decorating all by myself. I have to plan it all out due to my work schedule. I do go all out; my neighbors talk about our house (in a good way!) every year and all the effort placed into the holiday decor.

When do you put your Christmas lights up?
Mid November. I'll start putting the outside lights and all that other jazz up on Nov. 15 (will take all day) and finish up by mid-week. I can sometimes get all the outside decor completed in one day if the lights cooperate and all work correctly. I can only hope.
I put the tree up and all the inside decor up during Thanksgiving break.

When do you turn them on?
Nov. 15 or as soon as I'm finished

When do you turn them off?
After New Year's Day

When do you take your tree down?
New Year's Day due to my work schedule (typically return to work Jan. 2) and the fact it takes me two entire days to take everything down, store it, and then clean the entire house. However, I really luck out this year (next year really) given school will be closed until Jan. 5. I'll probably leave it up until Jan. 3 because I have a race to run on Jan. 1 and won't feel like putting decorations away.

Artificial or real tree.
Artificial--husband freaks over the idea of a real tree. I invested in a really nice (expensive!!) tree six years ago, and it has served us well. I store it in our closet because it's not a good idea to store a pre-lit tree in a shed that is not climate controlled.

[nuts2uiam]

Beachliz, I am known to be practical but also known to totally lose my mind at Christmas. I do minimal decorating on the outside but inside is another story. I do every room with at least some Christmas related items. I even have the 12 days of Christmas sheets for our bed.!

Outside I usually do a lighted wreath with a spotlight on the door.

[TeddyP27]

"Black Friday" is our big cleaning and decorating day so we get all the lights up that day then go out for dinner after 4pm. We turn the lights on starting that night and will usually keep them going through New Years and aim to get the holidays "packed back up" by MLK weekend. We've generally avoided a tree since we had a small condo in Philly (the 24" table-top artificial tree... does that count?), but hope do do our first live-cut tree this year.

[doctorjef]

Also these days we use a very good artificial tree, though we did real trees for years. Our rules regarding tree lighting are different than the outdoors lights. We decorate the tree as late as practical, which is sometimes a little prior to the fourth Sunday in Advent, but we don't turn the lights on until Christmas Eve, if we are home, or otherwise as soon as we get back home after an out of town trip. We don't turn on the lights after the Epiphany (Jan 6th), but we don't usually get the tree down until a little before Feb 2nd, Candlemas (Purification of the BVM/Presentation of OLJC in the Temple), which marks the final end of the whole traditional Christmas cycle.

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

Beachliz, I am known to be practical but also known to totally lose my mind at Christmas. I do minimal decorating on the outside but inside is another story. I do every room with at least some Christmas related items. I even have the 12 days of Christmas sheets for our bed.!
.

Inside the house you sound like my wife. The LIVE Christmas tree gets put up and decorated just a few days
before Christmas and taken down right after New Years. Outside lights go up and are turned on ThanksGiving weekend. We used to do inflatables but I got tired of dealing with them constantly getting blown over. Outside lights are not turned on after New Years and taken down on a nice weekend after that.