The Christmas Thread 🎄

lilpotatomama

Anyone have decorations up yet? 

MRDCle

Hoping to do some this weekend. That's only if my husband will bring the stuff upstairs for me. 

lilpotatomama

Our tree is up, just needs the garland, ornaments, etc. We really wanted a new tree this year, but the one we’ve used the past 3 years is still perfectly good. We also hung up our stockings and I can’t wait to get the baby’s monogrammed once we know the sex! I’m also trying to figure out easy/affordable ways to decorate the rest of the place without breaking the bank or my back. 

blueberrymomma

DH is super excited because I got one of those automatic light displays on clearance last year so he doesn’t have to hang as many lights. My rule for after thanksgiving is no men(DH and Dad) are allowed to go hunting before my tree is carried upstairs. 

mermaidca

I think I'll put mine up this weekend.  Hanukkah starts on the 2nd and I always combine Xmas/Hanukkah decorations because there aren't a ton of Hanukkah decorations to be had.  I grew up Catholic so the tree is more tradition than anything, I call it the Hanukkah bush and decorate it with blue and white.

mrstmoose

We put ours up on Friday. I make DH fluff the tree on Thanksgiving night. I get irate when the damn tree pokes me too much and makes me bleed. I start out helping. Then about 5 minutes in I get pissed and sit down and watch a Christmas movie.

HGRich

I prefer to do it after thanksgiving so the plan is this weekend. I’m excited to have them up. I’ve also made myself hold off on music and movies so it’ll be nice to start getting into the Christmas spirit with them too. 

I also have zero Christmas shopping done. Yikes. 

HGRich

@mrstmoose I hate that too! And especially in winter when my skin is dry and more likely to bleed. I started using gloves to fluff the tree but it still pokes my arms. 

gollygeeitsamy

I put up some decor on Sunday since we are going to be super busy from now on each weekend.  We'll try to get some lights up outside this weekend around visiting family.  We do a real tree so I won't put that up till December. I got out the Little People nativity for my daughter to play with and her Christmas books so I'm starting to get into the spirit. 

thatbaintforbetty

I bought a tree yesterday, cause Target is having a sale, lol.

It wasn't supposed to go up till December but DH put it together last night so it'll probably be "up" in the next couple of days.

I don't actually have any other Christmas decorations because i'm a scrooge, but i think DH will probably try to talk me into some this year. He'll probably recruit DD to help him convince me.

harveyisaboysname

I put on my pb grinch sheets today. Does that count  it’s too cold not to be sleeping on warm cozy sheets. 

kaitykins

We will put lights on the house but are going to visit both my parents (NY )and my in-laws (MN) from the 11-27 this dec. so no tree for us. We will bring out the nativity set and my dd nativity set after thanksgiving. And do the outside lights on Saturday afternoon most likely.
  

Bringmemylongswordho

We put up and decorate the tree together on Black Friday. 

kosmo86

We put up our outside decorations this weekend and we always put up our tree on Thanksgiving but I am a little ansy and want to do it now lol 

lovemaddux

We have a few decorations up and my son has his mini tree up. I’m trying hard to wait for Friday to finish everything else. It’s so exciting when you have kids. He’s so happy and excited, really brings the Christmas spirit out. 

blueberrymomma

@lovemaddux I 100% agree that kids make Christmas time magical again. I love watching their pure joy and excited over even the little things 

kristenhk

We usually put our tree and decorations up the first weekend in December cause that's the earliest DH won't complain about it being too early  .  

lilpotatomama

We bought this tree at Walmart in 2015 for $35 dollars, and he’s held up pretty well! I think we’ll finally “upgrade” next year for baby’s first Christmas. 

kristenhk

@lilpotatomama that looks so good!  

Kateriee

I will be putting up decorations and the tree tomorrow. DH is out of town for awhile so my sister in law is watching my 18 month old daughter while I do that and clean.. maybe even get a nap in. I bought a new tree this year and it's so pretty.

lyse01

@Kateriee that’s the way to do it - with babysitting!

angelob88

Hoping to take down decorations from fall on Saturday and use the rest of that day to clean before bringing out the Christmas stuff on Sunday. First year in a new house so I'm unsure if DH will get ambitious enough to hang lights outside. 

tmblickley

Our Christmas train is up and already carrying various fisher-price farm animals

kaitykins

Our little cabin in the redwoods got all decked out today.

kaitykins

Also my dd in her Christmas pjs hugging her “baby Santa” (a random Santa statue from Michaels we got as a promotion) she is thrilled because they match. 

HGRich

We put our tree up last night. DD enjoyed helping by running off the ornaments I was trying to hang. So far she’s mostly left it alone. It’s nice to have it glowing this morning as we are getting hit by a winter storm. Cozy. 

rennie1108

@kbirchtree the house looks great! And your DD is adorable!
We got back home last night to measurable snow.....so putting up our xmas lights may or may not happen this year. We are also getting our kitchen floors redone starting tomorrow so we've got shit from our kitchen everywhere except in the kitchen. I'm hoping to do tree and decorations next weekend. 

lyse01

So, I was reading a magazine that was asking readers about special Christmas traditions. One reader did themed trees, so a 2-foot tree in her kitchen would have Christmas cookie cutters and such on it. I quite liked the idea, though I have nowhere near enough space or money for multiple trees. I might bulk up my ornaments by putting up the cookie cutters though!

kangstadt

We don't have any decorations up yet, but a tradition I've tried to start since dating my DH is that every Christmas I make a new ornament for our tree that is relevant to what happened that year for us.  I have one from when we first started dating, one from when DS was born, a key for when we bought our house, and this year I'm planning on putting an ultrasound of this LO in an ornament.

I'm loving all the beautiful decorations!  We may have to get our tree earlier this year so we can enjoy it longer.

blueberrymomma

@kangstadt that is an adorable tradition of making sentimental ornaments. We get new ornaments every year since I was a kid. Now mine are family ones but I get a new ornament for each kid and now DD picks out her own. Hoping to get to Bronners (a giant Christmas store) soon.
Here’s my snowman tree, most of the ornaments are snowmen too. And DD with her litttle tree 

s_montgomery

@lyse01 One of my friends has a tree in each bedroom- each member of the house has his and her own tree so they can decorate it as they want and put it up and take it down when they want to- and one tree in their living room that has a specific color scheme and is not to be decorated with personal or sentimental ornaments. It works for them. One tree in the house is enough for me.
DH and I alternate which family we see for Christmas. His parents are close and mine are far. On years that we see my family we don't decorate our house. So this year we'll have no tree or decorations, except for a wreath maybe. We helped decorate his parents house for Christmas on Saturday.

tumblefluff

DS1 and I put our tree up on Saturday. It’s been too cold out to do lights but this week is supposed to warm up so maybe this week.

angelob88

I did not get any of my decorating done this weekend. Instead I raked leaves and threw out the pumpkins/gourds. DH is off and with me opening today there is time to get a tree tonight! Yay for being able to set it up and get some feeling of the holidays into our house! Now to just switch out my fall candles/scents with Christmas ones and then the house will smell like Christmas too.

lyse01

@angelob88 I’m outsourcing the pumpkin chore because someone in my town is willing to pick them up for her chicken flock. Score!

lyse01

@mighty_montgomery oh wow. Yeah, I have a general preference for reflective ornaments (glass/glitter/metallic) but I also love that my preschool crafts are still on my parents’ tree thirty years later. I could never restrict a tree so severely. I do like the idea that each person gets to decorate - or not - at their own pace. That was a frequent source of tension in our house, with one parent ready to decorate on Christmas Eve and take down on Boxing Day and the other happy for an extended Yule season.

snowhite12

Everyones trees are so pretty! 

H and I did a lot of traveling before we had kids and when our oldest was small/easily portable so we would pick up a ornament every new place we went. The rest of the ornaments are mostly handmade by my kids so our tree is very "scattered" looking lol.
So far, we have all indoor decorations up, our tree is up but not decorated yet and we still have the outside lights to put up.
However, i did 90% of my Christmas shopping over black Friday/cyber Monday! woot woot!

lyse01

Tabletop tree is up! Also garland, though it’s really only over doorways and windows...half the chair rail is undecorated 🤷‍♀️

Kissing balls were dropped off by MIL who disagrees with the choice not to decorate the rental in Santa and Jesus, but compromised with seasonal greens when we reminded her that our guests could be celebrating any of like 20 other religious holidays this month.

Still need candles for all 33 windows (preferably with difficult to break bulbs and light sensing, battery operated). All of mine are currently missing. Also still need tins of cookies ...but I did pull out the cookie cutters today!

lilpotatomama

I’m so jealous of yall’s decorations 😭 we just have our tree, stockings, and a few other items here and there. I didn’t feel like I could justify doing more this year. But we plan on doing tons of cute stuff for baby’s first Christmas next year! 

kangstadt

At my parents house, the tradition has always been to decorate the tree on Christmas eve.  For our own house, DH likes to decorate as soon as we get a tree, so we will hang ornaments tonight.  I'll post a picture when it's done! DS is so excited for the holidays this year, I love it .

phoenix92885

We put up an old tree already on its last limbs the first week of December but my mischievous little kitten has already destroyed it. (He's lucky he's cute.) So we bought a new tree today and some different things to sprinkle around it in an attempt to keep the animals out of it. We will see if that actually works or if this was a giant waste of money but I know a kitten that's going to be sleeping in the garage when this new one goes up. 

kangstadt

May need an extra set of lights, but I love how all of our ornaments have a memory and history to them.  I've tried to make an ornament each year we've been together that is related to a life event that happened that year.  Last year was our engagement and I forgot to make one, so DH suggested hanging up my promise rings (and joked that they're the most expensive ornament on the tree).  This year I'll probably put an ultrasound picture in an ornament for LO2.