When should you put your Christmas tree up?

As far as “troublesome pets ” go , absolutely our cat was a terror in that direction .
My wife “inherited ” some German traits from an uncle who was German and every year put up a whole village of cardboard/plastic/ small cars/people in the window /lights etc to the delight of local kids .
Our cat sat and watched this with growing anger as it was denied my wife,s lap to sit on.
On completion of the village I switched on the lights and both stood back to admire her work , it was then our cat pounced scattering a whole days work everywhere because of jealousy , my wife was not amused and I had to restore the village to its original state .

The tree ,of course , was pulled down several times by him trying to climb it , we no longer put up decorations but the memory still persists.

I am going to put one of our artificial trees up in the Conservatory today and the second one in the front window next weekend.

I hope the trees have survived the packing and the house move. The second one might be too big for our present house because we are a bit over-furnished at the moment.

Both trees will be covered in lights, not too many baubles, and perhaps just a twinkle of tinsel.

I never seem to be able to get the trees back in the boxes they came in, and the plastic boxes marketed for this purpose never seem to be quite big enough either. Any recommendations would be gratefully received.

I shall put something in the window, just to shine at night, but since it’s me that puts things up and takes them down, that will probably be it. Happy memories of making huge paper chains with the children and holding a length competition with a suitable prize. Of necessity our Christmas party, concert, carols et al occurred during school time so the last weeks of term were a good run up to Christmas itself and the children were in definite Christmas mood by the last day. It would seem that this would be a good time to begin to decorate the house, with help and as much home made finery as can be manufactured. If a tree is part of this, it is a good base to begin and chocolates can be placed among the branches with no one daring to remove any until Christmas day. My school, this year, is decorating their tree with recycled items, so mince pie cases and yogurt pots will be pressed into shapely service and lovingly painted and glittered. Father Christmas will make his usual visit and we shall learn all about Jesus once more and twist the Nativity story yet again to include as many extras as will fit in the montage. More home made costumes from the recycle heap. So, to answer your question, George, if there are children involved, begin when they are available to help. If not, decide what is appropriate – flying Santas and flashing sleighs over the roof tops, or a modest candle in the window, – but (in my opinion) a fortnight before is early enough to break in the festive season without killing it off by over exposure.

More to the point in a consumer context is when Christmas trees in public places, particularly in shops and shopping centres, should go up. I think there should be a ban on Christmas decorations before 1st December. Christmas is not a commercial event, but a religious event. I’m fed up with seeing Christmas trees in November and other types of Christmas decorations as early as September.

And the other thing that really irritates me is phrases like “the holiday season“. To most people, this means the summer, when most people go on holiday, not December when we celebrate Christmas, which can be referred to secularly as “the festive season“.

I don’t put up the Christmas tree until about a week before the day, and am always away visiting family in the highlands of Scotland, so I don’t bother with a real tree. A friend comes round to help decorate the tree. The tree was bought for my previous home and is a bit to big for the bay window of my present house. I will try and find a smaller tree for next year and hopefully that will be easier to put in the loft, which does not have a large hatch. I leave the lights on a timer when I’m away over the Christmas and New Year period and one of the first jobs is to take down the tree when I return home.

I don’t see any point in having Christmas decorations in November.

NFH ,can you point to any advertising media on UK TV where there is –
hymn singing – views inside a church/chapel / Nativity displays- Jesus Christ -Christmas carols like -Holy Night -Nowell-Nowell etc ?
The Humanist Society has much to say at this time of the year and BBC policy on religious programmes making a fool of the Christian religion while keeping their lips tight shut on two others I could name ?
Our national religion is coming to an end via primary schools and pc and minority dogma , why keep up the pretense ?
The problem is what is offered in its place —-zero.
Merry Xmas !

Let’s have an abundance of lights on trees, doors and windows or wherever you see fit to brighten up the long gloomy winter nights, whether you believe in Christmas or not.

I recall one occasion during the summer months after a heavy shower, the sun came out and lit up a myriad of sparkling raindrops on a large shrub with every colour in the rainbow. It was quite magical and something I will never forget.

So if the sun is unable to provide us with such a beautiful spectacle during the winter months, lets provide our own 🙂

who cares, really. Why not actually uncover the facts of christmas, they are absolutely fascinating. Perhaps you would rather avoid the facts,however, I find that contradicts your philosophy, or should do. Like many I outgrew christmas many years ago, and it is mostly perpetuated by commercial interest which supposedly you are a bastion against. Well you are run by bureaucrats so no real hope their. From coca cola to Saturnalia to Mistletoe, from trees to turkey to richard the lion heart , what nonsense for nonsense is what it is. I welcome any comment from any who have actually studied the facts. A simple definition of truth ( truth is all the facts) , problem being you usually have to search for them, wading through the ******** and misinformation. As for children what about the wonders of the universe, the winter solstice, the seasons, the migrations on land sea and air. Yes I know you would have to take an interest. Happy winter solstice to the northern hemisphere, whilst explaining the aurora borealis. jwd

I’ve not had a Christmas tree of any kind for 30 years – cats, and then German Shepherds were not conducive to such things. And I love it – I have no intention of ever having a tree in the house again.

If people are celebrating Christmas, the christian Christmas season starts on Christmas day and lasts 12 days until Epiphany, so decorations should go up on Christmas eve and come down on 12th Night ( 5th Jan).

Culturally we now celebrate something else driven and manipulated by exploitative commercial imperatives, but the christians can’t really complain. Christmas was a syncretic blend of pagan tradition and christian teaching, and what we have now is just an even a greater syncretic mishmash

Does anyone fancy brussels sprouts flavoured tea? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46460914

I’m surprised that we did not hear of this back in July.