When do you start decorating for Christmas?

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mrsdizzyd

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  • Before Thanksgiving
  • Weekend after Thanksgiving
  • First Week of Advent
  • Later in the Advent Season
  • Wait until Christmas Eve
  • Other (please detail in the comments)
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I’d love to hear how your family handles decorating for the season. We are still trying to get in a rhythm. In previous years, we have done all our decorating in the week leading up to Christmas. That feels rushed. We are going to try to spread it out a bit this year.
 
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I would like to start decorating on Christmas Eve, but my family probably wouldn’t like that.
 
For Advent I would do it the night before the First Sunday of Advent. For Christmas, it would be the 17th because that is the first day of the “O” antiphons. Before you ask, I take it down on the Epiphany.
 
Advent: the wreath goes on display on Saturday (the day before the First Sunday of Advent) but is not lit until the following evening.

Christmas: December 23rd. I decorated on Christmas Eve before I got married, but The (French) Husband’s family has other traditions on that day and I can’t do both at once. 🎄
 
I could say it never ends since my wife ha nativity sets up all year. We put up minimal decorations, but not until the first Sunday of Advent.
 
We don’t have Thanksgiving, but according to most of our city centres (Downtowns?), the time to switch on the Christmas lights is the nearest Thursday to Guy Fawkes / bonfire night (ie to 5th November) - usually timed to perfectly interfere with the evening rush hour! They also have a German Market and Christmas fair and stick a really noisy ride outside the Cathedral every year without fail.

I aim for putting up my tree later in Advent myself - the decorations come down on the Epiphany; the nativity scenes at the end of the Christmas season.
 
Based on research and asking around the forum it appears so. It’s definitely in keeping with the liturgical year to wait until Christmas Eve to bring out the colorful decorations, tree toppers, Jesus in the manger, etc.

The advent season has a penitential and reflective feel to it. It’s about reflecting and building anticipation for the birth of the savior. It appears that the real feasting starts on Christmas and lasts for about 12 days there after (12 days of Christmas).

I was wondering how many people actually do this. So that’s why I made the poll. I’m interested to see how it turns out.

I think it is going to be impossible to get my family to wait until Christmas Eve. They aren’t Catholic.
 
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Ann_Stanton said:
For Christmas, it would be the 17th because that is the first day of the “O” antiphons
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Do you all sing the O antiphons when you light your advent candles? Are they sung to a particular melody or are they chanted or are they just read?

Sorry for the noob questions! 😏
 
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In Canada Thanksgiving is in October so we are already well on with things. The outside lights are up (nothing fancy, just a long string of lights around the door and front window), and I have a six inch tree (decorated) in my office at work. This weekend the snow village will be brought up and set out on a shelf in the living room. Our tree (40 inches high) will also be placed in the corner and a wreath put on the front door. We keep it simple. Bing Crosby will soon be heard on the cd player.
 
I don’t decorate. That’s my wife’s bailiwick, and she does it when / if she gets around to it. Ditto taking the decorations down – when she gets to it. With me, it Christmas music, which starts in October (I’m in two bands), and classic Christmas movies.

D
 
No one here leaves there decorations up year-round? Or is that only lights, lol?

We set up and light the Advent wreath on the first day of Advent. We also set up the Nativity set near the Advent wreath, with the exception of the Infant Jesus figurine, which we place in the manger on Christmas day.

As far as the tree, we get it about a week before Christmas, then place the Star on top Christmas Eve.
 
Same. And you know Baptists. All celebration all the time, so the idea that we might deny ourselves a little bit during December is right out! 😆

Me: It wouldn’t hurt to wait a little while to put the decorations on the tree. We can just enjoy the greenery.

Husband: What’s the point in having a tree if you don’t decorate it? digs baubles and lights out of the closet

Oh well! 😅
 
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My husband often puts the outdoor decorations up prior to Thanksgiving, if he has a Saturday morning with good weather for it. We don’t turn them on until Thanksgiving though. The indoor decoration I always put up the Friday after Thanksgiving. That’s been our tradition since I was a kid. My mom worked full time and it was the only real time she had to do it. The only thing we wait on is the tree, and we ususally have a ginegerbread house night with my sister’s family.
 
Advent wreath is made and put on a shelf ( is it ok that Ive used battery powered lights I thought it would be safer) it will be displayed on the 1st of December and the first candle lit on the 2nd, The Jesse tree will be put up on the last day of November 1st decoration going on it on the 1st of December ( probably in the morning) and daily until then.
we are not having a Christmas tree this year and the Nativity scene is already out 😮 ( only because I brought it recently and had to pull it out of the box to show mr5 and then I was a little to lazy to put it away lol)
 
They are the antiphons used in the LOTH and Mass. They all begin with “O” and speak of one of the titles of Jesus as presented by the prophets.
 
We have a family room in the basement and last Christmas, my aunt brought all these boxes of old photos, documents, letters, and mementos from my grandma’s home. I’ve been meaning to go through them all year, but it hasn’t happened yet. Since I didn’t move that stuff, I never took the Christmas decorations down in there. So I don’t even have to mess with it this year! Score! (I still have to put the boxes from my aunt somewhere though.)
 
mrsdizzyd said:
Do you all sing the O antiphons when you light your advent candles? Are they sung to a particular melody or are they chanted or are they just read?
Click to expand...
Think of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. The verses are the O antiphons.
 
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