It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
 

I don't know what has gotten into me! I NEVER have felt like getting ready for Christmas this early. Why, sometimes i never feel like getting ready for Christmas ever!

The furniture has been rearranged in readiness for the decorating. Hub is bringing the artificial tree and all the decorations in from the garage. Christmas music is on. Half my shopping is done!

What about you? Are you in the mood yet? What have you done so far?

Trish

Not really in the mood but we do have most of the outdoor lights up and on. We decorate almost a block long with lights. It is our present to those who drive by and live near. We live out in the country so not a lot of traffic but getting more each year. Several elderly people live in the area and can't do the decorating for themselves so they especially enjoy seeing it. It will be up until after the beginning of the new year. My shopping is done except for two more things, charity coats and blankets done and delivered and even put a tree up inside!..No baking started as of yet. No snow here yet but maybe I will get more festive if it comes. Please not as much as Buffalo, N.Y.

No tree for us this year. DD will be hosting. I haven't started shopping either. I have to send emails asking for suggestions this week end. I have been procrastinating because if I ask for suggestions, I have to supply some of my own and my mind is blank. Maybe I should try some Christmas music. Might get me in the mood.

Nope, Thanksgiving has still to be celebrated!

We don't decorate until the day after Thanksgiving. We used to do it the a bit later, but then everyone was too busy with other projects except for that Friday. None of us wanted to go out in the shopping mess so we stayed in and decorated, just made a day of it. Last year with our two girls no longer home, my DH & I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Las Vegas that weekend and didn't get our tree up for 10 days. Our schedule was thrown off so we decided not to do that again. Even it if is just the 2 of us, we prefer to keep our tradition.

Oh yes. We Canadians celebrated thanksgiving in October. Well, enjoy your Thanksgiving, my American friends. We can talk 'turkey' after!

My son and DIL are coming from Seattle and we're just over the moon! So we arre getting the house presentable...reupholstered the recliner, had new drapes made, drawers are cleaned out in the kitchen and guest bathroom. The artificial tree will be decorated on Thanksgiving...can hardly wait!!

No one here but me and DH now. I put up a small tree 4 feet on a table at the living room window. DH likes the running lights to out line the walk and around the front door and a wreath up. That's about it. Rarely buy gifts now, they all want money, so it's mostly money or gift cards of their favorite places... We still love Christmas... Christ is the reason for the season at our house...

I realize that this probably sounds Scroogy, but it's getting harder and harder each year for me to get excited about Christmas, seeing that it seem's like the merchandise for it is showing up earlier and earlier each year.

First Thanksging. I won't be able to take the Thanksgiving decorations down until Monday as I have a quilt-in to do on Nov. 228,29 and 30.

I will betaking down Thanksgiving decorations the same day I put up Christmas decorations.

Have finished all gift shopping, made quite a few presents, even bought the gammon joint and put in freezer. Always make cake and puds in October. Put the decs up mid December. Made lots of Xmas bunting this year. We will have 6here for Xmas day and just 3 for Boxing Day. Our eldest grandson is in the army(Royal Engineers), he will be home from Kenya. Great joy.

I'm with you. A week before Halloween I needed a bag of potting soil and our local WM was full of Christmas decorations including a 1/2 decorated tree. I've been boycotting the commercialized Christmas for the last 25 yrs. We all get together just like we do for Thanksgiving and have a great day of enjoying each others company.

i am with you, no Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I want to say thank you for my blessings before the crazy at Christmas comes.

No Christmas stuff up yet here. After Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for! :)

I know how you feel. I am not able to spend what I used to on gifts for people and it's hard seeing all the ads on TV and the sales flyers. It's just to much focus on materialism. No one in the family wants handmade gifts. Too bad. Today I was looking at a Christmas Holiday book and got some ideas on gifts I can afford to make. The last few years, it has been more important for me to celebrate with friends and family than gift giving. I don't even want any gifts because the things I need are too expensive (like a newer car, a better sewing machine, money for fabric...etc.) I finally read Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol and realized that he got it right!

Just me here but want to put up a real tree, our son planted some about 18 years ago. It will be a memory tree in his honor and for my DH. I have white LED lights on my dog yard out front and will put them on a timer Friday. Am keeping the reason for the season, no gifts for years now, just together with siblings.

We are setting the tree up on Thanksgiving! It's just the 3 of us having dinner...so it's a decorating Thanksgiving. My son is so excited! Also spent this morning shopping on-line for several gifts. Made a big order from Lego! And...the big thing we are doing is getting our plans for our trip together. We are driving (from California) to Seattle and stopping to see friends in Portland. So coordinating visiting friends, two sides of the family, plus fun activities like visiting Seattle Center, making hotel reservations, etc... It's coming together! I finally printed out a 'paper calendar' of just December so I could write it all down!

I hosted 20+ people from DH family today for Thanksgiving and will be having my dad/step-mom (in their mid-80s) on Thanksgiving Day along with my son and VERY pregnant DIL (due this week). We have been in our new home for three weeks and had our youngest daughter's wedding just two weeks ago. I have not started Christmas shopping yet but I am looking forward to decorating. I plan to decorate on Fri. I have already been listening to Christmas music but I haven't watched any of my favorite holiday movies yet.

Christmas is just another day for us. family is scattered all over the country. I suffer from depression and I some times wish I could just go to sleep after Halloween and not wake up until mid January. It was different when my family were close.

We have an 18 month old GD living with us so we are more in the Christmas spirit than we have been in years. My DH is even listening to Christmas music already!

Years ago I talked to my 2 kids about gifting to little kids only. As I would rather they saved their money for a trip By the time Dec. 25th gets here I am burned out ! The stores, radio and TV, start so very early ! It really takes it out of me . Chirstmas is about Christ and his love for us, not about who will spend the most on gifts and etc. If my kids can make it home that is all I want or need , just a little time as a family again, to share with each other what the past year was for each one. Time as a family to thank Christ for all we have been given by him. And, no , I don't do Black Friday, that time is for my family . I was a single working mother and therefore not able to go to all school functions and etc. I am making up for that on the holidays , time earned and well spent ! Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving one and all .

You are not Scroogy!

Liturgically, Christmas is December 25-January 6. Secularly, and commercially, "christmas" is any time the retailers, etc deem it to be. Advent has begun. I love Advent services....they are reverent, calming. And they prepare us for His coming. I am amused at the frenzy for celebrating a season that many do not fully understand nor choose to find out "why". For me, The season is so much more sacred when observed liturgically. It keeps me balanced. I enjoy it much more, in fact.

I decorate after Thanksgiving..usually a week before Dec. 25 and I leave the decorarations up until Epiphany. (jan 6). I am amused when people are all decorated before Thanksgiving and then rip down the trimmings as soon as the gifts are exchanged! This is not to say that I don't gradually put a few things out. But I no longer go nuts with the decorating frenzy. I pace myself and each year is different. I have pared back, in fact.

To each their own. Peace.

sandy

Katiebear, i pray that you can find a way to "celebrate". Attend services throughout the month (Advent....beautiful, calming) , volunteer, ring the Bell (salvation Army....amazing and rewarding experience!) . Find ways to divert your attention FROM the commercialism of the season. Charitable organizations need your help this season.

I call the commercials a Hallmark Christmas. I know of no one who lives that . No Mercede in the driveway with a red bow on the grill, no diamonds under the tree, no one shows up at my door laden in packages, etc. Too funny! No CREDIT CARD BILLS TO PAY OFF EITHER! Lol!

Life IS Different. I miss my long gone Aunts and Uncles, the delight of Santa coming, being geographically close to home vs. 2 hours away,etc. the niece and nephew are young adults, not the cuties that I used to love buying toys for. Our parents are gone. ( I never knew his patents.) We dont have kids and my sibs do their own thing at Christmas.

We attend church, i cook a nice meal for the two of us, and we enjoy the peace of a day that requires nothing out us. We are home. Oh....did I mention that I do a marathon of sewing all day? It is what you make the of day. And the season. ( my intent is not to make light of your condition, btw.) life evolves.

peace...Sandy

I think it might be because of the snow we have had so early in the year - someone in Minnesota here must remember the storm of 1992 - Hallowe'en - and the T-shirts "I survived the Winter of '92-'93. Never got a t-shirt, but I sure do remember it. Snow was as high as the clothespole. My husband couldn't even walk to work because the snow was so high and he was a laborer for the City of St. Paul. But we lived through it.

Yesterday it was 51 degrees, all the snow has melted and it was a wet, damp, cloudy warm day. Dog dragged in mud.
So, I was going to decorate the front deck (newly built this year) and was looking forward to that, but decided to watch GREEN BAY ALMOST LOSE THE GAME!!!!!!!!!
Even my cousin from Milwaukee said "It was a good game - Green Bay almost lost". There is hope in this world.
So, the home is run in tradition - decorate by the first of December, put up the tree on my sister's birthday (Dec. 20)
take it down between January 3 (husband's birthday) and January 6. In that time, I don't care if it snows, rains, if I have to mow the lawn, it is Christmas and it is going to come whether it snows or not. But deep down, I love a nice snowfall on Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Eve. Then I am totally done with snow

The only thing that pangs me the most is that I don't have my father anymore, my husband died in March, 2013, and my mother died in July of 2013. But I learned from them over the years and I will remember them forever and thanks to my family, my friends. my neighbors who are all so wonderful - I am so blessed - that I can laugh and sing and dance and joke and cry and miss them all at the same time and still be happy. I decorate the house because I always did and I am not going to stop......my dog loves the decorations - she eats them; I have two new parakeets, I am sure they will love the lights twinkling over their heads on the archway. It is going to be a great Christmas. BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!!!! Edie

No more!!!!! Happy Winter!!!!! Edie

As with many of you, preparation for Christmas begins only after Thanksgiving; however, with that said, being in a church choir and handbells, Advent and Christmas music preparations have all ready begun. A special way I begin my Advent preparation is attending the free 25th annual Messiah-Sing-A-Long (Christmas section and the famous Chorus), with a quartet of stringed instruments and organ, 4 soloists, and then for the chorus sections, people from the community are invited to come with their scores and sing, which my church hosts. For those of you who live in or around the Louisville, Ky area, the date is Dec. 2, 7:30 PM at Our Savior Lutheran Church, 8305 Nottingham Parkway, 40222. It is an amazing way to prepare your heart for the season. I pray that each person is able to find their own way to celebrate and remember the birth of our Christ child, the real reason for the season.

No decorating here......leaving this Saturday on the "Snow-Bird" special to Florida........but then upon arrival will have to start digging out some trimmings....made a 6'x20" wall hanging, better known as "the tall tree".

This will take care of the tree pickin'......I then add little quilted ornaments which are hung from Big-Bright-Buttons which adorn the branches.......now who said one can't decorate in ten minutes???

.......and yes, my music flows through my house sometimes as early as late September...
it was always played to get me in the mood for that horrendous fall housecleaning, that is, when I was younger and did such chores !

Merry, merry everyone.......

Hi everyone, I hope you all enjoy thanksgiving! In UK we don't have thanksgiving, but for some weird reason we are having Black Friday sales this year! Yep you heard! The whole world is going mad..... We put our decs up about the 10th December and are just starting the present buying now - well that is to say we have a list ready! I'll be thinking of you all on Thanksgiving.

Quote Originally Posted by sandy l View Post
I realize that this probably sounds Scroogy, but it's getting harder and harder each year for me to get excited about Christmas, seeing that it seem's like the merchandise for it is showing up earlier and earlier each year.

I am with Sandy on this one. :-) When my kids were at home, we loved Christmas. They would help me decorate inside and outside. We would decorate tree together. They loved to see presents under the tree and try to guess what was in them. Now, the kids are grown, have kids of their own, and scattered about too much for us to be together. My son that lives closer to me, his wife wants Christmas day to just be them with their kids. So I have spent the last 7 or 8 Christmas' alone. At first, I still put up my tree, then one year I was sitting on the couch and I looked over at it and there was just one lonely little present under the tree for my little dog. It was actually the saddest thing ever. So I quit putting up a tree or doing any decorating. I spend the day alone with my little dog and we do NOTHING but watch movies and take naps until it is over. I used to go out shopping for the grandkids, (11 of them now) Toys are so expensive anymore and then I bought toys, wrapped them, kids ripped open and I usually got an "oh" and then they were tossed aside. Too much wastes. So now, I just give them each a little card with a little money in it and let them go shopping for what they want or think they want. LOL So, I am probably the Queen of Scrooge. And I don't think Christmas should start in stores or wherever until we have had Thanksgiving and given our Thanks for our Blessings. But that is just me. Happy Thanksgiving to ALL.

We are working on it. The granddaughters are decorating the tree, and hope my daughter will put up the garland,ect. I have done some cooking, and shopping has gotten very easy. We give the kids and grands money, so that is easy. We have a grab bag after opening our gifts, so we have to buy a $10.00 gift for that.
It is easier than it was even 10 yrs. ago, as we have gotten so we don't expect as much of ourselves!
Happy Thanksgiving! Mariah

It sure does.

I love Christmas until I got married. My husband and family have a way of sucking all the joy out of the season. Money seems to be the only thing that matters so I'm pretty much in the stay-in-bed-until-January camp.

Waiting until Thanksgiving first.

DH & I are feeling the spirit a bit more this year than usual. My dear father died in a car accident in December 2002, just a few days after his 50th birthday and just a few days before Christmas, and it's taken me this long for the month of December to be anything other than utterly depressing. DH was very close to Dad too, so it has been hard on both of us.

BUT...this year feels a little different, to both of us. For the last several years we procrastinated on decorating and buying a tree until we're buying the saddest lopsided Charlie Brown tree on the lot the night before Christmas and just putting out a couple things. This year I want us to buy a tree much earlier, maybe even first week in December, and actually bother to decorate the house. It's been years since we put out our "village" of cast-plaster houses - we still have a few unpainted, maybe we'll get around to those this year too. Another thing we used to do and just sort of stopped. We don't have kids so it was easy to let all our traditions drop away, but now I'm starting to miss them.

I've started "decorating" the outside of my house a little bit already, but I come from a granola-crunching hippy family so my "traditional outdoor Christmas decorations" are really just bird food bells and the like, to help all my feathered neighbors get through the cold months. But I hang them with green and red ribbons and wrap green and red ribbons around the tall feeders, so I count it as "decorating", LOL. We don't usually do lights, maybe a string around the front door but that's about it.

As for gifts...my most favorite gift, that I look forward to the most every year, is the hand drawn Christmas cards my niece and nephew make. My niece makes one for me, my nephew makes one for DH, and I love them to pieces. I'm probably a little bit biased but I think those kids are the cleverest and sweetest kids on the planet, and their cards are always funny and cute and...I just love them! (The kids AND the cards!)

I agree,wholeheartedly. It seems like Thanksgiving is totally forgotten. Pretty
soon, merchants will begin by Labor Day, putting up Christmas trees. It has
taken all the joy out of the holidays. JMHO.

They already do - there are also magazines and books by August. BHG does it every year.

Yes, this year I am really in the mood and it all started with a wreath i seen at the $ store. I am waiting until after Thanksgiving but i have things ready in my mind. Turned on Christmas music yesterday.

Yep. We too have never decorated so early. I have a mix of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not all Christmas stuff yet but the tree is up and I love it. Now I truly love Thanksgiving but over the years with kids & GK living a distance we have started celebrating Thanksgiving in Oct because of distance traveling, in-laws kids need to see, and good ole bad weather. Kids get to play out side grandpa has a scavenger hunt we have a bonfire and we end up spending the entire day having a great time and sometimes they end up spending the entire weekend so we have a huge sleep over. The benefit is: when the 4th Thurs of Nov comes the kids can go to their other side of the family and everyone wins DH&I like to help at a shelter so it works for us.
Now we'll enjoy our Christmas decorations thru the Feast of the Epiphany!
Gotta go time to put the turkey in the brine! Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Wish I could get in the mood...My neighbor has her tree up already....