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Christmas lovers - when do you start?

Pete the Ferret

Pete the Ferret

Member
I love Christmas. I have since I was little, I'm now 45 and probably should know better. That being said, my girlfriend and I are putting ours up today and they won't come down until mid January. We've done this every year for the 7 years we've been together, still get excited about it and our unofficial rule is that when the town Christmas lights are switched on, it's fair game. I think it's a combination of childhood memories, distant family (my side), we've both lost fathers, cold miserable weather in the UK (makes us feel warm and cosy) and the general happy feeling it creates. We've both worked retail in the past so know the hell of that but are both in office jobs with time off over the holiday period so appreciate it more. Whilst I was born Church of England and she was Catholic we are not religious although one of the few times I'll visit church is an occasional Christmas.

So,are we crazy!? For those that celebrate Christmas or perhaps your own other religious festival, how early do you start?
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Don't be ashamed of loving Christmas. I will love it until the day I die. The gifting isn't a big deal for me, but family and food are great.
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
i have spent christmas in japan the last 7 years pretty much consecutively.. its a country where christmas really is just a commercial event with all the illumination, gifts, cakes etc. you have in the west (and the weird fixation on KFC at christmas) but without the religious meaning... this year i will be spending it in germany and i really am curious if i will feel a difference.
 
S

satori

Member
I love the holiday season. Loved it growing up, loving it even more now with young children. We normally get a tree after Thanksgiving. Watching them get all excited brings me back some sweet memories when I was growing up.
 
P

Platinumstorm

Member
My tree has been up since Thursday.

There is no correct time to put your Christmas tree Yule tree, or whatever you want to call it, up. There are official dates based on people's religious followings, but many people ignore them.

My tree is honestly more of a tree that is in celebration of winter, light, snow [please snow], nature, woodland critters, and skiing. I don't have any decorations that are about Christmas, and I am looking for an appropriate snowman topper for my tree; which is something my family made into our own tradition growing up.

Whether you are religious or non-religious, it can be fun to look into the origins of the festivities to see how it all came together to be today. Ultimately what we ritualistically put up is some sort of combination of a fear of monsters/demons, the dark, and a
rather gross celebration of fertility, as well as a celebration of trees that crossed over into religious territory in the 1600ish time period by the Lutherans.


I set up my own arbitrary rules:
As soon as it's dark at 5pm I'm game to put a tree up, as I like the ambient light better than any sort of overhead light. Bonus if there is snow on the ground.

Egg Nog is forbidden before December. However, Almondnog is forgivable.

Despite being non-religious, I am a fan of many of the "classic" Christmas songs. However, I find it heathenous to listen to the music without snow on the ground, and before Thanksgiving.

Anything that is more a reminder of Christmas than winter I get rid of sometime in January. I will let the tree stay up a bit longer depending on how I feel about it.

I grew up in the Northern Plains, in the country, where snow can be on the ground for months and months, and the darkness can be overencompassing, so these rules worked well. I now live near the mountains, where these rules don't work quite as well, due to the dry snow that doesn't stick around.
 
Maedre

Maedre

Banned
SporeCrawler said:
i have spent christmas in japan the last 7 years pretty much consecutively.. its a country where christmas really is just a commercial event with all the illumination, gifts, cakes etc. you have in the west (and the weird fixation on KFC at christmas) but without the religious meaning... this year i will be spending it in germany and i really am curious if i will feel a difference.
Click to expand...

Weihnachtsmarkt and Glühwein, i think you will experience a different situation
 
dolabla

dolabla

Member
Usually literally right after the Thanksgiving meal, but this year we started a little early as far as listening to Christmas songs. I checked on the "Sounds of the season" music tv channel the day after Halloween and they had already started playing Christmas music and we've listened to it.

We'll still break the Christmas tree out on Thanksgiving day, but the Christmas music listening came a little early this year. I love this time of the year.
 
T.v

T.v

Member
I like the cozy feel of christmas, but I am alone and so have no motivation to do anything about it.
 
N

Noctilum

Member
I only like to focus on one holiday at a time so I wait until the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t really care when others do it. I usually see Christmas stuff in stores before Halloween so it’s all good.
 
t-storm

t-storm

Member
My parents put their tree up this weekend. I think it’s too early. I’ll probably put mine up Dec 1. I’m already in the spirit though so perhaps I’ll at least put the lights up outside this week.
 
llien

llien

Member
For me "it starts" when XMass markets open.
New Year is the main even for me, not Jesus's birthday, but I still enjoy the atmosphere.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
December 1st, that's what advent calendars are for. :) (technically it should be exactly 4 weeks before Christmas, but whatever...)
(not too big on trees and lights and everything, but I have a few christmassy songs ready for that period).
 
Maedre

Maedre

Banned
First advent it is.

There is no Thanksgiving in Germany. Most Christmas markest starting around the last Novemer or first Dezember week. That should be the start for the most here.

The "Wham"-hypothesis has flaws. Heard it first in oktober this year.
 
matt360

matt360

Member
Our tree has been up for about two weeks now. Partly because I love Christmas and partly because my and my wife's schedules are so busy that if we didn't do it early we probably wouldn't have time to do it until mid-December, which is of course far too late.

Usually we start around the 3rd week of November.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I love Christmas too. My mom would decorate the house the first half of November. She has all her decorations up at the moment. My wife is from Russia, so she didn't celebrate the holiday. Her family does now that they're in America. I had to request we put up a tree our first Christmas together. I just don't get to listen to Christmas music yet
 
M

Martinski43

Member
Living alone and not having kids I don’t give a shit about it. Never decorate. Also try my damnest to avoid 99% of Christmas music, there are like 5 songs that are ok. Such as fairytale of New York obviously.

I get some gifts for my immediate family tho. I’m not an asshole. Don’t like Swedish Christmas food either, too much pickled herrings and boiled eggs. Yeah no thanks.
 
Kremzeek

Kremzeek

Member
Since it's 90° in Los Angeles this week, my Christmas mood is definitely lacking this year.

Normally I decorate over Thanksgiving weekend, but I'm not so sure now.
 
BibiMaghoo

BibiMaghoo

Member
I read the title as:

Christian lovers - when do you start?

Naturally I thought it would be more amusing than this.
OT, december 1st.
 
H

Heath V

Member
We are looking at record highs for Thanksgiving so it doesn't really feel like the holidays at the moment unfortunately.
 
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