When are you putting your Christmas tree up?

[Zkribbler]

My Christmas tree is going up NOW!

 

[Lexicus]

We don't put up the tree until about 10 days before Christmas.

 

[Birdjaguar]

We haven't had one since the last kid moved out in 2005. Don't miss it at all.

 

[Zkribbler]

We haven't had one since the last kid moved out in 2005. Don't miss it at all.

But then, where does Santa put your presents?

 

[Birdjaguar]

He takes them from his big brown truck and puts them on the porch. Or if he is feeling colorful, he drives his red white and blue and puts them in the mailbox.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

A confluence of crap came together and made it impractical for us to put out most of our Halloween decorations this year, so I intend on making it up by putting out the Christmas decoration extra early. We're moving the day before Thanksgiving so I'll probably put up the decorations the day after.

 

[amadeus]

Operational failure!

This cold or whatever it is put me out of commission for a couple of days, so my rearranging of things didn’t yet occur.

Christmas is delayed!

I will compensate by leaving the tree up over New Year’s. Take that, invisible enemy!

 

[Sommerswerd]

I always shoot for the weekend following Thanksgiving, nowadays.

In the past I've sometimes let it go down to the wire, a couple times only finally putting it up the week of Christmas, depending on schedule, money, etc. I've lived in buildings where live trees were technically not permitted so I had to wait until night to sneak the tree in. I always get a live tree.

Last year was my first time getting 2 trees... my wife has been asking for 2 trees for years... she always wanted to have one that she could decorate all to herself, so she could have a consistent theme/color scheme. She enjoyed it so much that we will probably be doing 2 trees from now on.

 

[Lexicus]

We haven't had one since the last kid moved out in 2005. Don't miss it at all.

wow okay Scrooge!

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I never had trees growing up. They were a secular, unholy abomination, according to my mother. I had a couple of my own when I left and had my own place, but I found that I really just cannot get into the spirit of having a tree.

It just doesn't mean anything to me.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I stopped putting lights on the tree decades ago. They were too much of a fire hazard.

 

[Sarin]

Always on the morning of 24th December.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

TIL that the Three Wise Men were really from Hawaii. No wonder they needed directions.


And on that theme, here's a little bit of a Christmas filk I wrote about 35+ years ago (and was asked to write more verses at BanffCon, but never got around to it... maybe some year):

We Three Ensigns

We three Ensigns of Enterprise are
Off on shore leave, we traverse afar.
Field and fountain, moor and mountain, in
Search of the perfect bar.

Oh---

Bar of wonder, bar so bright,
Bar for which we've searched all night!
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect Lite!

(tune: "We Three Kings"; "mountain" is sung in 2 syllables, not 3)

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I hate the christmas aesthetic with every fiber of my being, and I'm not gonna "put up a tree" (read: have a tree be cut down for no good reason) unless someone forces me to.

my parents probably will though, though they're thinking about switching to plastic. I'd support that tbh.

I never had trees growing up. They were a secular, unholy abomination, according to my mother. I had a couple of my own when I left and had my own place, but I found that I really just cannot get into the spirit of having a tree.

It just doesn't mean anything to me.

that sounds awful but your mom wasn't wrong.

We haven't had one since the last kid moved out in 2005. Don't miss it at all.

another fellow grump, I see.

 

[Lexicus]

I hate the christmas aesthetic with every fiber of my being, and I'm not gonna "put up a tree" (read: have a tree be cut down for no good reason) unless someone forces me to.

Here we have christmas tree farms and the trees are grown only to be cut down.

that sounds awful but your mom wasn't wrong.

They're not secular, they're pagan magic!

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Here we have christmas tree farms and the trees are grown only to be cut down.

that's how it is around here, too. but that doesn't really make it right in my mind. what saddens me is that amount of energy/electricity/water/work/logistics put into that tree is practically wasted. the tree is cut down and then stays for a few days and after that it's thrown out. it's like you're raising a pig only to kill it and throw the whole of it into the trash.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I hate the christmas aesthetic with every fiber of my being, and I'm not gonna "put up a tree" (read: have a tree be cut down for no good reason) unless someone forces me to.

my parents probably will though, though they're thinking about switching to plastic. I'd support that tbh.

My family went plastic back in the '70s, when we moved from the acreage (had our own trees there) to the city. My grandfather felt it would be cheaper to reuse the same tree every year, rather than have to buy one. My grandmother missed the pine smell and so did I. But we got used to it.

This would have been around 1976. I remember Christmas 1977 because my new cat (first cat I had) decided that it would be fun to push the tree over, the morning after I'd spent hours decorating it. I had to redo it.

There's a good reason why you should never have dangly ornaments within the first couple of feet of the floor. Cats see those as toys and are apt to swat them.

I don't have that tree anymore, but I have smaller ones, ranging from 1 foot to 4 feet. It's been a few years since I bothered with any of them. After all, nobody ever comes here and what's the point of wrapping anything for the cat or for myself? She just wants her food and since I already ordered my own present from Amazon, I know what's in it.

I do exchange presents with the housekeeping helper, though. I get her something owl-themed, and she gets me something penguin-themed (which is why I have Christmas penguins in my collection).

Not much is unpacked from the move yet, so there's really no safe place to put a tree anyway.


They're not all green and trees, btw. I've seen some modern styles that range from cool to "WTH were they THINKING?".

that sounds awful but your mom wasn't wrong.

She was factually wrong. Just because something isn't part of the Catholic tradition doesn't mean it's secular. There are numerous religions that have trees as part of their mid-winter traditions.

Even the most secular (non-religious) tree now usually has some religious symbolism attached, such as the star on top (Star of Bethlehem) or an angel. Personally I decided to use a plastic poinsettia we had. That little bit of red on top of the tree that was a flower actually looked rather nice. And since I can't tolerate real poinsettias (they are NOT fragrance-free; the smell is actually disgusting), that's the only kind we could have.

The last tree I put up was about 15 inches, and had a garland and a few penguin ornaments on it. I made a snowflake out of a candy wrapper and used that as a topper.

 

[warpus]

I don't put up a Christmas Tree, I don't view it as an environmentally friendly thing to do (whether it's a real or plastic tree)

Besides, why put something up that you then take down, and do that every year? I don't have time for that sort of nonsense.

Besides, what sort of drunk maniac thought up dragging a tree into your house and decorating it?

Besides, it's an old pagan tradition and I'm a man of God. You're all going to hell, goodnight.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, if you're going to take the whole environmental-pragmatic-sensible-zealot angle, then no, a tree's not going to be right for you!

 

[warpus]

The Christmas Tree is nothing but propaganda on behalf of the Big Tree companies that have fooled everyone into thinking that in the winter you need to chop down a tree, drag it into your house, decorate it, and then a couple weeks later get rid of it. It's not sustainable and quite a bit silly as far as traditions go.

I actually do have a christmas tree in my house, it's about 15 cm tall and stands on top of my bookshelf. I never move it, it's always there, and you can barely notice it. But when it's xmas time you can look up at it and smile knowing that the festive season is upon us.