When are you putting your Christmas tree up?

[Ferocitus]

Undecided: either on one of December's Noam Chomsky Days, or on Newton's Birthday.

EDIT: Oh no!
I thought I'd never have to put up another one after Richard Stallman included my contribution on his Grav-Mass page. But it's gone now.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

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.

15 cm = 6 inches, for the non-metric here.

One of the guys I knew in the SCA wasn't even slightly religious and didn't care much about Christmas trees, but in his bachelor days his friends kept telling him he needed one. So they got him one, and kept giving him ornaments.

It's white, with an assortment of odds and ends on it. He never took it down, so he just found somewhere to prop it up so it wouldn't fall over (18 inches, so that wasn't too bad).

One thing I decided many years ago about Christmas ornaments: Anything works. That's why I have a collection of cheap beaded earrings. I don't have pierced ears. I use them to decorate the Christmas tree. Waaay back when my grandmother and I were doing doll collecting, I'd get a package of Barbie accessories. An assortment of Barbie TVs, radios, and tennis rackets were used as Christmas ornaments (my grandmother liked those).

Undecided: either on one of December's Noam Chomsky Days, or on Newton's Birthday.

There's a woman on TrekBBS who posted a photo of her Christmas tree one year. She has a collection of miniature sewn "dolls" of various scientists - Newton, Galileo, Carl Sagan and a dozen others... those are what she uses for ornaments, and the words "cool" and "adorable" apply equally.

View attachment 575679

Pretty!

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Our family tradition used to be that we would pick up a real tree on my mother's birthday (December 19th). Sometimes we'd pick up the tree itself a few days before that but never decorate it until mom's birthday. Often we would wait until my birthday (February 1st) to take it down, although sometimes we'd burn it as firewood in mid January.

We haven't bothered to get a real Christmas tree since I graduated from high school though.

One year when I was in college my late aunt gave us her old artificial Christmas tree when she got a fancier new one. We started to put it together but then decided it was too much of a hassle and looked kind of ugly anyway, so we re-gifted it to someone else.

We have not had the space for a full sized Christmas tree since my dad retired and made half of the living room into his office and the other half into his bedroom. It is a big room but extremely cluttered.

Several years ago someone gave us a small (maybe 2 ft tall including the base) artificial tree that sits on a table in the dining room year round. It has some built in lights, but we have not plugged it in for so long that I don't remember if they work. Some years we put presents on that table around the tree, but I don't think we even bothered to wrap anything to exchange there since mom's strokes. Dad prefers just to give cash rather than shop, and mom can't really shop anymore. Christmas gifts last year were all things I ordered or found around the house (including some gifts mom bought before her strokes and had forgotten about).

 

[Angst]

I don't decorate for Christmas, except three Christmas gnomes I have standing around all year.

 

[AdamCrock]

To tell the truth I don't do that anymore. I live alone and it's more of a kid's thing. I sometimes put christmas lights on my windows though. I love to sleep with them turned on

 

[Sommerswerd]

Since we aren't really going to be able to go anywhere or do anything this Christmas because of COVID, we plan on doing a lot more in terms of decorating the house, both inside and out. We got a new house last year and its by far the largest house I've ever lived in, so I bought a lot of new decorations already, window candles, wreaths, etc. plus the trees, but this year I'm thinking we will probably add a bunch of potted Christmas plants and and all sorts of indoor decorations as well, in addition to adding more exterior lights.

 

[innonimatu]

I intend to just use the holiday to go to the woods and wonder among the trees and feel the winter moss on the ground. Prefer enjoying trees in place!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

My mom is big into decorations, particularly Christmas - she has in her house maybe 4 or 5 Christmas trees. It's kind of ridiculous. Anyways, she's going to be here for the baby's birth, so my wife and I decided to put up more decorations than usual for her, and also because of Covid (like @Sommerswerd) means we don't have a lot else to do.

Also, the new apartment we're moving into is situated in an alley where many of our new neighbors are festive and decorative and we want to participate.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I've stopped. I have a small space and it's just watch not the awkwardness. Plus, I'm a bachelor so no one sees the damn thing but me.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I intend to just use the holiday to go to the woods and wonder among the trees and feel the winter moss on the ground. Prefer enjoying trees in place!

There's a patch of woods behind my house that my kids love exploring! They were back there wandering around today in fact. We have deer show up back there regularly.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Anyone getting covid-related ornaments? I bought a bunch for family.

I still have to buy a tree and lights.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Got the trees, wreaths, poinsettas, and various other trappings today. Christmas music is playing, house is all decorated, trees are up and currently being decorated by wife and kids under my benevolent supervision

Decorating day... This is seriously easily one of my absolute favourite days of the year. I have a ridiculously big smile on my face right now

Tommorow i'll be outside in the cold by myself putting up the exterior lights... not anywhere near as fun...

 

[AdamCrock]

Can I wish here ? I wish for an anti-grav hoverboard !!!! Seriously thou .... I want my anti-grav hoverboard !

I think the government is "holding out" on us !!!

 

[Sommerswerd]

BTW... watching the kids decorate the trees today... lots of butter-fingers... plastic ornaments... Best.Idea.Ever.

When I was a kid all the ornaments were that paper thin ornament glass. Althought the room where the tree went had carpet, so that saved quite a few ornaments, we'd still break a few every year.

In my current house its hard-floors throughout, so my kids would have broken at least 30 ornamets if they'd been glass instead of plastic.

My wife has a fancy ornament from overseas that she hadn't even taken out of the box for years because she was afraid the kids would break it (they broke another one like it a few years back) . This year she took it out and put it on "her" tree. I had a little fun picking on her for being so brave and took a few "one last picture"s of it

 

[Valka D'Ur]

BTW... watching the kids decorate the trees today... lots of butter-fingers... plastic ornaments... Best.Idea.Ever.

When I was a kid all the ornaments were that paper thin ornament glass. Althought the room where the tree went had carpet, so that saved quite a few ornaments, we'd still break a few every year.

In my current house its hard-floors throughout, so my kids would have broken at least 30 ornamets if they'd been glass instead of plastic.

My wife has a fancy ornament from overseas that she hadn't even taken out of the box for years because she was afraid the kids would break it (they broke another one like it a few years back) . This year she took it out and put it on "her" tree. I had a little fun picking on her for being so brave and took a few "one last picture"s of it

Un-carpeted floors... the manager here tried his damnedest to persuade me to let them take out all the carpet here. I said no, I wanted carpet in the living room and bedrooms.

If there was no carpet in the living room, I wouldn't dare unpack any of the items that belong in the china cabinet, for fear of dropping them. Most of them are not replaceable.

I was given a Lindt dark chocolate a few days ago. The chocolate was delicious, and the wrapper made a very nice, lacy-looking plastic snowflake that will go on one of my trees if I ever decide to put one up.

I might this year. Nothing much is unpacked yet, so there are actually places that Maddy can't jump on without it being more trouble than it's worth to a 13-year-old cat. The tree might be safe.

 

[thecrazyscot]

We bought ours yesterday and out it up today. Decorated the rest of the house a few days ago, but still have some outdoor lights to put up on the roof that I've delayed doing due to some wet weather.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The tree that I ordered did not come. We got a notice from the Amazon that the USPS could not make the delivery due to non-sensical reasons. The USPS did not leave us a slip to tell us to go pick it up either, so I don't know what's going on.

 

[Sommerswerd]

The tree that I ordered did not come. We got a notice from the Amazon that the USPS could not make the delivery due to non-sensical reasons. The USPS did not leave us a slip to tell us to go pick it up either, so I don't know what's going on.

Eff them, just go get a proper live tree from your local vendor. They smell nice and make your house smell nice.

 

[warpus]

My tree is up year round, I have a 6-7 inch tall one made from plastic. Saves me all the annoying time dragging a tree into the house, decorating it with angels, and then throwing it out a couple weeks later like some drunk person.

 

[Takhisis]

We're getting near proper Christmas temperatures now. Today it was 32 ºC.