When is it too early to put up Christmas decorations?
Abbie Wightwick mulls the big questions:
WHEN is it too early to put up Christmas decorations? This is a question that rarely bothers me, as generally we do it so late we are in danger of making it to Christmas Eve before embarking on the annual foray into the attic.
This year it was going to be different. I was going to be organised. But yet again, here we are in the second week of December and I haven’t bought a tree, let alone strung lights to the front of the house.
The neighbours’ houses twinkling with lights, their windows aglow with sparkly trees, are making me feel guilty. Even my one neighbour who is usually late like me has let the side down by getting her tree up so early the smell of fireworks from Guy Fawkes Night was still in the air.
It wasn’t always like this. When the kids were younger, we were harassed into strewing the tinsel around almost the moment Halloween was done with.
Cotton-wool blobs that had been ghost decorations one minute were recycled as snowmen the next, while gauze for bats wings became fairy wings on the tree.
This meant that come December 25 the decorations looked dishevelled and the tree was practically dead.
And there’s another thing to fret about. The tree. Small or large? Real or fake?
Is it better for the planet to buy a real tree or one of those plastic things that look real?
I like the look and smell of the real thing, but should I feel guilty given we have an ornamental tree gathering dust in a cupboard after we used it moving house 13 years ago?
Never a family to do things by halves, we added to the stress of moving by doing it four days before Christmas, to the horror of the then primary school and pre-school aged children, who demanded we decamp with a fully decorated tree.
At least that year we could put up a good argument for not hosting Christmas for all and sundry and not hammering lights to the front of the house.
My disorganisation doesn’t mean I don’t like Christmas. In fact I’m a sucker for coloured lights, festive music, mince pies and the whole shebang. It just seems to creep up so suddenly. One minute you’re washing sun cream out of your hair and the next thing you know there’s a shortage of turkeys and everyone’s counting down to Christmas.
I did try to be ahead of the game with the turkey this year, but even failed at that. Ringing up a local farm shop in October, I was told they had run out. All their fresh turkeys had been ordered by September. Now call me bah humbug but I refuse to plan Christmas in September. That’s still summer in my book as it is, after all, still summertime officially.
So this week, if the rain ever stops, I will be stringing lights outside, buying a tree, decorating it and realising, in festive tradition, that the tinsel is threadbare and we need fresh supplies.
We’ll also have the usual tradition of untangling the Christmas lights while we all argue over who it was who put them away in such a state last year.
That in turn will start the usual conversation about when exactly it is we are really supposed to put Christmas decorations up and take them down.
Personally, I think these things should be left up to individuals. But if you like to follow rules, you will be confused. There are various dates according to what rules you go with. Here are a few...
In Roman Catholic tradition, the tree is not put up until the afternoon of Christmas Eve, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. It’s just a tradition.
Another school of thought says the tree should go up at the start of Advent, the period leading up to Christmas that covers the four Sundays before Christmas and begins on the Sunday closest to November 30, the feast day of St Andrew.
This year that was Sunday, December 2. A bit early in our house.
Some say you can wait until 12 days before Christmas and put the tree up on December 13. Another suggestion is to wait until the third Sunday of Advent – that’s December 16 this year.
As for taking the tree and decorations down, that’s even more tricky, with claims of bad luck befalling if you get it wrong. But what is wrong?
Some people take everything down the minute New Year’s celebrations are over. Presumably this lack of party spirit is to get them into the swing of giving everything up. But if you’re a late decorator like me, you still want a bit of sparkle.
Some claim you must take your decorations down by Twelfth Night.
For others, the coming of Epiphany means the decorations should come down before the clock strikes midnight – on January 5. But because December 25 is the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas according to the Anglican tradition, Twelfth Night falls on this day – January 6, 2019.
Whatever date you go for, one thing is certain – all the chocolate decorations will be long gone by then.