We live 10 miles from the city and haven't seen any decorated homes (or tractors....and yes, it's a thing) in our rural area but saw some lights in town last night. We don't do anything until about Dec. 10 and nothing outside. We can't climb ladders any longer so outside is in Grinch mode.
We live in a rural area and last night I took Poncho out to go potty and saw my TBM neighbor's house all lit up for the holidays. He lives about 1/8 of a mile from us.
At the moment we have a mixture of Halloween, Christmas, and birthday party decorations festooning the living room and proximate locales. We tend to leave decorations up for months at a time. Friends think we're being festive; the correct word is "lazy."
We hosted our niece's 14th birthday party a few days ago; the remains of the piñata are still dangling from his ceiling hook. Nothing says "our Savior's birth" like a partially gutted piñata, IMO.
Saw a couple tonight, but we are expecting snow Fri, so pretty sure they were taking advantage of our crazy warm Nov. my complex says no lights before Thanksgiving or after Jan 5.
I was a little miffed when the local drugstore put out Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stuff on October first.
Then I noticed that a couple of nearby houses are now lit up quite brightly with giant, Christmas-themed constructions on the lawns.
And, all of the sudden, I've sort of decided that I am just fine with that. I tell myself that it is all now just "holiday decorations" for the long holiday season (Halloween through Valentine's Day).
But, then, I do love the holidays....
( I think --- so far --- that I will still wait until around December 10th to put my own stuff up, though. Who knows, perhaps I'll have a revelation that the holidays should last for a full six months. But that'd mean that I'd have to replace my Christmas tree a few times....)
A bunch of my neighbors have put up Christmas lights already, but aren't turning them on yet. I think they are taking advantage of the nice weather right now. I don't decorate until after thanksgiving...usually not till dec. 1st!
We live in a subdivision in suburbia. I've noticed an unusually high number of decorations going up early this year. I'm ok with it. I kinda like 'em. In our yard, I try to put up less and less each year, only to avoid the work, but Mrs. Nomonomo insists I put up more. I don't climb in trees or on ladders anymore though.
What does get on my nerves, is that the Salvation Army is out ringing bells already. The news said they "kicked off" today in the DC Metro area, but they've been out for several days. This on top of every checkout clerk asking "would you like to donate a dollar?"
Oh, and the shopping centers around here already have Christmas stuff up too. I like Christmas, and I like the decorations, but anymore I'm tired of them long before Christmas ever gets here...
I get annoyed by being begged for money at every entrance, and every cash register. I've thought about making myself a Christmas shirt that say NO! on it.
It's not that i'm against giving, but the begging is out of control.
As far as decorating goes, that's happening this week at my house because hubby has a 2 weeks off. Decorating is a ton of work. I might as well enjoy it for at least 6 weeks. Not to mention all of the money that's been put into those decorations. Might as well show them off.
This year I think i'm going to start giving my kids some of the decorations from their Christmas pasts. They have all purchased homes now, and have a place to store the stuff. I'm starting with the Christmas Village. It can take an entire day to put it together if it's done right. Splitting it 4 ways will be a good thing. I hope they don't all want the same pieces.
but there's a family behind us who always set up their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving. I'm usually sick of Christmas decorations, music, TV by mid-December.
Imagine how those people who in retail and other places where's it's playing all day over and over. I know I got sick of it working retail and eventually tuned it out!
One neighbor has done it all, lights along the gutters, inflated snowman, lights in the trees and bushes and one of those newer laser light show things.
I have neighbors who put up lights for Diwali, they inspired a couple other non-Hindu neighbors to jump the gun and up up their holiday lights, too.
The Hindus quit turning on their lights, but left them up. They'll be turning them back on during the upcoming post-Thanksgiving Western Holiday Season™.
The others (non-Hindu) have been lit up every night since Diwali in late October....
Yes, but it is ok. They have mostly homemade decorations and include two life-size cutouts of Bigfoot who were there suitably decorated for Halloween, now for Christmas and last year they stayed through Valentine's day bearing hearts and flowers. Wonderfully weird. They made Weird NJ Magazine last year thanks to me taking pictures and writing them up.
Already received a Christmas card last week from an acquaintance who will be traveling during Christmas. I still think she could have left the card for someone to mail closer to Christmas or even mailed it/them just before she left on her trip. I have a hard time believing she will be traveling from now until December 25th. A late Christmas card still seems better than a month and a half early card. Two weeks before Thanksgiving is approaching OCD behavior in my book. I also have plenty of friends who just send New Years cards because they get overwhelmed at Christmas. Frankly, if trying to be a Christmas "do it all" is just too much, why not just stop trying to do it all? This woman does visits with all her kids and grandkids who live all over the country and her Christmas cards are incredibly boring "I saw kid #1 on this date and kid# 2 on this date and will be seeing grandkid #1 here and there and everywhere. Boring, boring, boring. A quick "saw all my kids and grandkids this year" would suffice but I think she is afraid of leaving some visit out of her letter and offending one of the kids or grand kids. So send the family missives to just the family and a simple "Happy Holidays" card to the rest of us.