OPEN THREAD: How Are You Decorating For Christmas, Er . . . Advent?

For years, I have taken a three foot artificial tree out of a box in a blaack garbage bad already decorated and put it on a table lookin out the front window, plug it in and then put two artificial wreaths out of a box and hang on the front door side lights. 
    I love beautiful multicolored lights and big trees, but the cares of the world have pushed them out.  I have an office manager who loves to decorate, and always has in her little appartment a beautiful tree and all the trimmings.  We were all talking about Christmas past and I related how much I enjoyed the old real trees and big bulbes.  All I have of that now is a beautiful nativity scene from antiquity I quickly put on a side tabel.
    Last week, while I had my wife in Jackson at the hospital, my son and office manager found some old lights and decorations in the storage, bought many more and a real live eight foot tree for the den room.  When we came home there it was ablaze and all the side decorations.  The best present for Christmas yet.  We just glory in it daily.  All we need is a snow storm for Christmas and me to light the fire place to have a perfect memory to file away.  I really am blessed to be surrounded by such loving helpers.

Merry Christmas, Prophet Micaiah! What a wonderful thing for your son and office manager to do.

No decorations yet.

Real tree, already decorated with the help of the 6-year-old grandson.  Christmas village inside the ginormous fish tank that came with the house (we rent from friends; it’s HUGE and separates the living room from the dining room, and you can see through it) that stays there year-round because it’s too much trouble to set up and take down - we just don’t turn the lights on in the village until this time of year.  Ledge around the fish tank (in both rooms) has various and sundry Christmas and/or Christiain items (sleighs, candles, crystal cross, small Precious Moments Nativity set, etc.).  Entertainment center has on top also various Christmas items (large, musical Father Christmas; porcelain Nativity set, candles).  Three small elves hang from various items (lamp near my chair, e.g.).  Please note: the wisemen are a fair distance from both Nativity sets, and will inch closer day by day until 1/6/2010.  Three electric candles in various windows to be seen from the street when lit.  Small 1-foot Christmas tree on screened porch table with green skirt underneath.  Last, but not least, a Florida lighthouse complete with palm trees and Christmas decorations sits atop the antique ice box we use for storage in the living room, and it lights up.  OK.  Wow.  I didn’t realize until I typed this out how much I actually do decorate.  Wow.

We’ve two trees.  One in the family room and a 3-footer in the library.  The primary tree hase been primarily decorated for the grandson while the library tree is enscounced with Whitehouse Commerative ornaments an baby’s breath.

This year the tree has the old ornaments the family made (my favorites). Next year the fancy ornaments will be used. That is how we maintain peace on earth.

Now if we can just come to an agreement about colored lights vs all white lights.

My Christmas decorating has changed since my husband went home to God and the family doesn’t descend on me any more.  It used to be a huge white tree with ornaments with memories, 45 angels all over the house, and candles all over, gold wreath, yard Nativity, etc.  It took 2-3 days to get it all done.  Now, I have a 2.5 ft. silver fiber optic tree, a lit Nativity in the window, the angels move from the cabinet where they live all year.  I have also acquired a number of small Nativities that also go all over the house.  The one constant between my two lives is a large white ceramic Nativity that I made in a ceramic shop the first year I was married to Oran.  It has a few chips, broken hands, etc. courtesy the kids, but it also has seen a lot of love.  This year, my sister sent me 2 new red glass angels that will preside over the dining table.  Right now, only the tree and window Nativity are up, and the other boxes are messing up my den!  I still have the huge white tree and would put it up if I had a big family “do” to make it worth while.  But…. not this year.

We put a line of lights on the eaves over the front porch and a wreath on the door as soon after advent starts that I can get to it. We haven’t had a tree at home in a while because our youngest is really hard on it (and also because we’re not sure we can rearrange things to fit one at the moment), so that happens at my father’s house. The tree goes up on Christmas Eve and comes down on Epiphany—this is Not Negotiable.

By many people’s standards, we shamefully neglect our house. Thanks to my precious daughter, the tree is up and decorated, and there are a couple of strands of lights around the picture window. Very simple and it feels like Christmas.
BUT if you swing through our church for Lessons and Carols tomorrow night, you will be completely blown away. For some reason, it makes all the sense in the world for us to put all our energy into decorating our church…even if it has to all be pulled down for weekend services. It is all for His Glory.

Our (real) tree is decorated with many old ornaments - most of them “Shiny Brites” from the late 1950s, but including a little red bell with thin stripes around its waste that dates to my parents’ first Christmas. Each year when we bring them out of their boxes, they bring with them layers and layers of sweet memories. Some are so old that they’ve become transparent. But among them are other ornaments given to us by dear friends over the years - a tiny blue and white Hispanic nativity inside a circle of wood with star-shaped “petals” around it, a golden ball from Crane’s, a little angel with crisp white dress, all from people who have shared Christmas with us.

I have 3-foot and 1-foot artifical trees that I decorate elaborately, but my favorite thing is my huge live jade plant that I decorate with lights and ornaments.

In my home, there’s not one item up.  Normally, I have my advent wreath on the console complete with candles I light during my evening prayers.  However, this year my wreath is in the prayer room at work along with a little booklet on Advent for all my wonderful Christian co-workers who think it’s Christmas!!

But I am also participating in the office decorating competetion along with my two team partners—we’ve decorated our area with a “Three Kings” theme: walls are covered with a backdrop of starry sky and rolling desert, huge gold star spotlights the nook where my supervisor’s desk is located.  In front of which are three elaborate boxes, cruets and jars with the symbolic gifts before a manger holding a copy of the Holy Bible; there are displays throughout the larger area with small groupings of three kings statuettes or gifts—and we even dressed up as the Three Kings last week, hosting pot luck lunches based on the three classic gifts!  Chicken nuggets for the gold; ginger-spiced beans for the frankincense; and spiced cide for the myrrh.

But no tree or lights at my house.

I live in a sm Christian Univ. dorm…retired, mom to some, Grandma to others   My 19” Trader Joe’s Tree has grown 9+ plus in. this year, thanks to a big pot & lots of food & TLC. He has 50 little lights, lots of little pine cones tucked in His branches, one tiny little ornament from a friend yrs ago and the bow from my corsage from my new daughter-in-law’s Wedding And he will be up through Twelvth Night.  I used to wait ‘till Advent IV to decorate and was then sick with stress by Christmas!  No more! Now I decorate to Celebrate Advent!  I will add a few more old family goodies ‘round the room, but Tree and His accompanying little lights, tree-shaped in His window are the main!

When the children are here for Christmas, we go “all out” and have a large tree, and all the works.  This year, they are unable to come, and we are going to them and to my aging father, so the decorations are minimal:  a wreath on each outside door, single lights in each front window, stockings hung and a couple of poinsettias by the den fireplace.  Oh, and Advent/Christmas music playing on the stereo.  It seems like just the right balance!

We cut down a tree this year, partly because a family from church has a Christmas tree farm. We still managed to get one that is a little too big.

We have a collection of ornaments, from parents, grandparents, friends who aren’t with us any more. Soccer ornaments from when the kids were doing soccer; Scouting ornaments from when they were in Scouts; an ugly Chamber of Commerce ornament from when I was on the board. It’s a little like unpacking a history of 29 years of marriage when we put up the tree each year.

Each year, one of our three sons gets to pick out a new ornament, though we probably only have a few more years of that tradition, once No. 3 heads off to college. Needless to say, we have a Corvette ornament, a Starship Enterprise ornament, and various Santas playing pinball, riding mountain bikes, riding rockets, etc.

Other than that, my wife hauls out some stuff and spreads it around, including a “Dickens Christmas Village” her father and grandfather put together over the years, including some buildings they made and painted lead people. As for lights outside, if we get time to put up a string, that’s about as elaborate as it gets most years.

I understand people being grossed out by excessive and tasteless displays. But as much as I disliked all the fuss in the early days, it’s really become an important part of our family celebration of Christ’s birth. It’s quite meaningful to the kids. We’re holding our middle son’s ornaments in reserve for him to put on the tree when he gets home from college this weekend.

We have numerous food rituals, too, but fortunately I managed to destroy the wretched tradition of eating creamed herring Christmas Eve. Needless to say, the Carp Egg Soup tradition from my wife’s grandparents was a non-starter in our household.

C. Wingate,

I’m so thrilled to hear of “others” like myself!  I am so tired of being accused of grinchdome when all I want is to enjoy three seasons instead of one, including the full complement of 12 Days.  When I tell people we didn’t put up the tree until after church on 4 Advent (which occasionally fell on Christmas Eve), they think I was deprived!  Of course, for them it’s all over on the 26th, while I get to take advantage of the after-Christmas and New Year’s sales in the planning fo my 12th Night party. 

Err…should read “grinch”  in #16…not sure where the extra letters came from..

I have a lot of kids, and unfortunately the grandparents are worthless.  So, I try for housecleaning to be a priority but I usually fall short. 

In sum, I consider having clean toilets for Christmas to be quite an accomplishment. 

But, at some point we’ll throw the tree up and get on with all the other merry-making…there’s a lot of that, just in a messy house.

#16: Great point!

We have an “Advent Tree” up this year (I have photos posted at the image section of our Advent Page), which consists of a pine tree with purple lights and purple bulbs. I kind of mix secular Christmas and liturgical Advent, which is to say I don’t have a problem with a few Christmas decorations before Christmas, but like you, I enjoy all the holiday seasons, including Advent. If I had the money and time, my house would be covered in purple and pink lights until Christmas Eve, when the green, red, and white would go up (I don’t have that kind of time or money, lol). Also, I enjoy having a long Christmas season; for most folks Christmas ends abruptly the evening of Dec 25th…ours is just getting started!

We have a live tree (big).  The roots are enclosed in a burlap ball.  So it’s sitting outside until Christmas Eve, because it cannot be indoors too long—or the tree thinks it’s Spring and tries to emerge from dormancy.  Then we plant it outdoors on the Feast of Saint Stephen.

During Advent, we have a wreath on the front door with a violet ribbon.  We usually have a floodlight on in the evening.

Indoors, we have the Creche and also an Advent Wreath with violet and pink (for Gaudete Sunday—last Sunday) candles.

We get the piano tuned before Christmas so we can all sing Christmas carols during Christmastide.

We sometimes have those electric “candles” in the windows, too.

So it is subdued until the Vigil of the Feast itself.  Then we bring in the tree (takes at least two guys to do it) decorate it, tie a white-and-gold ribbon on the wreath on the door and attend Midnight Mass at our church—a High Mass with Schola (singing plain chant and Renaissance polyphany), organ and also a chamber ensemble.  Our son serves on the altar.  There is an almost-as-big-as-life Creche in the church, which the children (and grown-ups) love to visit. On Christmas Day, we attend High Mass in the Extraordinary Form, with Schola, organ, chamber ensemble and trumpet soloist.

BTW, we celebrate Christmas until Candlemas—February 2, the Feast of the Presentation.  Officially Christmas ends on the Feast of the Epiphany.

Not to focus on the externals, but you asked about decorating.

My daughter and I picked out a live tree, now fully decorated (the wife was working).  A single white candle in each window, a wreath on the door, recently painted red, with a spot light on it.  Outside, we have evergreen trees on either side of the front walk festooned with some colored LED lights, and 16 lighted candy canes along the driveway - 7 white lighted trees at the steet end of the yard complete the outside.  My favorite thing is a twenty-five cent plastic creche that I have had since I was a kid over forty years ago - it gets a special place among the tree branches each year…
Happy Christmas to all.

So far, my Advent theme is White Christmas. 

I’ve had a cold/fever, to each room is graced with a receptacle overflowing with crumpled soft white tissue paper.

Fidela, one of the other advantages of putting up the tree on the 26th is that it’s often easy to get a really cheap tree. Also there’s a much greater chance of it holding up until Epiphany.

In this county, for some reason which nobody knows, it’s illegal to sell Christmas trees until December 4.

That’s ‘so’ not ‘to’...

Ahhh, C.W., you had me until the 26th!!!  I can hold off happily for the 24th, but it really MUST be up in time for the gifts to surround it on Christmas Eve.  That part did become tricky when 4 Advent fell on Christmas Eve, but we got it done!

When I was a child, the 24th became a BIG deal.  We decorated the tree, with carols playing in the background and my parents enjoying Brandy Alexanders.  After a meal of stew, or more often, my mother’s inimitable onion soup, my sister and I were banished to take baths and prepare for bed, ears straining to listen for the knock on the door and my mother’s greeting followed by my father’s unmistakeable and unsuccessful attempt at imitating the Jolly Old Elf himself.  After the traditional greeting to my mother, followed by her assurances that, yes, there were two very good little girls in residence there—the sound of the door closing was our signal to clamber out of the tub and into our jammies, in a headlong rush downstairs to experience The Tree. 

Yes, we opened all our gifts, distributed singly by my father to each in turn, each to be examined and exclaimed over, and a list for thank-yous (to be written the next day!) dutifully made by each of us.  I always got a new outfit or some finery to wear to Midnight Mass. 

Christmas Day was centered around an early morning service (if we were living somewhere one was to be found), and the fantastic Christmas meal, followed by visiting relatives if possible.  I had long thought the Christmas Eve tradition in my family went back generations, but came to find it was an accomodation so that my mother would be able to fully enjoy and participate in The Tree without being drawn away by duties in the kitchen.

Ack!!! meant 24th! I don’t think you can find a Charlie Brown tree around here on the 26th, to buy or steal.

We have a real tree in the living room barren of lights and ornaments.  But, for Christmas it will be decorated.  And contrary to the tradition in the south, it will remain during the twelve days of Christmas.

One of the reasons why Christmas Eve is a big thing is that it was my parents’ anniversary. (Short version: it was my grandmother’s fault.)

I’m the contrarian in the group, contributing to global warming with a large light display in the yard—tasteful of course but bright.  The Greek neighbor across the street has also done a large display featuring Kala Christouyenna in large letters across his house.  We all pale in comparison to the guy down the block who has covered his entire house and yard in lights.  In solidarity with our Greek neighbor, we’ll keep our lights up until Orthodox Epiphany which is Jan 19.  Then it’s back to boring winter.

I am relieved to know it was merely a typo, C.W.

Right after Thanksgiving the porch decorated with white lights and a collection of hanging crystal and plastic snowflakes and stars. Next week will put up the creche (Since I converted to Orthodoxy, the Magi arrive on Christmas, not Epiphany.) and bring in last year’s potted deodar cedar which has grown to almost ceiling height. Will be trimmed with the old C-6, if-one-goes-out-they-all-go-out-lights, and family ornaments. The oldest documented one is a crystal icicle that was on my grandparents’ tree in 1905. Tinsel that drapes like the old lead kind, from a German importer, put on one strand at a time. May do a decorated candle. My current home is the smallest I’ve lived in since college days, so no room for more.

C. Wingate - my parents were married on Christmas Eve, too - they just barely made it to the courthouse before closing time. (I think in their day and place, church weddings were something for the well off.) My father died a few years short of their 50th anniversary.

Mary and Joseph are on the lawn, looking expectant. Jesus is still in the house. He’ll go outside on the 24th. A string of stars is hanging over the front porch, and wreaths are on the two front windows. No tree at this time, but we usually put it in the dining room, by a rear-facing window, so that (we believe) it can be seen by those who operate the freight trains that run on two tracks quite close to us.

My favorite decoration is our Moravian Star that hangs under the eaves of our front porch. We have been busy so it has not gone up -YET! But it will! We liked it so much that we bought a smaller Moravian Star to top the tree when it will be put up - probably this Sunday.

Otherwise our decorations are simple, wreaths on the doors (with purple bows, of course until Christmas day) and “faux” candles in the windows.

I live in an efficiency apartment that no-one ever visits.  I don’t have room to store seasonal decorations in the off season, so I don’t bother.  Instead, to get myself in the holiday mood, I play my rather extensive collection of music, and sometimes light a few candles.

We buy a $10.00 permit from the forest service every year and drive a few miles down the road to do our part in thinning the trees that will burn over in a few more years anyway.  We went a couple of weeks ago in the pickup, donned our snow shoes, and found a decent looking tree wide enough to make up for last year’s skinny one.  Saturday, 12 Dec, we brought it in and set it up…sure takes up a lot of space in the living room!
Sunday morning my husband decided to go to CA for the forseeable future.  His youngest daughter is back in the psychitric hospital for the 4th time in two months and he plans to stay there until she is released and able to function on her own.  Oh! sorry…I decorate my tree the third Sunday of Advent: the Joyful Sunday.  However, so far there are lights and a few ornaments on the tree… the rest of the livingroom is decorated with boxes and loose ornaments on every possible available space and a much-in-the-way stepladder.  I’ll be on my own here for Christmas so what matters it when I finally get the tree decorated and the house straightened?  ‘twill happen, always does. Seven January I’ll deal with restoring the house to its unholiday state.  Blessings to you all, I’m so very glad Jesus came to live among us!
Frances Scott

Large artificial tree, white lights, and we are thinking of getting a Moravian star to put on top.  I make sure to have several Cross ornaments hanging as a reminder that the Incarnation was the first step on the road to Calvary.  In addition, we have various decorations around the house depending on how busy we are in December.  I also have wastebaskets filled with crumpled tissues as I also have a bad cold now.

We have our Advent wreath and the folder telling us how to use it.  I also have a few Christmas quilts out and some candles.  This weekend we will put up the tree in our entryway and decorate the rest of the house—a real concession to my husband who wants to see the tree with presents under it. 
I like the idea of slowly adding to the the holiday decorations. We took a cruise one Christmas and that is how the ship was decorated: something new every day.  We will keep the tree up until New Years but celebrate Epiphany with a cake—complete with gifts baked in it!

#36, Frances Scott, 
Prayers for the healing and deliverance from all oppression and wounding of the enemy for your stepdaughter, the anointing of the Lord for your husband’s heart, soul, hands, prayers and words, and for you, many special divine consolations, for all of You, the abiding holy presence of the One who is our Priest, Healer and chief Joy.  In His Name, Amen

Garland ropes on the front of the house, a small tree lit with Griswoldian (Chevy not Frank) quantities of lights; a garland of Norwegian flags in the front window; an Advent wreath on the mantle.  Use purple candles in the candle wreath because thats what I grew-up with at the Cathedral here.  Everyone has gone to blue these days.  I’m sticking with purple and I don’t care what anyone thinks of that!  ha!

Some white lights on the house and a few shrubs, but not too many because the darn things are practically disposable each year. A lit Jesus Mary and Joseph on our hill—wish we’d found some animals too when we bought them on sale several years ago. Two Christmas trees, one real and elegantly color coordinated with the living room, the other fake and slim to hold all the kid and kitsch ornaments. Live wreaths on front and back doors. Advent wreath in the dining room, fake pine garland on the banister, a few deep pink poinsettias around the house. Multiple Nativity scenes and Santas that I haven’t put out yet because I have to dust first and just haven’t gotten around to it. And I might clip my evergreens to decorate the mantel unless I get wrapped up in cookie baking. But that’s another obsession for another thread!

I love Christmas decorations, but I refrain until the end of Advent.  My husband, bless his dear heart, strun the outside twinkling lights all around the roof of our house and garage.  He also strung lights along the back fence, and it is so beautiful at night.  Nothing else will come out or go up until Sunday afternoon, the last Sunday of Advent.  This is not negotiable in our family.  But then, what a scene!  A real tree with ornaments from my grandmother, my mother and from me.  Old fashioned ornaments and hand-made ornaments and Shiny Brites too!  Some of the ornaments were handmade by my brother and me in Scouts as children.  I have a nativity scene from Honduras (from one of my Medical Missions there)and plastic reindeer from my grandmother for the mantle.  I suppose it is rather tacky—Santas and Elves mixed with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus, but I love it and then on Epiphany I have to pack everything away for another year.  But in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone.”

We don’t even have one decoration up. I’m having a hard time getting fired up after our diocesan election.

We live next to a house that is beautifully decorated, and we’ve not had a chance to do anything yet.  I’ve threatened to put up a sign with an arrow pointing to that neighbor’s house saying “DITTO——->”

My wife and I celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way:  The tree goes up on Christmas Eve, and we serve mulled cider and hot cross buns.  For us, the holiday is twelve days long, culminating in Twelfth Night, when we burn a branch of the tree in our Churchyard along with others.  Except for the tree and electric candles in our windows and holly sprigs on our fireplace mantel, with the stockings hanging from the mantel, that’s about all of the decorations at our house.

Floridian, you’ve no idea how much your prayers help!  I’m all teary-eyed. Thank you. God bless.  Frances Scott

The older we get… the less gets put out- Advent wreath with three purple and 1 pink candle on the dining table- light the right candles each evening, Nativity scene on the mantle (lovely 35 year old set of creamy white china), small tree on a counter with our silver ornaments (one per year of marriage) , Merry Christmas neon sign in the carport, wreaths on the front and back doors….
No Christmas cookies till Christmas Eve after church.
This year- fasting (vegan diet) from Nov 15 till Christmas Day (Orthodox)- except for Thanksgiving….. This fasting does make one focus

Kathryn in Georgia

Here in Costa Rica, we have encountered some customs that are different from what we did in Dallas. 

First, the Christmas trees are usually on the OUTside of the house, rather than indoors, so our tree is by our front door in the corridor or entryway, which is enclosed by the rejas (grillwork) that enclose our front porch.

Christmas is a really, really big deal here.  This is a Roman Catholic country, by law, so it is common to see Nativity scenes in government buildings and businesses, as well as the public squares. Also, sales of Christmas decorations begin as early as September, although I didn’t notice the local folks turning on their Christmas lights until the latter part of November.  We turned on our lights on Rose Sunday.

Nativity scenes or crèches are often displayed in or near the entryway of the house, but here they are called portáles.  In English, the thesaurus shows “threshold” or “entry” as synonyms for “portal”. Thinking about it, I feel that the portál is like an icon, giving us a glimpse into a great, eternal Truth. 

The portales here in CR are often enhanced by the addition of additional figurines and I like to add my santos to the scene to represent the host of saints adoring the Christ Child (Niño Divino).  We have the stable and some animals and shepherds displayed at the moment, but will wait to add the Holy Family on “la Nochebuena” (Christmas Eve).  The Magi will come at Epiphany.

Incidentally, based on what I have learned from our Tico (Costa Rican) friends and neighbors, Nochebuena is the big deal, with Christmas Day being a day to relax, but not a family gathering/party day.

No decorations yet except a wreath on the door (no ribbon).  I usually decorate the weekend before Christmas, using lots of greens, candles, and pine cones.  The ornaments for the tree are eclectic—everything from homemade to delicate glass.  On the writing desk is the nativity scene, dark wood, from Madagascar, with a wooden structure to serve as a stable, all set on a golden cloth.  On the corner of the desk is a tall white cone filled with little lights and topped with a star.  In front of the cone is a clear acrylic angel blowing a trumpet that sparkles in the light from the cone. Last year we left everything up until February; it was just too beautiful to take down.

We have a formal tree up, but I’m sad about that and want a “family” tree with family ornaments going forward—instead of one with ornaments that match each other perfectly.  How fun perfectly matched ornaments?  Not very.  It worked during our single days, but now we have a child.  Our 21 year month old daughter (our first child) doesn’t care about having a family tree—this year.  But she will next year.  One with memorable ornaments.

I will say a nativity scene is an absolute must for small children.  What a tremendous teaching opportunity!  Our daughter is not old enough to know much, but she loves babies.  And “baby Jebus” is pretty much the star of the show this time of year.

So she knows all the main characters from our little ceramic nativity scene.  “Baby Jebus.  Baby Jebus SLEEPING!  Marrre-we.  Daddy Joe-seef.  Sheeeeep.  Shep-URD.  Cow.  Mooooo.  Horse.”

But the most entertaining for us has been her reaction to the three wise men.  It’s a bit too much for her to process, and they all have these ridiculous headresses.  So she calls them, collectively, the “Hair Bows.”

There’s one with this headress that has five golden tufts sticking off the top of his head.  She calls him “High Five.”  And runs around yelling “High Five!!!  High Five!!!”

Of course, I do dream of people coming over and me saying, “Ellie, who’s that?” And having her say: “Balthassar.”  “Ellie, who’s that?” “Melchior.”  Ellie, who’s that?” “Gaspar.”

Then, everyone would know my daughter is smarter than every other 21 month old out there.  WHICH SHE IS.  Even if she thinks the three wise men are “Hair Bows” and the tufty one (Gaspar?) is “High Five.”

So far the Advent wreath, plain electric “candles” in the windows toward the front, and, from our set of santons from Provence, Joseph walking and Mary on the donkey. Over the weekend I’ll bring out the stable and most of the rest of the figures, including animals, a few shepherds and a couple of townspeople, while Mary and Joseph still wend their way. I’ll also get a poinsettia and put out some candles in holders that make flickery shadows. We seek to focus on the nativity very simply, and for us, in our small house, that has meant not having a tree. Sunday I’ll drape a string of small white lights on the mantle and go out in the yard and whack a lot of greenery off the evergreens to place on the mailbox, by the front door and around the house. Mostly arbor vitae boughs (stays green and does not rain needles) will land artlessly on the mantle, and I’ll work the lights up through, add some pinecones and maybe a red bow or two and put red tapers on the mantle and in a couple of sconces above it. Early Christmas Eve Mary and Joseph and an empty manger will appear in the stable. Late in the evening, basking in the peaceful afterglow of a lovely service, we’ll have an hors d’eouvre buffet arranged on newly placed bright scarlet tablecloth, make a fire, light the tapers and open our gifts. The Babe will be placed in the manger and the shepherds will gather round, and the kings and a camel will start journeying from another corner of the room. Most of the greens will remain till Epiphany; the boughs and lights on the mantle and the crèche, probably weeks longer, cheering me through he bleakest winter weeks. “And our eyes at last shall see Him, through His Own redeeming love, for that Child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above.” A blessed Christmas, everyone.

A large 9’ tree in my livingroom adorned with ornaments from our past.  Those from friends who have gone on to glory are very special.  This year outdoor lights are a minimum since our 22” of rain since December 1 has not left much time for outdoor decorating.  :(  The highlight is our manger scene.  The occupants are scattered around the house “arriving” one at a time leading up to the baby Jesus on Christmas eve.

The Christmas tree went up the day before Halloween.  Rather than tinsel, all decorations are white, and include pearls, feathers, and other assorted poofters.  Striking.  The stockings went on the mantle about a week after that.  My wife added some exterior decorations this year to her repertoire. 

The wreath went up sometime in 2007 (?) and has been there ever since. 

Kind of a cumulative thing. 

(Mrs. Moot is the best wife, ever).

#53 - ah… a wreath up since 2007 - wonderful! I didn’t mention the 4 foot tall Christmas tree (fully decorated with family ornaments) that has been up for three years in the train room - we just never took it down one year and there it stands in its glory every day - yes, eyebrows do raise when viewed by non-residents LOL but the residents love it!

-Kathryn in Georgia

I must be the only person here that remembers that “Santa Claus” used to bring the tree on Christmas Eve.  I don’t know how my parents did it, but we never had a tree until Christmas morning, because Santa brought the tree as well as all the presents.  They had to get us to bed, then bring all the gifts out of hiding, wrap many of them, set up and decorate the tree and then try to get some sleep before we woke them up at 5:00 AM.  One year my dad had to assemble an electric train set that I got as a present.

Our tree has been up for a week, all decorated, and we’ve had lights on the bushes out front and a swag of greens on the front door for 2 weeks. The mantle is decorated with a collection of assorted-sized Nutcrackers and decorative candles.

I think Christmas gift bags are the greatest thing ever invented.  We’ve reused some of them for nearly ten years now (just slide a new gift tag on the string each year.)

This thread has made me consider, once again, how wonderful parents are.  The lengths they go to to create enchantment for the little (and sometimes not-so-little) ones! 
Thank you, Father, for giving me such parents!  And thank you for revealing, in their actions designed to bring delight—joyful, boundless, squealing delight—
your own delight in us.  Amen.

Battery operated window sill lights, Christmas tree (artificial) with tree skirt quilted by my wife, greeting cards on stuck around sides and top of double doorway (door-less)  between living room and kitchen. That’s about it, so far only the lights in windows are up.
Peter Dewberry
http://www.free-side.com
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I trust you’ll understand, I’m not here attempting to spoil anyone’s Yuletide spirit, I’m just relating something that happened to me this season.  (Perhaps it won’t hit you in the gut like it did me, there’s nothing wrong with you.)
  Sometime in August, I was sifting through YouTube videos. I came across one from Voice of the Martyrs concerning the arrest of the publisher of a Christian newspaper in China who was sentenced to… (well,  you can watch it yourself.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDHWYK_HtRg 

  During her 6 year imprisonment, the Chinese State forced her to make Christmas lights for the American market. 
  I get it.  This and much, much worse happens all the time in autocratic regimes throughout the world, but THIS ONE came to roost on my doorstep.

  Our house now stands in stark contrast to the neighborhood houses, by the absence of lights, colored or otherwise…because it is not possible to find lights of any description not made in China.  When I look in vain for them, my thoughts invariably flee to Sarah and her bleeding feet.  We look like a missing tooth in an Arkansas grin (apologies to any Arkansas posters herein fully or nearly fully dentacled ).  Well and good. 
  What’s more importantly at stake here is my 20 year old son, who doesn’t claim to be a christian, but reads them frequently,  to whom I showed the YouTube video about Sarah.
  He’s watching me, like a tree full of owls, waiting to see if I’ll cave.
  What I did do, (by mutual familial consent) is get a refund for the Chinese lights I bought at Wally-World, and now what I shall do, joyfully, is send that money to support Voice of the Martyrs.
    And this season, the sight of cheerful Christmas lights,—or even the absence of them—put me in remembrance to pray for Sarah’s comfort, and the release, of the millions just like her. 
  Come, Lord Jesus.

One way I will not be “decorating” for Advent or Christmas this year is by not having a picture on the mantle that was being offered by a nearby parish in my Diocese.  The priest was encouraging the families in his parish to come last Sunday afternoon to have their picture taken with Santa on the afternoon of Advent III.  Not Saint Nicholas mind you that has some attachment to the Church but “Santa”.  I mention this as I don’t understand what kind of “outfit” we are part of any more.  I pray that same priest won’t be singing “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” as his processional hymn on Christmas Eve.  I don’t know how much more sadness I can endure.

This year is limited to a hand-made créche (no Infant ‘til Christmas) because I’m in Portugal, and with my wife in the States with the grandkids until the 10th Day of Christmas, I’m not decorating for me.

Before we came to volunteer for the Igreja Lusitana two years ago, we decorated the outside of the house we had in Charleston SC the same way each year.  Starting on the first Sunday of Advent, we had blue lights outlining the walk and porch.  On returning from Christmas Eve’s Midnight Mass, I’d swap the lights over to red and green and leave them up for the 12 days of Christmas-Tide.  Ailmost invariably, someone in the neighborhood would notice and ask what the change meant… and it was as great opportunity to tell them.

Side Note to #33:  Actually, I think it was just the Virgin Mary who was “expectant”...

Here is my Virtual Christmas decor…exactly as I would do it if could:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lVvM5tfzc3w/SyxOw8bFpvI/AAAAAAAAHR8/wnIPtQjELng/s1600-h/Christmas+2008+25.bmp

I normally do not put up any Christmas decorations until Christmas Eve. I leave up the decorations until Twelfth Night, the Eve of Epiphany.

When I lived in England as a boy, my grandparents and mother decorated a Christmas tree in the parlor on Christmas Eve and hung paper chains and paper lanterns from the beams and ceiling of the parlor. We made the paper chains and the paper lanterns. The door of the parlor was then closed until Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, after dark, my family walked across the snow-covered common to the parish church which was decorated with evergreens, holly, and ivy, and lit with candles. The service was Evening Prayer. We then walked to the village hall where the whole village gathered to celebrate Christmas with a pantomime or Punch and Judy puppet show and a visit from Father Christmas who handed out small gifts to the village children. On Christmas Day we gathered in the parlor to unwrap Christmas presents and to sing Christmas carols.

I keep my Christmas decorations fairly simple and fairly traditional—wreathes of holly and ivy, wreathes of evergreen, a small olive wood creche, this year’s Christmas cards, and a small tree decorated with metallic beads and tiny Christmas lights. I would like to follow the old Irish custom and put a lit candle in the window on Christmas Eve to welcome the Christ Child but I have no window with a wide enough ledge upon which to safely leave a candle burning. My cat is likely to knock down the candle and set himself and the house on fire.

So far we have an Advent wreath and have shared Advent devotions during the lighting of the candles, but for only two of the three Sundays thus far. I put up our LED display of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child in the front bedroom window this afternoon, which took all of 10 seconds. We have put up a few particularly beautiful Christmas cards on the mantel (one of which was from the Church Pension Fund, I must admit), and I have a pine candle I’m burning that almost compensates for the lack of a Christmas tree. We had dinner last night with a beloved Christian sister who had some snowflake decorations hanging from her chandelier, which she admitted were her only Christmas decorations thus far. They were lovely, and they felt like enough to me, too. I think the influence of how little we need to worship together and celebrate His presence (as a result of leaving our buildings behind) has had some subtle influence. Or maybe we’re just worn out.

Back when our kids were growing up we had a Jesse Tree for several years running.  We also had blue lights first on the Christmas tree (in early December) and then added a string of colored lights on Christmas Eve at least one year. 

Normally we wait until at least the second week of December to start decorating but my husband wanted to get the outdoor lights and other things down from the attic and set up when he had someone to help him.  Our younger son happened to have a convenient day off the first week of December so the two of them spent the good part of an afternoon sorting, staking, and climbing in the front yard. 

The first thing I locate and put in place indoors is the Advent wreath for the table.  Earlier this year I remembered to buy three violet blue candles and one rose-colored one.  My husband and I only light the candle(s) as we sit down to Sunday dinner.  We read an appropriate Scripture verse, sing a verse of O Come, O Come Emmanuel as the candles are lit and pray.  (Earlier this week I bought a white candle and holder to place in the middle for our Christmas candle.)

We have a 3/4 life-size manger scene from Bronners of Frankenmmuth, MI in the front yard.  (We bought one piece at a time over a period of five or six years.) Blue and white-colored icicles hang from the roof and green and white lights edge the sidewalk.  Every other bush behind the manger scene is trimmed with blue netting and there’s an angel “hanging” from one of our silver maples. 

Indoors we have an artificial tree (alas!) but it looks alright considering it was a floor model that my husband got a good deal on a few years back.  It came with white lights and this year I have decorated it with handmade or homemade or non-flashy ornaments.  (Next year it will probably be the shiny red and gold balls along with the lighthouse ornaments.) Our four-year-old grandson helped me put candy canes on the tree the other day, and there are a few packages underneath it now.

There’s a Willow Tree creche on the mantle and I’m embarrassed to say that Baby Jesus is already in the manger and the wise men have already shown up.  (In past years when the kids were home we’d wait and put Jesus in the manger after we got home from church on Christmas Eve.)  Stockings are hung underneath, including one for each of the two cats, one for our 27-yr. old who doesn’t live here anymore, and one for my mother who arrives for a visit on Tuesday from West Michigan. 

Finally we have a fresh wreath (my consolation for not having a real tree) on the front door.  It also came from Michigan!