Last year we got an early start on decorating and then got side tracked and wound up scrambling to put up all the decorations just before Christmas. This year we will try to be more focused and avoid the last minute panic.

Last week we brought all of our totes of Christmas decorations plus all of our trees into the house from the garage.

Right now we have 7 of our 9 trees up. One can't go up until after Halloween because it goes where our Halloween tree is standing. The other tree is a small 3 foot tree that goes on a table which currently has a bunch of crafting stuff on it.

For the trees that are up, I have installed the special extension cords that have many plugs along their length for lights, magic cords, legacy cords and keepsake power cords.

One tree now has all of its special cords installed and the Here Comes Santa Claus tree topper installed. It is our Christmas Vacation / A Christmas Story tree.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

And Ornament Debut is less than 2 weeks away.

We are gearing up for the start of Christmas decorating.

Should be kicking off the start of the 10' Family room tree next week.

No. I won't start until some time in November. Thinking about Halloween, however.

Today I completed decorating our Halloween tree...lights, ornaments, and a Halloween tree skirt. The tree topper is a plush Snoopy wearing a witch's hat.

Other than the tree that will go where our Halloween tree is located, all our Christmas trees have all the needed Hallmark cords and their tree toppers. It's time to start putting on lights.

I still have Halloween.

My friend used to start decorating on Halloween night. She would have the tree with lights already up.

Then she would hand out candy while hanging Christmas ornaments on her tree.

I loved the idea.

I'm starting the main Christmas tree this weekend (10').

I haven’t started decorating yet but I do plan on staging the pencil trees any day now.

And I thought the people down the street from me were early when put out there Halloween decorations on Labor Day.

I probably had some Halloween out in August. Not a ton. Inside not outside. Every year I say I am going to start decorating for Christmas early. I’m doing it this year. Really. I have a plan.

Started decorating today. 7 big trees up, floofed out and tree skirts in place. Now to hang the ornaments... : )

We won't be doing much for the holidays this year. Our water pump kinda blew up. We have water all over everything. Going through boxes now to see what is damaged, besides the carpeting. UGH!

Beaglebabes-I’m so sorry you are having to deal with water damage. I really hope it isn’t going to be anything more than needing new carpet.

I officially have my slim trees placed. Prelit. Not decorated. I may move one. There’s only so many places I can put a tree even though I like to change it up each year. The change part will be what gets put on the trees. The big trees won’t get put up until much later. We may host Thanksgiving so I want to leave some decorating until afterward since the same people will be guests at Christmas. I want to have some fun surprises still in store they haven’t seen yet.

Very sorry to hear what happened.
I hope the magic of Christmas still makes it to your home this holiday !!!

Thank you. With surgery it makes it hard also.

Sad to hear of your struggles, especially at the holidays. Hope you can manage some decorations and the card exchange. That alone will lift your spirits. I really enjoyed looking at the addresses from all over the country!

I really don't care this year if I have a tree. I have so much to do outside and inside that has been put off because of problems. I look forward to doing the card exchange every year.

Does it count if I never took my Christmas pictures down from last year?

I have just been overwhelmed with working two jobs and my hours increased when covid hit. I have finally started settling down recently but just find myself kind of lost when it comes to starting any projects.

I did agree to foster a little kitten from the ER I work at and he is doing so well he may go to his forever home in the next 2 weeks. Taking care of a little one was therapeutic for me and gave me a bit of purpose outside the hustle and bustle of my daily norm.

Sorry beaglebabes that you are having water issues. I can't imagine how discouraging and upsetting it is going through valued treasures for damage. My heart hurts for you.

I did get my Halloween ornaments up last week. We'll see when I get going on Christmas.

Main tree in our family room is up and I've put 1900 LED lights on it.

Still have to put a couple old style light stings on for the older magic ornaments before I can say the lights are done.

Then on to various wires and then ribbon.

Our Star Trek tree is done...lights, ornaments and garland. I have the Star Trek table top Transporter, Bridge scene, and Transporter Water Globe on a low table alongside the tree. Just need to put the Star Trek tree skirt under it.

Our Christmas Vacation / A Christmas Story tree just needs garland and a tree skirt. I put the Griswold table top house on a low table next to the tree.

The Disney / Peanuts tree needs ornaments, garland and the Peanuts tree skirt.

The Star Wars tree has all lights and all Storyteller ornaments. Lots more ornaments to hang.

Our main tree needs the bubble lights and a set of Cookie Monster lights (we've had them since our kids were small and continue to use them), and then it is ready for ornaments.

The 2 cat trees have all of their lights. It's time to hang the cat ornaments.

I even got a shipping notice today that a new Lionel Christmas train that will go under our main tree has shipped. I already had 4 different Christmas themed trains that we rotate each year, but I decided this year to get a new one.

I am so excited that our decorating is this far along and there is still over a week until Halloween. I have never been this ahead of schedule. Hopefully, December will be a whole month of being to relax and enjoy the decorations.

Janet,

Like others, Sorry you are having challenges. If you discover you need to replace any ornaments, please let me know. More than happy to repay the many times you have helped me out! Take care.

Carol

VinceL- Wow! Great job on getting so much done so early! It will be so nice to be able to sit back and relax and enjoy all your decorating when the official Christmas season starts. That is my goal. We shall see if this is the year. Congrats on the huge head start you have.

No ornaments needed. Mostly empty boxes and those that had stuff in I cleaned in lysol.

Good to hear!

As of today (November 6th) we have 7 of our 9 trees completely decorated. We need to complete our main 9 foot tree and our second tree (7 feet) of all cat ornaments.

We won't be doing much outside decorating this year since we will be having the roof replaced on our house. So, all of our shrubs and ground near the house will be covered in protective tarps. They expect to install the roof around the end of November. We won't have much time to put up outside decorations.

This year our focus is on indoor decorations. Lots of plush figures, many of the Hallmark tabletop/mantel decorations, and lots of fluffy snow. We both do ceramics. Mostly we do items for outside around our pool, but I also do a lot of Christmas related items. So, we have a bunch of those on display. I made a large 3-tier ceramic Christmas tree a couple of years ago, and we also have the ceramic tree that my late mother made.

Our house is truly looking a lot like Christmas.

Still working on getting the 950-1000 ornaments on the main tree.

My two trees are out of their boxes and in their stands. I'm hoping to get lights and many if not all decorations on them before I leave for Thanksgiving. We'll see how far I get.

Still working on this tree, but have started the Disney tree.

All 9 of our trees are up and fully decorated.

We even have the Lionel train running around the main tree and a cat tree (not a Christmas tree but a tree for cats to jump and sleep on) in the Living Room.

All other indoor decorating is done except I am still working on a ceramic Bumble (the abominable snowman in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindoor TV special). The Bumble is holding a large star with little Christmas lights on it and his eyes will have 2 small round Christmas lights. With a light bulb installed inside him, the lights on the star will glow as will his eyes.

We put up translucent screens in the 2 large windows in the front of our house and use 2 video projectors to display Christmas videos from a company called Atmosfx.

Once our new roof is installed we can do some outdoor decorating.

I'm playing Christmas music on our Google Nest Hub, but my wife says it is too early to start listening to Christmas music. I say Bah Humbug to that.

Glad I checked out my light last night. I need to get at least two strings of regular lights. I'd also love to find some twinkling lights since one of my strings gave up the ghost. But those seem to be impossible to find.

I don't know if you use or like LED lights, but these warm white twinklers look nice on our trees.

https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p/70-...-Wire-64509.htm

I will check them out. Thanks.

All those "Early Christmas Decorating Deniers", get decorating !!!

I made it--all my decorating done by Thanksgiving!

Ted

Still decorating !!!

And we started in October.

Still haven't taken any decorations down.

We brought all of the storage totes and boxes into the house from the garage on Thursday. We will soon start taking down decorations and packing them away.

Our daughter is now in a house (rental) and needs a bigger tree than the little 4 foot one that she has. Last week we picked up a 7 foot tree at 75% off and will give her one of our 6.5 foot trees. We need the bigger tree for Star Trek ornaments (couldn't display them all this year).

Who still has full size trees for sale?

Our local Walmart had 1 pre-lit tree left and 7 un-lit trees . We only get un-lit trees. But, given what Walmart had left, I guess most people prefer pre-lit trees.

Probably the best time to buy them.

People seem to prefer the pre-lit trees. I much prefer the unlit trees, but they are rather hard to find.

My outside lights are down, but that's it. I've been getting ready for a trip (leaving in 48 hours), so the undecorating will have to wait until I'm done at the end of the month. Wish I'd taken them down, but there just wasn't time.

Pre-lit just don't have enough lights.

And the lights stop working after a few years.

Exactly! That's why I don't like to buy them.

I know several people who bought pre-lit trees and after a couple of years they stopped working. They spent a lot of time removing the lights and started putting their own lights on.

Could have saved some money and effort by just buying non-lit trees.

I've never had a light issue and I use my pre-lit trees at least 10 sometimes 15 years.

I started using them in 2000.

I have had to take lights off a prelit tree when they go out. Takes a lot of time and hurts the fingers. I only did it because I liked the trees. I agree prelit do not have enough lights and I am not a LED fan. There are not many unlit options in a nice tree. I see shabby ones but hard to find a nice unlit tree. Grab them when you see them!

I do like the convenience of a prelit tree and use them for accent trees. I can always add more lights if I want. Prelit is a timesaver.

I got really lucky one year after Christmas. Went to Boscovs and they had a tree 75% that looked really great. Spent 125.00 on it. It was a 7.5 ft unlit Lakewood Blue Spruce Tree. Since that time, I have bought another 5 waiting to get them until after Christmas. They have the feel real branches and look great.

A year or two ago my youngest daughter came over. She proceeded to ask me how many times I have to vacuum and how do I keep the tree from not losing needles. She didn't believe me at first when I said it was artificial. She has since "borrowed" one of the purchases above which I suspect I will never get back. When she was growing up she always preached that real trees are better and she would never have a fake tree... until adulthood came and she had to clean it up.

Our trees are slowly coming down. 3 of them are boxed up and ready for storage. One is ready to be packed in a box. Another tree has had all the ornaments removed. That leaves 4 more trees to undecorate.

Each year as I put decorations into storage totes I realize what new decorations we bought and have to figure out how to fit them in the totes.

Now that I'm back from vacation, I guess I have no excuse and should start taking stuff down. Although I still have work to do on my blog....

8 of our 9 trees have been taken down and packed in their boxes. Of course, I saved our largest tree for last.

Our goal is to have all Christmas decorations taken down and put away by the end of January. I think we will miss this date by a few days.

I took in the outside decorations last week. But still plan to leave the inside decorations in tack for a couple more weeks.

Will start mid-February and finish by mid-March. Should keep me busy until our new Dreambooks arrive.

Today, 2/4/23 is a sad day.

Our last tree came down this morning and all of our decorations are now in storage in the garage. Our cat is upset that he no longer has a Christmas tree to lay under.

We usually start bringing decorations into the house around Labor day. Only 7 months to go.

Haven't started taking down the inside decorations.

Maybe sometime this month.

I took my down in Saturday February 4. Normally I don't wait this long, but I was busy every weekend in January and I like most of us, take at least one day to take the tree down. I can denude the tree of ornaments in about half an hour, but it takes two hours to put them back into their boxes.

Finally started taking down Christmas decorations tonight. I didn't wind up starting yesterday since I went over and watched the Super Bowl with a friend. Hoping to get them down this week.

I am still working on taking all mine down.

We haven't started taking down the inside decorations yet. Although, we don't put the lights on most of the trees(12).

So what does everyone include in their criteria for a tree? I am asked how many I put up and it’s hard to answer. Does it have to have ornaments? Be lit up? Be full size? Does any decoration that’s a tree count? For instance, I have Mr. Christmas ceramic lit up trees. Do they count? I have flocked tabletop trees that some I put little ornaments on and some I didn’t. They are not lit up. So what qualifies when someone asks how many trees did you put up? Do the white bare birch trees that are lit count? No ornaments. Do the mercury glass battery lit trees count?

I think what "a tree" is could be different for many collectors/decorators.

I consider a tree to be an artificial/real tree that is decorated with ornaments/or other decorations.

I do not count my ceramic trees.

I have (1) 10' tree, (1) 9' tree, (7) 7' trees, (1) 5' tree, (1)1 3' tree, (1) 2' tree.

I just count my full sized artificial trees. I don't count my mini trees, my ceramic tree, or my tree for displaying Hallmark's 12 Days of Christmas.

Maybe I should. I've already taken down 4 trees if I do that!

I have a Mary's angel tree up.

Plus my Valentine tree.

Christmas is packed up.

All our trees are still up, but I only light a couple of them.

I finally finished taking down my reservations today. The living room is not back to normal until November.