There is a house in a road nearby - with it's Christmas tree up. In the house, and lit in the evenings. Seriously!

We put our outside lights up last weekend, around the garage. I'm done with the whole "up a ladder in minus 18, playing with fiddly clips" routine sometime in December. We don't switch the lights on yet. Obviously.

Saw trees and baubles and sparkles all around a mall yesterday. They weren't there on Saturday. Have not yet heard any Xmas toons.

The tallest artificial Christmas tree in the UK was erected, decorated and presumably lights lit this past weekend in Cheshire. Everywhere Christmas is celebrated tries to get a jump ahead, particularly in the retail commercial world.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-Cheshire.html

Well, it was 19 degrees here yesterday, and something similar today.

Christmas can suck a big fat one.

I saw someone nearby had put up their Christmas tree the day after Hallowe'en.

I read a topic started by a Canadian on another message board discussing one of those copy/paste moral indignation status updates on Facebook (you know the kind) that was apparently going around, concerning how everybody ought to wait until after Remembrance Day before putting up Christmas decorations, because the decorations are disrespectful to the memory of those who fought, etc. (I'm going on what that person wrote, I haven't personally seen one of these posts.)

I don't really understand why it is disrespectful.

I like the idea of getting one holiday/occasion out of the way before getting started on another but I wouldn't have said it was disrespectful. I think it'd perhaps look a bit daft to have a poppy wreath on your house or in your garden (I should say I have never actually seen this, so I'm talking hypothetically) surrounded by blinking lights and inflatable snowmen but that's probably a matter of taste rather than respect, for me anyway. In the absence of a wreath, it's fair game I think?

Thoughts?

I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to go through all the hassle of putting up decorations (and taking them back down), I should get the maximum benefit from them. That said, Dec 1st is where I draw the line. Totally arbitrary, but earlier than that seems pretty bonkers to me. I accept that I might be the weirdo over here in Canada though.

When I was in Edmonton, it was quite commonplace to see people putting the lights etc up at the same time they were taking the halloween stuff down.
I can see the reasoning when it's -20 outside, but that's still not an argument to actually put the lights on, put the christmas tree up etc.

Call it taste, or call it decency, same difference. Xmas can wait till after the sombre reflection of 11/11 in my opinion.


Lets face it, it can wait till well after american thanksgiving too. Why this unseemly rush to get the Xmas stuff going, its still weeks away, and it all stays up for weeks after the 25th anyway. I just find it bizarre, even my 6 year old isnt excited about Xmas yet...

Putting the lights up before the plastic clips shatter in the cold is fine, but waiting till December to turn them on doesnt seem too much to expect.

The only Canadian radio station that I listen to switched over yesterday to playing only Christmas music and not the good stuff like Slade or Wizzard.

I'm with this viewpoint. My decs are partially up but mainly because I have waaaaay too much time on my hands and hubby is away at work. Is it too early? - probably, did it and is it giving me something to do? - you betcha

When you put it like that, Remembrance Day is only 6 days after Bonfire Nights - aren't all the fireworks a bit insensitive to those who fought?

Ban Bonfire Night!! Lest they remember.

I suppose I just don't really grasp why sparkly lights and flying reindeer somehow preclude the quiet contemplation of Remembrance Day. I could bow my head and remember and be unaffected in that moment by the Christmassy warm fuzzies.

Poppies worn too soon, poppies not worn soon enough, poppies not worn at all, poppies decorated with glitter, poppies worn on the wrong part of the body, etc. If it's not about Christmas decorations it would just be about something else, I think. Sometimes I feel like certain people can't just get on and show their respect like everybody else, they have to make this big fuss of showing how deep and profound their respect is, by implying that everybody else's respect is lacking for whatever reason.

I guess, by saying that, I'm kind of falling into the same trap of speaking as though I know how those people feel. So maybe I should just pipe down and say: each to their own.

(Sorry, gone a little off topic here.)

Update from my earlier post - Hazleton Lanes shopping centre, Yorkville, Toronto is fully decked out - huge tree and lots of little ones. Silver balls this year. And Christmas tunes too.

Everyone is going on about when the trees and lights go up, what about when the lights get taken down?

Lights still dangling on the house in Feb, Mar and April......like really?

Depends how severe the winter is for me. If it warms up enough for the snow and ice on the roof to go and for the clips not to be brittle Ill bring them down, but Im not going to risk my neck just for the sake of getting them down in January.

Some years it happens, some years it doesnt.

I was in Canadian Tire today.... Bing Crosby versions of Christmas Carols, non stop. I couldn't wait to get out....

A good friend of mine fully decorated for Christmas and lit up her home on the 1st of November. She does that every year. But then, Christmas is her most favourite season for personal reasons. If it was that important to me, I'd want to extend it as long as possible.

At the Pretty Flowers household, we've pencilled in preparations for Christmas for the first week in December, as that's when #1 stepson arrives for the duration....