31 Days meme: Christmas decorations

ephemera asked:

How soon is too soon for Christmas decorations in a) shops and b) people's houses / gardens, and do you care?

Hmmm.

I do care, at least a bit. I get quite irritated when I start seeing decorations up in shops in October! I don't want to be thinking about Christmas then (partly because Christmas gives me epic anxiety) and it seems really brash and in-your-face and... sales-ey. I don't like sales-ey things. Plus everything gets kind of bright and jangly and irritating and I'd like to put that off for as long as possible.

In general, I think "after Hallowe'en" is a reasonable time to start putting Christmas decorations up in the shops. I tend to give shops the massive side-eye if they start doing it before then.

As for home and gardens - personally I prefer to have them up a week or two before Christmas. I'm not religious, but I was raised Christian enough that the start of December (ie: Advent) seems like a reasonable time to start seeing decorations in gardens and front rooms. I don't know that I see that many in November, and I don't think I would give the side-eye to private people doing what they want with their homes the way I do with businesses.

Thank you, that was an interesting question! Ask me more questions here, there are loads of days still free!