31 Days meme: Christmas decorations

[randomling]

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!

Comments

[aveleh]

I find this interesting because my order is the opposite. I feel like Christmas decorations shouldn't be up in public places before December, because there's no reason to do it so soon. But I absolutely expect people to put lights on the outside of their house in October because the snow starts falling and the sun sets so early so it's an easier time to do it and makes the nights a little brighter.

(But I'm also approaching this from a not-at-all Christian perspective. so I feel differently about public and private celebrations.)