Well. My family usually doesn't get the tree up until at least the second week of December. For about ten years it's always been a wild one cut from some obscure, woodsy back road. We then leave it up usually until the first weekend in January.

Some other things we do include taping our received Christmas cards to the outer side of the stair railing and setting up a creche scene on the mantel. We've had this Avon set since before I was born, I think, and I remember playing with them as a little girl. The top of Joseph's staff has been broken off, and the donkey's ear is now glued in place. I am still very fond of that creche.

We do the Christmas card thing too, Adeona! We tape ours along the wall of the landing of our stairs (so they form like an archway over the stairwell). Neat!

And that nativity scene is very cute! We got ours from a garage sale several years ago. They're painted ceramics, and some of them aren't in the best of shape. It has WAY too many pieces in my opinon. They include:

Mary
Joseph
Baby Jesus in a Manger
An angel (which hangs on a fishing line so it looks as if she's flying)
Three wisemen
A Shepherd carrying a lamb
A weird bagpipe player
4 Sheep
1 Cow
1 Donkey
1 Camel

We usually set it up underneath our television, as that's about the only place where there's enough room for it, the cat won't bother it, and we can see it on a regular basis.

Adeona, your Christmases sound very similar to mine.

My family doesn't have a specific time to set up the tree, but it's usually a week or so before Christmas. Or on less busy years, the first week of December.

We've always had this one Nativity scene. I don't know what kind it is, but they are all ceramics. We are missing the camles, and some shepherds probably.... the rest of the missing pieces I've forgotten because we've had it so long. We keep it under the tree most of the time. Like Adeona, I remember playing so much with those, with my sister. Those are such warm, beautiful memories! We also had some tiny wooden Christmas toy ornaments that we adorped playing with, as well. In the nativity, Mary, Joseph, an Angel who can be tied onto a bough on the tree, a couple shepherds, sheep with individual grass patches, 3 wisemen, and some others that fail my memory. The wisemen's heads have broken before, and some sheep are glued back on their feet ... I think my sister and I are to blame for those.

Does anyone else recall Mr. Bean playing with the Nativity Scene in a shop window? Nativity scenes always remind me of that, sometimes. xD

This is our first Christmas in an individual house, so I can't wait to put lights on the bushes and trees on our front lawn, and put our little light-up Christmas tree outside! Inside, we usually have, like I mentioned, the tree and Nativity, some Christmas stuffed animals, wall decorations, wreaths, candles, etc.

We also do the taping of Christmas cards around the house. I think it might be on one of our walls this year.

There's a bagpipe player in your Nativity set, Digs? That's hilarious! XD

A bagpiper in a Nativity set? I like it.

My parents have a Nativity set that's quite simple - but it's also pretty old (at least 55 years old). I think they bought it for $1. It's a ceramic set and, all things considered, in pretty good shape.

When I was growing up, 40 or more years ago, it was traditional for us to put up the Christmas tree on my father's birthday, December 18 (dreadfully late by today's standards! ). It gradually moved earlier and earlier, but was always in December.

This changed about 15 years ago when my parents began traveling south for the winter. They'd try to leave before the bad weather hit - which meant that we began observing Christmas the weekend after US Thanksgiving. (This sounds terribly premature, but actually it was kind of fun, as it 'freed up' December from the holiday rush and allowed me to just relax and enjoy the season).

I no longer lived with them, but would usually spend Thanksgiving with them, if a blizzard didn't prevent travel.

So toward the end there, the decorations went up a little before Thanksgiving, and came down a couple weeks later, before they left for Texas.

Outside decorations were limited. They did have a large pine tree in the front yard that held several hundred lights. Pretty nice when seen from a distance.

Does your family have any special ornaments or decorations that have a special story associated with them?

My parents have a lot of ornaments with memories. They have some ancient glass birds that date back (more or less) to their first Christmas together (61 years ago), along with some homemade ones my older siblings made in elementary school.

My younger brother has a knack for finding special ornaments (often of the 'light and sound' variety) that have become special over the years.

A bagpiper nativity piece? How odd and yet charming!

Those are such warm, beautiful memories! In the nativity, Mary, Joseph, an Angel who can be tied onto a bough on the tree...

Ooh, yes. One of our dearest Christmas activites long ago, when we used to have really bushy, store-bought trees instead of spindly wild ones, was playing with our little kids' wooden nativity in the branches of the tree! We would imagine little rooms and homes among the branches for the characters. So many happy memories!

They have some ancient glass birds that date back (more or less) to their first Christmas together (61 years ago)

How coincidental! We have some birds made out of pine cones that my grandmother (who passed away in 1995) made when she was in her 20's. They're probably about 60 years old, and although some of lost one or both of their wings, there are others that are still in very good condition. Even older still, we have some decorative little houses made by my Great Grandmother. They're in excellent condition, and even still have the grey coloured cotton coming out of their chimneys. They're closer to 80 years old.

My dad also has this wacky looking clown that he always hangs on the tree. He does it every single year, and has been doing so since he was a child.

we have the average stuff. When I have my own house etc I will make it a lot more exciting lol. well If I want to than. depends how time changes me.

anyway this has got to be the best decoration.(zelda for those who don't know).

I think my favourite Christmas ornament is a little sled made out of popsicle sticks that I was given when I was two or three.

Our decorating consists of wrapping garland (homemade and tinsel) around the stairway banister, hanging up stockings in the hallway, and putting the cards we receive on the wall next to the door.

We have a couple of different nativity sets, one of which is a wooden puzzle that turns into the stable, shepherds, Mary, Joseph and the baby, a camel and a wiseman.

We put them up after Thanksgiving, whenever someone decides it's time to get into the Christmas mood.

We normally start decorating the week after Thanksgiving. We don't get the tree up until later, but all of the traditional decorations go up beforehand.

Our yearly decorations consist of a real (no artificial allowed!) tree with lights and homemade ornaments, a garland to drape over the hearth, several cloth hangings, several baskets filled with Joe Wheeler's Christmas in My Heart books (which we read a story from every Friday evening in December), an advent calendar, two nativity sets, and several knick knacks to put on top of the piano and such. My two favorite decorations are my mini Christmas tree and the advent calendar. The advent calendar was made for my sister and I by our aunt; it has a Christmas tree as the background, and each day of December a new ornament is hooked on until Christmas Eve, when the star is added at the top. It's a very fun tradition, and I have fond memories of my sister and I as children, racing to see who could get to the calendar first in the morning to put on the day's ornament.

Our tree does not look classy at all. It is always overloaded with ornaments, most of which are homemade. My parents were married in December, and at their wedding a large Christmas tree was out in the lobby where the people hung ornaments. We kept them, and put them up every year to this day.

Another Christmas tradition of my family is to open gifts on Christmas Eve. There's something warm and cozy that comes with doing it then rather then on Christmas morning (we unpackage the stockings on Christmas morning instead). Perhaps best of all, however, is our tradition of sleeping out by the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve night. It's lovely, with the lights on and all.

Taking the decorations down is typically a sad time - or for me, at any rate. I'm rather partial to the Christmas season. I like to get things up right after Thanksgiving and wait as long as possible before taking them down. We don't have a set time for doing the latter - I guess it's whenever we think the tree is too dry to have safely in the house.

*will try to get some pictures up*

Wow, Miss R! That sounds truly lovely! You have some lovely traditions! I particularly like the idea of a Christmas Tree at a wedding (my sister is getting married next month, and I'll have to mention this to her!) I also really love the idea of sleeping next to the tree on Christmas Eve.

I put up our Victorian Tree this weekend. Basically, that's the tree that goes in our formal living room, and which has to be "perfect." Ever bead, every bow, every ornament falls exactly in the right place. It takes me between three and four hours to do it by myself, but my Grandma was with me so we got it done in about two.

Our main tree in our basement is the one that gets all the homemade ornaments, gaudy lights, and the presents, but the Victorian one has something rather elegant about it, even if it is overly traditional.

Another Christmas tradition of my family is to open gifts on Christmas Eve. There's something warm and cozy that comes with doing it then rather then on Christmas morning (we unpackage the stockings on Christmas morning instead).

This was our custom growing up as well. And like yours, Miss Rosario, our tree tended to be a hodge-podge of ornaments, some 'commercial' and others homemade. In recent years, with all the kids moved away, the homemade ones tend to be made by grandchildren or even great-grandchildren, and the commercial ones often come from us kids and usually have some fond memories attached.

We usually had artificial trees growing up, but in recent years we've had some real ones. Sure, the needles dropping can be a problem, but the aroma...ahhh! And after the holidays we put the tree out on the woodpile for one last hurrah the following summer.

We had to stop getting indoor trees when we got our indoor cat (back in 2002). Pine sap + Cat fur = a rather terrible mess that's border on the horrific when trying to clean it off

We open our presents on Christmas morning. For some reason, opening them the night before just seems strange to me

Now that it is after Thanksgiving, I can look at this thread and post in it. We always wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate. I helped my dad set up our artificial Christmas tree. Now we just have to decorate it. Our Christmas tree always goes up the day after Thanksgiving. It comes down January 1st despite my efforts to tell people that Christmas lasts until the 6th of January.

For my family, there never really IS a set time for when we start decorating. While i'd like to have the tree up at latest the week after Thanksgiving my mom hates having any decorating done until after December 1st. Every year I get the advent calendar up on the first, (though I admit being late some years) the tree is put up when mom says I can put it up and then everything else follows shortly thereafter.

We have an artificial tree that we've had for a long time. It always has coloured lights and a star on top. We used to have trains under our tree but my dad never has the time to do them anymore, so we bought our very first tree skirt this year; navy blue with white trim and blue gingham snowflakes bordering it.

The ornaments on our tree don't match AT ALL! They're all a huge mismatch of ornaments accumulated over the years from many stores. To put it simply, pretty much everything on our tree is what is special to our family. Our tree is undoubtably very crowded but so beautiful in the end.

The banister of the staircase gets wrapped with garland. It also has coloured lights in it. Since we don't have a fireplace, each of our stockings (which my mom made) get hung by ribbon from the staircase and then we hang tiny little bells between each stocking/rung when we're finished putting them up. It always looks so lovely. New this year, we have a gigantic nutcracker (at least 3ft tall) that my mom just bought who now stands in the entranceway of our house to welcome everybody in.

On the side tables in the living room we put a snowglobe, skating snowman, and train figurines. Also in the dining room there's a small round table where we put two nutcrackers that belong to myself and my sister (got them when we were 4) along with a rotating nutcracker ballet doll.

Aaaand, last but not least, our dining room table gets it's Christmas placemats on, with a nutcracker in the center of the table with two small (flameless) vanilla candles at it's feet, and large candles (just bought this year) to go on either side of it. We also have some vanilla snowman candles that we use in the kitchen. Our whole house smells like vanilla for the rest of the month!

I now stop here as I am officially embarrassed at how much I have written. I'll continue more later or else i'll take up the whole thread. *crawls under the tree skirt*