[laloki]

On the 24th December I will prepare for Christmas...it is always a mad rush the day before to buy gifts, plan food and organise the decorations - can't rush these things.

[MzCoach]

Here is a picture of an Advents wreath and a Calendar.

[Tangerine]

Oh man, it seems like SO LONG till Christmas..... but I want it to hurry up and be here.

But it always sneaks up on us. I'm subscribing to this thread to remind me that it will be here before I know it.

[chaz]

^^^^^^^^^^ LOL!!!!! I love christmas too,and I have to say,I'm being a bit organised this year,I have started getting things for my lil one,and looking for stuff that my dh would like.I have always been a last minute Mary,kinda like the mad rush at the end!! But this year,I'm doing a bit of advance planning,so I can enjoy it better with my lil girl!! This is the year when she will get something exciting is going on,its going to be sooo much fun!!!

[QueenOfDa702]

Noooo tell it to go away! lmao. I cant believe its that time already......

[Bag Fetish]

Originally Posted by m1nime

Hey guys, I know its early, but here the major stores are already stocking Christmas decorations and the like.

Im excited about Christmas early this year because it will be the first year, in my new(first) house and I can buy all the decorations and host my first Christmas Lunch for family.

Im wondering what everyone decorates their house with and what your planning on doing for Christmas. Do you buy new things every year? Do you go crazy with decorations and lights? What do you normally eat for lunch/dinner?

Does anyone have pics of their decorated Christmas tree and stuff?

Just looking for ideas!

Personally its not a good time of the year for me. I would like to just sleep through it.
For the most part we spend christmas day with s/o family. play games, have dinner (usually ham and I have salmon steaks) chat a lot, open gives. A game of scrabble gets started, it takes longs so there is usually a short break to drink and chat. If the kids are with their day later that night we will stay over for a day or two.

We have a brief gift opening at home and breakfast before heading out. Santa always comes to the house so the kids being home is a must christmas morning.

this year his family is in argentina with his sister( she is doing an exchange there) so they will be leaving the beinging of dec and not returning until dec 31. We'll have our normal christmas morning, opening gives, breakfast, then i
m not sure. s/o planned to work most of the holidays so that he will have time off when his parents get back. We will be having our christmas with them then.

We have a small tree at home that the kids and I decorate, we put out a little town with lights and hang a few things around the house. We do most of the decorating at s/o parents. The kids help put up lights outside, they put out with box gifts and lights(outside), the house inside is just loaded with stuff. My youngest puts out all the little houses and the town, we put put lights in the back yard so that we have a nice view from the living room at night. it normally takes 2 weekends to do it all.

[grammyr]

I love CHristmas. I always decorate the first Sunday of Advent. I like to use live and natural things, and I often make my own centerpieces. I love the Williamsburg look and have many collections. I collect Santas, snowmen and have the entire Dept 56 Dickens Village. My biggest piece of advice is to take it slowly and start small. I have a billion things I can't bear not to use and have down sized my home so I have a porblem trying to decide what not to use!

[NYCBelle]

Me and DF are excited about X-mas as well early this year. i guess because last year we were too busy swamped with fixing our house but now we get to enjoy it. We are really excited about having our first X-mas tree

[jan228]

I know the Boscov's near me that is going out of business has a ton of Christmas decorations.

We don't bother decorating because I'd rather not spend the money and my husband is Jewish. We go to my parent's house for that holiday, though. My parents have a large bay window in the living room that really shows off the tree. My mom lines each window pane with white lights and red velvet bows. It's very pretty from the street.

[poed0216]

Christmas...WOW this year just flew by!! I too am a huge Christmas person!! My DH spends the entire day after Thanksgiving (Im out shopping) putting up all of the outdoor lights. He really goes all out, lights in trees, on the house, in the bushes...etc... I handle the inside of the house. I love it and am always so sad when I have to put it all away again!! I started collecting an ornament from every place that I travel about 7 years ago so my tree is a hodgepodge of all different colors and shapes!!

[TheImportersWife]

Just did some damage at Tuesday Morning buying holiday stuff.

I really need to focus on gifts for family & friends. I just hate buying too soon b/c what if they want to make a return or exchange. Retailers these days have tightened their return policies and I'm always afraid that if I buy a gift now, they'll have issues if they want to return or exchange after the holidays.

[pidgeon92]

I am actually trying to unload almost all of my Christmas decorations. I still love the holiday, but the decorating has become overwhelming (the un-decorating afterwards, too). Now that I have the two dogs, they'll destroy half of it anyway. I am going to have a yard sale the first week of Nov to get rid of my large tree, and all of my ornaments and most of the tchotchkes, and most of my outdoor decorations.

[aklein]

Originally Posted by Pursegrrl

Huh? I can't get past Halloween decor in stores now, LOL. Sorry to be a poopy pants...I LOVE Christmas and the decor, but I believe in enjoying the MOMENT and not all the preliminary stuff if that makes sense. Meaning, I refuse to do any Christmas shopping or decorating before Thanksgiving.

I'm with you. It is way too early to even think about Xmas. It's only September! I can't even think about it yet. I have a whole semester's worth of work still to do before I can even think about going back to the cold Northeast for a few weeks between semesters.

[HipHype]

Yeah It's still early for Christmas.. but I guess it won't hurt to prepare early?

[Kiss Me Deadly]

Its never too early to prepare for Christmas!!

ahem.. when will we start the impossible person/gift ideas thread??