Decorating for Christmas Poll and Discussion [Archive]

Plant Woman

11-27-2005, 10:12 PM

I find I do less each year for Christmas, but I love the lights that help keep the dark days of winter from being too blah. We use all white lights except for a few of the trees and bushes and then they are either blue and purple or green lights. I decorate the mailbox arbor with grape lights.

I love lots of garland and flowers and the smells of Christmas.

Every year we buy a live tree and decorate it out on the front deck with lights. We then plant it in the garden. A few years later we harvest it for our Christmas tree inside. Its a tradition we started about 10 years ago. One year we found our trees weren't big enough so we had to go buy one and couldn't find one near as nice as the ones we grew ourselves for a price we paid for the live one.

We buy one unique ornament every year so when we take out our ornaments its like a walk down memory lane.

livius drusus

11-27-2005, 10:14 PM

I don't do anything. Unless I'm at my parents' house, in which case we have the indoor garlands, lovingly decorated tree, a small oyster grey Murano glass crèche, and a gigantic Italian 200-or-so piece nativity village, which basically looks like a bustling little Italian town, ca 1780.

My mom also does this one thing I love where she tapes Christmas cards to the staircase banister so you have pretty, colorful browsing material while ambling up and down.

Legs

11-27-2005, 10:22 PM

We have lights on the windows, garlands on the bannisters, tree & trimmings, stockings hung by the chimney with care, lots of burgundygold candles & christmas wall hangings, tapestry christmas pillows & throws for the chesterfields and I always buy several pointsettias. :yup:

Legs from Dec 01 - Jan 01 :rarrow: :bliss:

Widget from Dec 01 - Jan 01 :rarrow: :wtf:

Dingfod

11-28-2005, 01:43 AM

You've got to check out this video of Xmas lights set to music. (http://members.cox.net/transam57/lights.wmv) It is fantastic. Yes, it is real. Computer controlled lights going on an off in time with music broadcast on a 3 Watt FM transmitter.

Ymir's blood

11-28-2005, 02:53 AM

I spend Christmas in Raleigh at my parent's house and it isn't that important to me anyway. That is, unless you count the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff that stays out year round.

JoeP

11-28-2005, 02:07 PM

Decorating the outside of the house with loadsa lights is less effective here given that it's midsummer, but we definitely do a tree and some interior decoration. For the children.

MooseIBe

11-28-2005, 02:54 PM

We do a tree and a cpl doo dahs inside the house, not really anything for outside though.

curses

11-28-2005, 03:04 PM

I don't bother. The tree's too much effort to get home and to dispose of, but the stockings may make it up under the fireplace this year. I find most lights tacky (says the girl who leaves her Halloween decorations up year round). Plus the cats like to destroy all things Christmas. The little heathens...

Shake

11-28-2005, 09:43 PM

We do the tree and a few other little things around the house, but no outside lights. I did some of those one year on the air base where we didn't pay for electric (all you US taxpayers did).

freemonkey

11-28-2005, 10:15 PM

I used to decorate my house very nicely. I had some lifesize ceramic santa-hat-wearing geese that I painted, plus one of those little ceramic villages with the lights and people. I would build up a little hillside with boxes, cover it in fake snow and set up the village. We would buy at least one new ornament a year, usually while on vacation.

I do less & less every year. A couple years ago, when the dog was a pup, I bought a little tabletop fake tree. Last year, when Bridget was a baby, we didn't put anything up at all. My husband wants to put up a tree this year, but I just know that little cat is gonna tackle it, climb it or eat it, or any combination thereof.

Now, I just don't feel like doing it at all, lately. Our house is so small, you gotta move shit around to make room for the xmas shit. Then, taking it down and putting it away sucks.

I didn't vote, because I don't know yet what I'm doing this year.

Bah.

Ymir's blood

11-29-2005, 12:32 AM

(says the girl who leaves her Halloween decorations up year round)
Me too.

Legs

11-29-2005, 12:37 AM

You two are made for each other :madlove:

RevDahlia

11-29-2005, 01:17 AM

I MUST have a tree for Christmas or else I get depressed. We don't have any real ornaments, though, so decorating it is always a huge last-minute scramble. I usually make large cookies, popcorn balls and origami critters to fill as much space as possible.

We put lights up outside too, mostly because we often have informal festive gatherings in the side yard and people stumble into the chimenea unless things are properly illuminated.

viscousmemories

11-29-2005, 02:33 AM

a small oyster grey Murano glass crèche
people stumble into the chimenea
:?

Anyway I haven't done the tree or decorating thing since I've been on my own.

Sweetie

11-29-2005, 02:46 AM

We do a moderate amount of decorating. Some lights on the outside. My mother-in-law wanted to buy us this big air bubble outdoor thing with a snowman scene inside, like a snow-globe, which you plug in and inside it keeps circulating fake snow. It's really cool, but it seems a pain, we said nope.

Inside, we do a tree, some decorations. Lights we love. It's great sitting here in the dark on a cold winter's night with lights and candles. It's just, it's cool.

I'll take some pics after I'm done decorating maybe. :shrug:

Adam

11-29-2005, 04:12 AM

One more for the 'less and less each year' bandwagon. I used to really enjoy going all out, but it doesn't really mean a lot to me any more. I have a few select decorations that have specific memories attached to them that I put out (mostly gifts from various people), but other than that, nada. I think my roommate and his girlfriend plan to decorate my house this year.

RevDahlia

11-29-2005, 05:38 AM

people stumble into the chimenea
:?

Chimenea:

http://www.finesgas.com/The_Superb_Gas_Chimenea.gif

Mine is made out of cast iron and stays hot for days after the last log has burned to ash. Therefore it is a stumbling-people hazard.

(Chimeneas are wonderful things. Mine is a real wood-burning one, unlike the pansy-ass gas-powered one in the picture. The chimenea in the picture is prettier than mine, though.)

Veritas

11-29-2005, 12:07 PM

I do absolutely nothing for Christmas, no decorations, nothing. I don't celebrate it and it surprises me that so many people (online and in 'real life') who don't claim to be at all religious, in fact even many who don't believe in god or have any spiritual inclinations, go along with the commercialism and celebrate it themselves.

Man, I hate this time of year. There's a house along the road from me that gets covered in decorations - I mean fucking covered in them. There's not a window or paving slab in the garden, or part of the wall, or a door that isn't groaning under the weight of tinsel and baubles and it looks bloody stupid. The road gets heavy traffic because of people coming to see, but the people who do it don't care about other residents in the street, oh no. Just as long as they get to be the centre of attention for a whole month.

I hope their fucking house burns down. :heh:

xyza

11-29-2005, 01:22 PM

I vote I decorate the tree or do nothing, it depends on how I feel. Last year I done nothing, Bounce would've eaten the tree and decorations plus I was here in London all on my lonesome :lonely:

This year one housemate is going to Spain and the other was going to Ireland but is now staying because of work so is going to family in London.
I'll be all alone again :lonely:

Oh and SP, ever heard of Yule, it came before Christmas was ever dreamed up by Christians, like most of todays religious holidays.

Veritas

11-29-2005, 01:26 PM

Which is why I have nothing to do with it...it's all Saturnalia anyway. Ya buncha pagans!

You could come stay with me for a few days, I don't have any friends and you're better than nothing I suppose. :giggle:

Legs

11-29-2005, 01:28 PM

Scarlet, what was Christmas like for you as a child? Did your family celebrate it? Did Father Christmas bring you pressies?

Veritas

11-29-2005, 04:10 PM

Oh we celebrated Christmas when I was a kid, then I went my own way as regards religion, etc (which I won't go into here for fear of threadjacking a 'serious' subject) - suffice it to say I don't celebrate Xmas now for various religious reasons. Anyway, when I was a kid, I used to wake up all excited and run downstairs then my bitch of a mother would say something like, "What the fuck are you doing up, it's too fucking early, get back to fucking bed," and the whole day would be spoiled. My stepdad and grandparents (when they visited) made up for it though. These days, I see the whole season as a hassle, even though I don't 'do' it myself! Mainly the crowds in the shops; I don't like shopping at the best of times.

Oh, I'm not always this miserable. :) Also I buy presents for friends all year round - it's more of a surprise that way. I think it works better like that. People know I bought them something because I was thinking of them, rather than it being a commercialised pseudo-Christian holiday that I felt forced into participating in.

godfry n. glad

11-29-2005, 04:21 PM

I pretty much gave up on it, because finding an adult virgin was too difficult.

Getting a permit to burn the wicker man was always a bitch, too.

Mostly, I just try to ignore it.

viscousmemories

11-29-2005, 04:54 PM

Mine is made out of cast iron and stays hot for days after the last log has burned to ash. Therefore it is a stumbling-people hazard.
Ah, thanks. That's very cool.

livius drusus

11-29-2005, 05:06 PM

a small oyster grey Murano glass crèche
:?

Murano glass is handblown art glass made on an island on the outskirts of Venice. A crèche -- it means crib in French -- is a nativity scene, usually just the holy family, the animals and an angel or two in a stable/cave.

My parents' version is a beautiful little two-room cork house kind of thing, with a mirrored floor and tiny white lights attached to the ceiling. The figures are small and immensely delicate, a gorgeous smokey grey color with the occasional golden accent (halos and musical instruments for the angel band, mainly). For years I was not allowed to touch it. Good call, too, because the set still lives and it's still complete.

viscousmemories

11-29-2005, 05:08 PM

Thanks, liv! Sounds very cool.

JoeP

11-29-2005, 07:19 PM

Which is why I have nothing to do with it...it's all Saturnalia anyway. Ya buncha pagans!That's not it. You just hate the commercialism. And the jollity. And all those people :scared:

Scarlet, what was Christmas like for you as a child? Did your family celebrate it? Did Father Christmas bring you pressies?:therapy:

Did he fill your stockings?

SharonDee

11-29-2005, 07:48 PM

Oh, I'm not always this miserable. :) Also I buy presents for friends all year round - it's more of a surprise that way. I think it works better like that. People know I bought them something because I was thinking of them, rather than it being a commercialised pseudo-Christian holiday that I felt forced into participating in.Hubster? Is that you? Sure, you say you're in Scotland and that you're a chick but ... :noid:

xyza

11-29-2005, 10:42 PM

Hubster? Is that you? Sure, you say you're in Scotland and that you're a chick but ... :noid:
Rest assured it's a woman, I've seen her boobies, and they didn't look like manboobs to me :sadno:

You could come stay with me for a few days, I don't have any friends and you're better than nothing I suppose.You'd have a pagan stay with you over Yule :yikes:
It's a very nice offer, and even if I knew for sure that I wouldn't be working due to recent stuff it's my duty to stay here, and I guess if I'm truthful I wouldn't want to be anywhere else ... I's in loves yous see :smitten:

Plant Woman

11-30-2005, 12:51 AM

livius drusus

11-30-2005, 12:54 AM

I'm just too lazy to put up my own, Debbie. I love the lights and garlands and ornaments too. :yup:

Crumb

11-30-2005, 06:43 PM

Since I don't have the holiday here at my house I see no need to. When I go to someone else's house for Christmas Eve and day they have decorated for me. Plus my mother massively overdecorates her place, thus making up for me and about a half gross of other non decorators.

Adam

11-30-2005, 06:57 PM

I am surprised to see how many don't decorate for Christmas; maybe I shouldn't be, but I am. I am always a sucker for the lights and the garland, lit candles, it helps make the darkest days of winter a lot better. I hate it when I take all the sparkle down, everything feels so drab until the light returns. BTW, we leave our lights up until mid January some years.

I'm a sucker for those things, too, but I don't get much enjoyment out of decorating by myself, so I don't bother, other than a few select items with sentimental signifigance.

Sweetie

12-01-2005, 12:36 AM

So, I did some decorating today since I had the day off.

1. My favoritest Christmas decorations ever! I love these guys, they just steal my heart and I'm not one for having my heart stolen by stuffed things. I just love 'em though.

2. My nativity scene, I love it, I think it's gorgeous. It's not completey set up, it needs some other stuff, I'll have to buy some lights or something.

3. The tree. My house is old so it's ugly but, there it is. I think the tree turned out really well. I love that Santa to the right there on my coffee table. :cough: It seems those dried flowers which my husband so loved when they were nicer, I think it's time for them to go. They look awful. :eek:

I was hoping for a real tree this year, the last few years had been so dry that the trees were just dying before Christmas no matter how much water you gave 'em. Unfortunately, my husband didn't get to getting one before he left so I had to put up the artificial one. :sadcheer:

http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/gallery/files/6/1/Snowmen.JPG

http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/gallery/files/6/1/Snativity.JPG

http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/gallery/files/6/1/Stree.JPG