I love to decorate, but the boss here decreed that nothing should go up until the day after Thanskgiving, now he tries to sneak a few things up earlier, and I won't let him.
Days are already getting pretty short here in the north, so I like the extra color and lights and we leave most things up until the end of January. One year I was working away from home from New Year's Eve until May, came home a couple of times during that period though, and took the decorations down in mid-January when I came home for a weekend. I had been having nightmares about coming back in warm, light May and having to face all of them.
We use an artificial tree now and no candles. I can't be trusted with them. Went to sleep one night without blowing one out and woke to dense smoke. We actually got the fire out pretty quickly. Only one table top and everything on it were burned, but it took a long time to clean up and repair things damaged by the smoke.
For some reason, candles don't even appeal to me anymore. I still like the holly, the lights, the Santa Clauses, all the color and always manage to overdo.
And I play Christmas music incessantly. I never get too much of it. I really like the Clancy Brothers Christmas album--their Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, others are beautiful.
MJ