BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 12:49 PM

I haven't had a real tree for many years. The last time I struggled on my own to put it up, and the very next day when I came downstairs, all the blooming needles had dropped off and it was just a very large bare stalk. I got an artificial one and have never looked back. (In all fairness, I have my sitting room as hot as the fires of Hell, my neighbours can hardly bear to come in for a visit without dripping with sweat. So I expect the poor old tree dried out and gave up the ghost that night.)

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 01:35 PM

Never.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 02:44 PM

Could you be a bit more precise LH?

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 06:17 PM

I think LH means he would never erect a Christmas tree, in answer to the question posed by the thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 06:57 PM

Oh bugger! its not that time already.....it can't be.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 07:33 PM

I hear ya Spaw, I am thinking now of bringing in a tree limb .. Well I will be with the kids this year so I probably won't do anything here

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Nov 12 - 03:13 PM

Spaw-

I almost made the mistake of ignoring this thread and missing your outstanding post.

In the spirit of Christmas, may you have many happy returns!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Nov 12 - 05:37 PM

Thank you Charley......An old story but worth a retelling now and again.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 04:59 PM

This one is up

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Janie
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 05:13 PM

When I put one up, usually 7 days before Christmas. 4 years ago I broke down and bought a small, narrow, artificial tree that sorta doesn't take up too much room in my narrow-roomed house. The last two years haven't put up a tree. Neither my son or I are home enough to enjoy it, and the rooms in my house are so small it is a real challenge to maneuver around even the smallest tree. This year, my Christmas decorating consists of my trusty Christmas Cactus, now in full bloom, and two amaryllis that may or may not bloom before Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 03:59 AM

If you buy a tree at Thanksgiving, you get a fresh tree. If you buy a tree on Christmas Eve, you get a tree that was cut before Thanksgiving and has been without water for six weeks.

I usually buy my tree on Christmas Eve at discount, and then I wonder where all the needles went.....

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Megan L
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 05:52 AM

Eliza Lassie ye forget thon auld scunner MacKenzie is a Glaswegian we hiv a wierd sence o humour at the worst o times.

when we moved house I had to choose between the tree and the wheelchair a felt bad aboot stickin Dauvit oot in the garage fur Christmas so the wheelchair won.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: banjoman
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 08:00 AM

We usually put our tree up about my birthday (13 Dec). However, our next door neighbours trumped everyone this year when their tree appeared in the front window, full decorated and lights flashing, on 31st OCTOBER. I had only just got back from a late summer holiday.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 12:48 PM

Outside Christmas lights and inside Christmas decorations up today. Went to a Christmas concert last night from Belshazzar's Feast, and looking forward to all things Christmas, Mellstock Band next week and Maddy Prior later in the month!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 01:14 PM

Ours is up, and looks very nice (if I say so myself!) Cats looking at it speculatively ("Which bit do we wee on first?") Hung the Christmas wreath on the front door. Have just made two Crimbo cakes (bit late, I know, 'cos they should mature for a month) Nice Advent service this morning in a freezing church, so I'm really getting into the spirit of things. My muslim husband adores Christmas. He always likes his chocolate Advent calendar!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 07:47 PM

My son called today to tell me the small live tree I ordered from his stepson's Cub Scout troop has arrived. However, since it sounds like we'll all spend Christmas in the Berkshires (son's family in their timeshare--not their usual week, and me in a nearby America's Best Value Inn), I told my son to use the tree to decorate the timeshare. If they decide to do something more elaborate, I'll take my tree to my motel room.

Any 'Catters in Berkshire-land?

We won't be in western MA long enough to do First Night in Northampton again like we did last year, but we may get to one in RI, southeastern MA, or nearby CT.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 12:15 AM

A long time since you asked, ChanteyLass,
but this Mudcatter is in the southwestern Berkshires this season,
not far from the state lines with New York and Connecticut,
which tells you which state is my location.

Talking of dates,

Hanukkah is remarkably early this year,
I was shocked when I realized HOW early.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 09:46 AM

At my mother's house where we had three cats and one large dog the tree was set in the corner of the living room beside the fireplace, positioned equidistant in front of two windows so we could run picture frame wire from the bole of the tree at about breast high over to the shutters that covered the lower half of the windows. The wire was wrapped around an upper hinge on both corners to keep the tree upright if someone climbed it (they did on occasion). Plastic ornaments were put on the bottom to avoid shards of broken glass from being swatted or wagged against.

I have done trees here, I have a high ceiling so it looks good, but I find that the type of fir generally available down here (usually Noble) makes me sneeze. On xmas eve I would buy one at a discount from the neighborhood nursery (making a low-ball offer since it will be on the curb day after xmas) and take it down by New Year's. This was when I had a pickup. Now I don't, and I'm not willing to go to the struggle to strap one on top even for the six blocks to get it home.

Instead of a tree I pull out sparkly colors of garlands and arrange them around the top edge of the mantle, then I get out crystal pitchers and large containers and bowls (antiques from the family) and fill them with glass balls that would hang on the tree. A few other ornaments like nutcrackers, festive shapes intended as ornaments that I've collected over the years fill in spaces. This looks good and keeps everything out of reach of the three dogs that live here now. One that is still young enough to be particularly destructive.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 01:56 PM

The date to kill, sacrifice and cut down a tree is everyday of the year and times ten in the Amazon.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 02:15 PM

In the countries that observe the holiday using the old pagan custom of putting up a tree, many of them have a form of agriculture called a "tree farm." These trees add to the air quality while they grow, but because of the way they are pruned to make a thick bole and a proportionately short crown with way more branches than nature intended, these trees are only good for xmas trees or for chipping up to use as mulch later.

Subject: RE: BS: Do girls date to erect Christmas trees?
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 05:33 PM

I am not really an anti Christmas tree Grinch but I play one one social media.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 05:44 PM

keberoxu: Because the Jewish calendar tries to keep the years in step with the seasons *and* and the months in step with the phases of the moon, some calendar years have 13 calendar months. That makes the Jewish holidays jump around quite a bit with respect to the secular year.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 06:51 PM

A few years back I culled my christmas decoration collection & sent most of it to a charity shop early December, as I had far too much.

I only kept 2 of my 6 small trees (6") & none of the zillions of tiny decorations that I displayed around them. I put them in sandwich bags - santas, angels, gnomes, reindeer, etc, etc & also bagged bigger decorations. All I kept were my vintage pieces, & those I made - one per season since 1992.

All I displayed was my knitted tree with it's "lights" & baubles & it's still on the shelf along with an angel my neighbour gave me.

Dec 1 will be time to bring out the other tree & maybe I'll even put the embroidered decorations onto their display board - or maybe not.

Maybe I'll look at the vintage items & decide whether to take them to the charity shop as I never even looked at them last hear.

Maybe I'll also look at the vintage sleigh full of small stuff that has been sitting on the shelf above the tree & angel for many years under an increasingly dusty plastic bag! I've forgotten what's in it ...

Maybe I need to contact my friend who collects vintage christmas stuff to see if I can downsize it to her.

sandra (slowly downsizing)

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: BobL
Date: 22 Nov 21 - 05:21 AM

Once upon a time, I put off getting a tree until it was too late, not one was to be found in shop or on market stall. This was before artificial trees were anything like realistic, so being me, I decided that if I must have a fake tree, I'd jolly well have a stylized one with no pretensions to authenticity.
A bedsheet-sized piece of black cloth was bought, hemmed to fit over a broomstick as a hanger, and hung on the wall. On it I pinned thick green tinsel forming the outline of a tree, a dozen lights, a few baubles and some thin tinsel. It looked perfect, it took up no space and the cats didn't bother it. I re-used it for several years until eventually I needed the black material for another purpose. Now, I don't bother with a tree at all, even a 2-dimensional one, I just hang lights in the windows with greenery and decorations on the picture rail.

To answer the date question, for me it's December 17th. Always 17th. The official Christmas season lasts for 12 days, so I allow 11 for my own birthday on St. Nicholas' Day before the cards and decorations go up.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Nov 21 - 07:41 AM

We usually go for about a week before. I guess this year it will be the 18th unless we go for a really early one on the 11th. Usually a weekend as the daughters enjoy coming round to help :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Nov 21 - 06:36 PM

Precisely as with us, Dave. Our wedding anniversary is on the 18th so we have it up by then. ;-) We have a real tree, generally a Nordmann fir that we collect fresh from our local Christmas tree farm. More often than not we traipse through the mud to find a nice tree then wait for the chainsaw chap. We have to get it early if we want a decent specimen, so I get it home, cut the bottom off and keep it in a bucket of water in a cold outbuilding until the 17th. It comes down on Twelfth Night. We squabble about whether that means the 5th or 6th.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 08:16 AM

We always used to have a Nordmann but succumbed a couple of years back to a fake! I miss the real ones but it makes like easier :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 08:37 AM

Finding pine needles until April can be fun if you pay the kids a pine needle bounty, A penny a needle.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 10:09 AM

Some of those artificial trees look pretty realistic now, and when they come pre-wired with lights it does make the job easier. I intertwine lights with the garland on my mantle and don't necessarily have a natural look, but it is very attractive.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 11:47 AM

A Nordmann cut fresh, bottom removed and kept in water won't drop needles.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 01:53 PM

I wouldn't drop anything if I had my bottom removed!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 05:24 PM

Well you might drop a few pounds, Dave... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Neil D
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 09:34 AM

There are twelve days of Christmas and none of them are in November.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 12:40 PM

You know, I never noticed that but I suspect it is why most people don't put their trees up until nearer Christmas :-)

FYI - The 12 days of Christmas are traditionally the 25th of December to the 5th of January inclusive so nearly half of them are not in December either!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 01:22 PM

If you get a bit of delight in the winter gloom from those wacky, over-the-top Christmas light displays on the outsides of some houses, as I do, you can kind of understand why they put them up a bit early. It would hardly be worth going to all that bother just for twelve days. There's a village near us called Pipers Pool, and every year a bloke put up a spectacular show in his front garden. It was so good that a lot of people around here made a special detour once a year to see it (us included). Then one year it wasn't there - the chap had died (it took us a year or two to find out). We still raise a glass to this unknown hero once every Christmas!

I'm not that bothered about clots who put trees up in their windows before November is out. I get a lot more irritated when I'm seeing Christmas stuff in the shops in early September and hearing carols over the tannoy in October...

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 01:24 PM

...He was called Paul Perkins and you can google him and his Christmas lights!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 01:40 PM

I did find traces of his activity via a Google search, though after almost seven years a lot of it is probably lost or broken links.

I used to put lights in the pine trees in the front yard when they were small, but all are too tall now, so I drape lights around one juniper (that I should trim before I add lights). In 2005 a beloved local radio talk show host died suddenly, and he really loved xmas - he did a long holiday radio show with all sorts of oddball songs, interesting stories, poems, and more. I put up those lights and a little sign on the yard under it noting his passing, and it was interesting how many people noticed and asked or remarked on that sign.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 03:10 PM

Just google Pipers Pool Christmas lights. You'll get lots!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 03:24 AM

The street at the back of us does a spectacular display and this year they are doing a special one for their 20th year. Same evening we are going to see Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. A good evening all round :-)

If shops doing Christmas stuff early irritates you, Steve, good job you never worked at a supermarket head office - Mossers used to start testing stuff for Christmas on us in August!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Nov 21 - 01:36 PM

wonder if there is any argument for waiting to put up a Christmas tree
until after the U. S. President
has pardoned a couple of turkeys?

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: DMcG
Date: 29 Nov 21 - 01:49 PM

I said above that we normally put our tree up the Saturday before Christmas.

This year will be different because we have our grandson to stay for a few days a fortnight before Christmas, so it will timed so he can decorate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Nov 21 - 03:28 AM

We are going for early too. Going to a concert which will contain lots of Christmas songs on the 4th. The daughters will most likely stop over until the 5th. The lights at the back are being turned on that weekend. My sister is visiting on the 6th. All has conspired to put up the tree and deccies next weekend. Ah well.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Nov 23 - 05:10 PM

This thread was refreshed two years ago,
when we were still getting over the pandemic and all.

Time to pose the question again this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Nov 23 - 05:42 PM

Saturday, 16th December, 2023.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Nov 23 - 04:31 PM

No more than a week before the Solstice. It comes down at Epiphany. Ish.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Nov 23 - 06:13 PM

We gave our tree away years ago. Instead I have a selection of table trees ranging in height from just a few inches to about 18 inches, some with a few decorations already on while some get titivated with my modest collection of Hanging Stuff. Not all the trees get put out every year.

Given that in this household as in, I suspect, many others, it is the female who gets to pack away all the Stuff (even if she is not the person who gets it out and does the decorating) this female does what she likes with said trees.

We have a small collection of decorations, souvenirs from our trips to Canada, so we have a Canadian tree for our Canaussian son and his Canadian wife over there in Toronto. I also have a collection of wombat decorations, so there is an Ozzie tree for me.

It adds a touch of the festivities of the season, without getting too carried away by it all.

Bah humbug, and all that.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Nov 23 - 03:51 AM

We too gave away our plastic Christmas tree and all the decorations last year, and this year neither of us wants to decorate the house. Neither do we want a 'Christmas dinner', just eat what we normally do (him: fiery hot curry, me: a salad and some cold smoked salmon) No visitors hooray! (my only family member is my sister who lives up in Scotland). Just an inexpensive present each (I'm getting a lovely wildlife calendar, and he'll be getting a sporty tracksuit).
We both reckon that Christmas is far too commercialised. The shops have been crammed with Christmas tat for weeks now, and it's all about money and spend spend spend. I'd rather give my money to charity.
Couple of grinches aren't we?

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Nov 23 - 09:27 AM

The boss has decreed today is the day.

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Nov 23 - 11:23 AM

We would have gone for Saturday the 16th but we have visitors round that weekend to see the Yourkshire Farmers Christmas Tractor rally (Yes, honest!) that goes past our house. SO I think sometime during the week that leads up to that.

Last year it took about 30 minutes for all the tractors to pass!

Subject: RE: BS: Date to erect a Christmas tree?
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Nov 23 - 02:34 PM

No tree in my house. It’s more than I can deal with on my own.

I’m growing a massive amaryllis, however. It’s supposed to be red streaked with white, and it’s likely to top out at close to two feet tall.