• Feeling isolated? You're not alone.

    Join 20,000+ people who understand exactly how your day went. Whether you're newly diagnosed, self-identified, or supporting someone you love – this is a space where you don't have to explain yourself.

    Join the Conversation → It's free, anonymous, and supportive.

    As a member, you'll get:

    • A community that actually gets it – no judgment, no explanations needed
    • Private forums for sensitive topics (hidden from search engines)
    • Real-time chat with others who share your experiences
    • Your own blog to document your journey

    You've found your people. Create your free account

Christmas Decorating?

I prefer to have a real Christmas tree over an artificial one. It is sooo neat getting to have an actual tree inside the house. I love the feel of the limbs too. I love Christmas lights whether on the tree or garland or elsewhere. I have a pre lit garland that I bought myself several years ago that goes on our porch railing. I added LED lights to the wreath that goes on our front door and we also put a wreath on the back door, but I haven't added LED lights to that one. I also love my manager scene and the other manger scene that my parents have.
 
I don't bother with Christmas, it's just another day of the year to me, but a lot of people here get quite elaborate with their decorations. Traditional themes are fading out here though, as is to be expected if you think about it.

A great proportion of our population have never seen snow, or deer, or a sleigh. And Christmas is in summer here so it's generally celebrated outdoors at the beach or in a park, or in your own back yard if you have a pool, it's hot.

995943ad9d872c9eb44a246aa229858d.webp
 
I love everything about it, I just go nuts. Trees, decorations, Advent calendars, Christmas cards, Yule goats, Sankta Lucia parades, Christmas food, rice cream, Christmas doughnuts, more decorations, more of everything. I go completely overboard every year and I love it.

Because if we didn't have Christmas here, December would just be a dark and cold month with nothing happening. After two dark and cold months with nothing happening. And after December comes January, or Helluary as I call it. We need Christmas, it brings joy and light and warmth. And as my grandma said, we don't have more fun than we make ourselves.

🎄🎅
 
@Forest Cat I try to keep the tree up as far into January as I can. It's been kept up to the end once, but it usually stays up at least though the first week.😅
 
I like Christmas, it brings brightness during the long and dreary winter months.
The christmas tree is my yearly challenge; to do as good as or better than the year before. I get a bit obsessed about bauble placement, the continuous supply of satisfaction it brings me when its completed is bizarre.
I'm not like this for anything else, but it rocks my world. Last year I made a door wreath but with the gaelic for Happy Christmas and that brought me so much joy.
 
Generally my opinion of the whole thing is just "blech".

As a kid, I loved getting presents. As an adult, I dont care at all. Whole thing mostly consists of snow and various parties to avoid.

I do however go over to my mom's house early in December each year to help put ornaments on the tree. Old tradition, has meaning to her, so there's that.

And then it's back to being in this room with the portable heater on.

Though there is this ancient porcelain Christmas tree thing in the basement here, with a bulb inside, so the "lights" on it glow.

It sits in the bar area, and it's been on literally all year. No, I dont know why.
 
We've got the lights outside already, we do that early on a warm weekend. Putting up the tree this weekend. We had a real tree go up when I was 12 and I won't have one in the house now. One housefire is enough in a lifetime. We celebrate the pagan holiday so we enjoy the tree with lots of blinky on it.
 
Chanukkah and Christmastime are my big joy and love fuel up for the year.

Oh the lights, the trees, the happiness, the caroling, the brotherly love. I need it. I need it in my bones. Christmastime is vital to life for me. Gives me the fuel to keep going.

Here's what we'll do for Christmas. I'll write later about Chanukkah. Because Chanukkah to me is full of its own excitement. If you've never celebrated Chanukkah, you are seriously missing out, my friend.

We're going to pull out all the Christmas boxes from the big closet and put all our summer stuff away in its place.

And there'll be the tree, and garlands.

I always do a seasonal gnome village outside my front door, depending on what holiday is coming up.

I like to buy graham crackers and candy, and we make a little village out of that.

I also have lots of miniature Victorian houses and little people and Christmassy little Victorian people and streetlights. I want to wash them off and make a new little town.

We have the old fashioned bubble lights, and great big old lightbulb Christmas lights.

It's gonna be wonderful.
 
My sister, a friend of hers, and my mom are decorating. I always hated being drafted into decorating as a kid, and the few times it has happened as an adult. So I think it's great that they actually want to.

I am hoping to avoid the undecorating as well. It's just so tedious, and my mom resuses it all, so it all has to be carefully packaged away.

At home, I have a table top tree with fiber optic lights built in. All you have to do is turn it on. The tree has been in the same spot since 2022. All I need to do is turn it on.
 
Yeshuasdaughter said:
What are the crowns for? Three kings day?
Click to expand...
It's a very old English tradition that I suspect was borrowed from the French - Christmas Bonbons.

These have a small cracker inside. You and someone else grab and end each and pull it apart with a bang. One person ends up with the majority of the bonbon and what's inside.

What is inside: a small toy, a slip of paper with a lame Dad joke on it, and a paper crown.

The Christmas bonbons get shared around just before Christmas Lunch so when it's meal time everyone's sitting around the table wearing a silly paper crown.

emncvgkf7z.webp


HTB1_Prhb22H8KJjy0Fc761DlFXa2.png
 
FayetheADHDsquirrel said:
@Outdated So that was a Christmas photo up above then? Also, is that cheesecake in the original photograph?
Click to expand...
Yes. Christmas is for the most part only celebrated on the one day here. Kids get up on the morning of the 25th and open presents and there's a big lunch in the middle of the day that usually lasts for a couple of hours and leaves everyone except kids too stuffed to move.

Especially if you have family coming to your place for lunch, it's quite often outside where there's more room and less worry about kids making a mess. In that first photo that main meal has been cleared away and desert is getting served.

Many younger families will play some sort of sport during the afternoon, usually cricket, while older adults all sit around drinking and talking.

We also have another public holiday on the 26th - Boxing Day, so people can relax and overindulge on Christmas Day knowing that they don't have to get up and go to work the next morning.

[Edit] Just thought I should add - Christmas is at the beginning of the summer school holidays here so the kids have 6 weeks off of school to play with all their new toys.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom