Christmas Decorations

[TheBeachHouse]

How far do you go? How soon do you start? How much business do you get? Do you worry about being sensitive to those who may not celebrate Christmas? Do you have special breakfasts for Christmas? (I looooovvve gingerbread!)
I'm going to put up my winter village this weekend because there is so much to do and we are having an open house the weekend after Thanksgiving. So I want everything in place by then.
We have two big trees and 4 small ones. One on each floor landing. We put stockings on the room doors and fake candles on the mantle. Greens everywhere I can think of. Of course a big wreath.
I'm getting in the holiday spirit already!!!!!

 

[Generic]

This year.... we are taking off (yipee!) So I'll talk about previous years....
We decorate in a two-colour scheme, blue & silver. We put up a tree. We put a garland along the staircase. We even have made stockings for the doors that we hang. On Christmas eve we put gifts in the stockings for the guests.
But we don't usually do this until the middle of December and it comes down just after New Years. We don't want to drag it on too long. Just enough to be festive but not too much that we have to worry about how long it will take to undo.
Honestly, by the 3rd of January, I want to go through the neighbourhood and start pulling down the stuff. Around here it all starts to go up starting the 1st of November, because Thanksgiving is in October and it gets to be a little much for us by January.
Maybe I should put up a Festivus pole this year, since we are going to be closed.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

re: house lights, the area around here has a 'campaign' to leave lights on through January and February. It's just so darned dark around here. Sun rises at 6:30 and sets at 4 ish.
But the house stuff? That comes down on New Year's Day.

 

[Generic]

re: house lights, the area around here has a 'campaign' to leave lights on through January and February. It's just so darned dark around here. Sun rises at 6:30 and sets at 4 ish.
But the house stuff? That comes down on New Year's Day..

I'd actually support a campaign to limit them. Some people never bother to take them down anymore. How can it be special if it is up all the time?
And unless they are LED they are such a waste of energy. We have some summer lights hung up, but totally solar.

 

[Madeleine]

We have an event we have to decorate for. It's the first weekend in Dec. I do not decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving.
I do not like decorating for holidays. Will happily give it up when we sell.
I decorate the mantles, we have a tree, I do little things in the rooms.
Don't worry at all about offending guests who are not Christian as they understand not everyone is like them.

 

[Innkeep]

We have a family tradition of decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My cousin and her grandchildren come to help and then we sit down to a soup supper. There are the grapevine frame lighted deer outside as well as lights and garlands for the porch, the parlor with mantle and tree is decorated, and the library has a few overflow decorations. Christmas wreaths on the room doors. That's all.
Inside gets taken down before outside. The deer are good for most of the winter and get taken in after Valentine's. As the grandkids are getting older I'm always afraid that they will no longer want to help, but they have kept coming back every year.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

We have a family tradition of decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My cousin and her grandchildren come to help and then we sit down to a soup supper. There are the grapevine frame lighted deer outside as well as lights and garlands for the porch, the parlor with mantle and tree is decorated, and the library has a few overflow decorations. Christmas wreaths on the room doors. That's all.
Inside gets taken down before outside. The deer are good for most of the winter and get taken in after Valentine's. As the grandkids are getting older I'm always afraid that they will no longer want to help, but they have kept coming back every year..

We have a family tradition of decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My cousin and her grandchildren come to help and then we sit down to a soup supper. There are the grapevine frame lighted deer outside as well as lights and garlands for the porch, the parlor with mantle and tree is decorated, and the library has a few overflow decorations. Christmas wreaths on the room doors. That's all.
Inside gets taken down before outside. The deer are good for most of the winter and get taken in after Valentine's. As the grandkids are getting older I'm always afraid that they will no longer want to help, but they have kept coming back every year.

That sounds fun! I love the lawn deer. Where we live, they would be blown away by the wind off the water. But they are so pretty.

 

[gillumhouse]

"Our" tree is in the Library and goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I put up garlands on the staircase with big red bows at the points of the swags and a string of white lights on the railing up and around. I have a wreath on the front door that I bought at the Church Bazaar years ago and a small wreath made by one daughter and the oldest granddaughter when she was small that I hang in the kitchen door facing in so I see it - the heck with the outside. Outside I have an 8 ft rebar with lights on it Christmas tree and 2 presents that I hang on the front of the house - they were made by the kids at the high school years ago. The tree hangs from a porch post and the presents are hung under it with clothesline tied around the base of the posts over the porch "skirt". I put small things on the mantle in each room, nothing big. I neither want to put it up nor take it down with a lot of stuff. I also do not have the storage space to have a lot of decoration crap for all the holidays.

 

[Joey Camb]

we have it a bit weird here as it goes on until about the 18th of Jan - this is due to the first trade conference we have in January called which is Christmas and Gift which is all the stuff to be in the shops for the following years decorations ie Jan 2015 will be in the shops Christmas 2015 - would be amazing to shop there but its too high minimum orders for us

 

[Country Girl]

We put a red sleigh in the front yard and lights in all the windows. Inside we decorate the mantles, a tree in the living room, and set up a winter village scene. We also put small snowmen decorations on all the bureaus. All the Christmas decorations come down the day after New Year's but the candles in the windows and the snowmen stay up until the end of Feb. Our street is very dark at night and there is still a lot of winter left after Jan. 1.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Last year we put up the hanging lights along the roof line that are supposed to look like icicles. They were really pretty. But they got ripped off the house by the wind several times so this year, forget it.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

Last year we put up the hanging lights along the roof line that are supposed to look like icicles. They were really pretty. But they got ripped off the house by the wind several times so this year, forget it.

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We changed from icicle lights to LED rope lights. We now leave them up all year. It's VERY dark where we are and it is a welcome beacon for guests arriving at night.

 

[happykeeper]

Understated elegance- lights on the front at three levels, simple decorations inside in just a few places, and a tree on the second floor. Presents and a small light display under the grand piano. Easy up this year on DEC 10 since we have a large XMAS party booked DEC 13 and easy down right after New Year

 

[Silverspoon]

Last year we put up the hanging lights along the roof line that are supposed to look like icicles. They were really pretty. But they got ripped off the house by the wind several times so this year, forget it.

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We limit the outdoor decorations to string lights entwined in the large bush on the corner of the house (these work all year as additional lighting for the path to the house) and a festive wreath on the door with an embellished evergreen garland as a swag around the door frame. I also tie greens, and silk poinsettia, holly berries etc on the top of our sign but, like you, anything that is not tied down fast is blown away by the wind. The windows in this 150 year old house all get electric candles and the mantles are decorated, but I no longer put up trees in the guest accommodations.
This year we are closing in December so, although I will still decorate the outside of the house, the only decorations inside will be for our own use.

 

[charlie may]

No interior decorating until the middle of December. Some outside ribbons will go up as soon as folks start coming out to choose and cut their own Christmas tree. First need snow, then the phone starts ringing.

 

[user 26]

will decorate for coffee or hot cocoa and cookies! love it all ... elegant and understated or over the top. not so much fun taking it all down and putting it away

 

[Kay Nein]

Our first Christmas, the owner went all out and hung lights all over the outside of the house - including the roof line on the third floor. Those damned lights stayed up for over a year because he got injured & could not get up there and neither could the rest of us. Last year we hung up some wreaths, big gold bells above our staircase, some lights on front porch facing main road. Tree inside in front window, train around the base, random holiday decorations on tables. Each year we do less, just too much work.

 

[Camge]

Help! This is our first holiday season and we are faced with decorating or not. We are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas. We do celebrate Hanukah. I feel as if we should do some decorating for our guests. We are also part of a holiday Inn crawl so.I know the other inns will be decorated. I'm thinking lights out side, and in tthe windows. Wreath on door, menorah in front window. Greenery up the stairs with lights, but no tree. It is very confusing.Dear husband wants nothing but knows it will be good for business. Thoughts?

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Help! This is our first holiday season and we are faced with decorating or not. We are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas. We do celebrate Hanukah. I feel as if we should do some decorating for our guests. We are also part of a holiday Inn crawl so.I know the other inns will be decorated. I'm thinking lights out side, and in tthe windows. Wreath on door, menorah in front window. Greenery up the stairs with lights, but no tree. It is very confusing.Dear husband wants nothing but knows it will be good for business. Thoughts?.

Help! This is our first holiday season and we are faced with decorating or not. We are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas. We do celebrate Hanukah. I feel as if we should do some decorating for our guests. We are also part of a holiday Inn crawl so.I know the other inns will be decorated. I'm thinking lights out side, and in tthe windows. Wreath on door, menorah in front window. Greenery up the stairs with lights, but no tree. It is very confusing.Dear husband wants nothing but knows it will be good for business. Thoughts?

The people on the Inn Crawl will expect some sort of holiday decoration. If you want to make it all about Hanukah, it would be true to you and also festive for guests.
You can set the table beautifully without being Christmassy. Use non traditional colors like gold and pink. Or you can use the blue and silver generally associated with Hanukah. Lots of candles and sparkle can just say, 'winter wonderland' without saying, 'Christmas.'

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Help! This is our first holiday season and we are faced with decorating or not. We are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas. We do celebrate Hanukah. I feel as if we should do some decorating for our guests. We are also part of a holiday Inn crawl so.I know the other inns will be decorated. I'm thinking lights out side, and in tthe windows. Wreath on door, menorah in front window. Greenery up the stairs with lights, but no tree. It is very confusing.Dear husband wants nothing but knows it will be good for business. Thoughts?.

Help! This is our first holiday season and we are faced with decorating or not. We are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas. We do celebrate Hanukah. I feel as if we should do some decorating for our guests. We are also part of a holiday Inn crawl so.I know the other inns will be decorated. I'm thinking lights out side, and in tthe windows. Wreath on door, menorah in front window. Greenery up the stairs with lights, but no tree. It is very confusing.Dear husband wants nothing but knows it will be good for business. Thoughts?

The people on the Inn Crawl will expect some sort of holiday decoration. If you want to make it all about Hanukah, it would be true to you and also festive for guests.
You can set the table beautifully without being Christmassy. Use non traditional colors like gold and pink. Or you can use the blue and silver generally associated with Hanukah. Lots of candles and sparkle can just say, 'winter wonderland' without saying, 'Christmas.'
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