November 29th, 2006
Christmas decor
Do you ever wonder when you should decorate your home for Christmas? All the stores and high streets have already set up their deco and we’re still in November. So should we also start decorating our homes this early?..
In many European countries people decorate their homes and put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve - this is when the baby Jesus is supposed to bring peace and presents to families. Father Christmas is actually meant to visit in the early morning of St Nicholas’ day (6th Dec).He leaves presents for well behaved children (or some birch twigs for the naughty ones!) in their boots that were placed in the window on the previous night. Twelfth Night after Christmas (Epiphany on 6th Jan) marks the end of the festivities and the decorations are taken down.
In other countries, Christmas decorations go up on St Lucia’s day (13th Dec), again coming down on Twelfth-night. I believe that traditionally this was also the date in England for putting up the decorations. Some other customs prefer setting up the tree, crib and other decorations on the nearest Sunday to Christmas Eve (this year that will be the 17th Dec).
I tend to put up my decoration on the 6th December, on St Nicholas’ day, as this is my way of paying respect to the European tradition. Also, it’s because the days are getting shorter, greyer and gloomier - so the sparking lights and the candles brighten up my evenings and my mood. Given that my decoration cannot be described as traditional, I tend to leave up my installations until the end of February - I only put away obvious Christmas references, such as the tree, icicles, snowballs etc on Twelfth Night. I leave some up because January and February are also ghastly months when the days are still so short and grey but no more parties are going on nor are any sparking lights in the shops and on the streets that would lift my spirit up.
So don’t get stressed out about the correct date for decorating your home for Christmas. Either go along with the above traditional dates or just follow your own instincts.