Raises hand-guilty-gulp.
My condolences on the loss of your son. So sorry!
We always had a real tree until D1 an MIL finally rebelled. They have terrible allergies and the tree was making Christmas miserable. We capitulated with no regrets. Our fake tree was expensive but is very pretty.
I haven’t put up a tree since the kittens were eating the needles and we had to take it down. That was six years ago and I don’t think anyone misses it. We put a wreath at the point of the porch roof and one on the shed out back. I have two big lanterns that I put on either side of the porch steps with LED candles and holly. For the first time this year I got to cut the holly before the robins ate all the berries.
We finally got a front outdoor power socket. Now I need to find the outdoor lights.
The tree has sat in the dining room for the recent past holidays. I like seeing it from the kitchen.
I bought my fake tree at a rummage sale. I feel like it’s sustainable, lol!
I guess real trees are going to be expensive this year.
Still procrastinating putting up my decorations
Stupid question I’m sure…but do warmer climates have any different outdoor holiday decor traditions? I’m guessing you’re not putting an old wooden sled outside your door? Do you light up your tropical trees?
In our old place, we were the “red neck neighbors” of sorts, lol, because we never took down out house Christmas lights. Rope LED lights - a very early edition! They were expensive as heck. Mr. attached them so they would only be visible when lit. We never took the ropes down… only the cords. I would sprinkle lights on the bushes in the front yard, Mr. would plug in the rope lights, and we would put a live potted tree by the living room window and decorate it. No wreaths, no trinkets. We would later plant the tree in our yard. The buyer of that house inherited the trees and the rope lights. Mr. offered to take them down, but the family wanted them.
Nothing as elaborate here at the newer to us place. Some outside lights on the bushes and a tree inside. No reindeering on the roof to deck the house. 
Our fake tree is 21 years old and still looks great. I work a lot with the branches so it doesn’t look perfect. I also string about 1,000 bulbs, a mixture of white and color. I put tons of ornaments on it and have decorative ribbons streaming down. I love it. I’m dreading putting it up.
I start today with just the tree and lights. Glad I’m alone because there will be a lot of cussing.
Light trick that I did last year - actually @conmama were you the one that suggested this?
Mix regular tree lights (white or colored) with a couple of stands of bigger round white bulbs strings - zig zag through the tree. We LOVED the way this looked last year! Really gave some good dimension to the lighting situation!
These are the ones we used last year - we used with multi colored regular lights. I have bought BOXES of these at the end of the summer season and doled out handfuls to my kids - I paid less than $2/box!
https://www.target.com/p/20ct-incandescent-outdoor-string-lights-g40-clear-bulbs-green-wire-room-essentials-8482/-/A-53804992
@abasket , yes it was my idea,but I can’t credit really. It was my husband who thought of doing that. I use the same size bulbs, white and color.
I agree that the white makes the tree sparkle and gives dimension.
We have been using blue and white lights on our tree. The white lights are snowflake-shaped and are bigger. The blue led lights are the tiny kind.
@abasket Not a southerner, but when husband was stationed in central Texas we did our decorations same as always. Most of the people in our housing development – military housing, lots of southerners – went the “typical” route.
I don’t know if it’s a warmer-climate thing, but I’ve seen holiday decorations using magnolia instead of evergreen, and they are just lovely.
^^I was actually seeking out some magnolia (artificial) to use a couple places - I prefer the look over too much evergreen.
Love the idea of putting old ornaments in a big bowl. I have an inherited box of ornaments from my parents’ house and I’ve never done anything with them.
I have a fake tree, which I love because there’s no pressure to get it down before it dries out too much.
I also have a 40 inch wrought iron table tree that has only bird and insect ornaments on it. I’ll keep that tree and ornaments to the very end. The ornaments are mostly delicate glass butterflies and birds.!I used to buy a few every year, but the store that carried them has gone out of business.
If there’s time, my adult kids still love to bake and decorate sugar cookies.
We still hang the hand knit stockings - on the upstairs bannister because now that there are seven stockings they don’t fit over the fireplace. My mother knit mine, my husband’s and my first child’s and then handed the directions to me. I continued the tradition with my other two kids. The last two are spouse and significant other and I bought the stockings.
One of the prettiest Christmas trees I’ve ever seen was in Florida. It had white lights and sand dollars hung with red ribbons.
Xmas is my DH’s favorite holiday so we go a bit overboard. We’re a bit staid this year since we’re just renting, but rest assure it’ll ALLLL be out next year! No outdoor lights this year, but both indoor trees are up, and mantle has a lighted garland. We put out what we most wanted this year a bit early so S19 could enjoy it before going back to school.
What we do next year will depend on what house we buy. DH is a big proponent of more is more… but still classy. LOL
@ChaosParent23 it’s not overboard, it’s exuberant!
My house is a complete disaster right now - D1 and D3 were living here for a short while, with their shedding dogs, and they’re finally, slowly, moving out. We will be hosting a large family group for Xmas and I’m stressed.
I prepped the only thing I could - the outdoor lights - and that cheered me up immensely. I like all the twinkling and it’s so great that LED lights use such a small amount of electricity!
(if you don’t have an outdoor outlet, don’t let that stop you. You can buy something with a receptacle that screws into any outdoor light fixture. So, unscrew your porch light and put in that little adapter and get to work!)
We also ordered some new furniture and while I was moving things around I found pine needles from last year! I really want a fake tree. I love the smell of pine but it’s such a hassle to get a fresh one, set it up, deal with the needles, etc. The girls all insist on a fresh one though, ugh. We have high ceilings too so they insist on a damn tall one. I wish I could get a beautiful fake and just hang a few scent-sicles on it and call it a day!
@abasket - people do decorate their palm trees and that’s great. What bugs me is that if you get a fresh wreath it dries out in about a week and looks terrible.
We put a wreath on the front door and the tree in the front window, turn on the tree lights, and we’re done. We do have some very nice interior decorations, some of which belonged to my grandmother and are among my most prized possessions.
I enjoy other people’s outdoor decorations (and their gardens and their dogs).
I make an annual trip to see the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC (luckily only a couple of hours drive away) decorated in all its elaborate beautiful splendor. That fulfills 90% of my need for seeing a house decorated for Christmas.
In my own house I must have a live tree and I decorate it myself with my favorite ornaments. I also put out a few other favorite decorations and a couple of poinsettias. DH usually puts lighted decorations outside. I never start before December 1 and usually don’t get the tree until mid-December (getting harder and harder to find one though) since we leave Christmas up until at least New Years Day. By the time my 3 boys were in high school they stopped helping with any decorating because of being so busy with school and other activities at that time of year. They also really didn’t care what the house looks like as long as there’s food in the fridge. It’s only us for Christmas, though, so that reduces the need to decorate for others.
We wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate. I make fruitcakes the weekend after Thanksgiving. It’s an old family recipe that I took over from my grandmother after she passed. To decorate I need Christmas music and Christmas smells along with a slice of fruitcake.