Monday's Question of the Day - December 1, 2014

It's officially DECEMBER!! WOW!!

I must start the month with a holiday question!

Have you decorated for Christmas yet?  If you don't celebrate Christmas; is there another holiday that you decorate for?

My tree is up behind me; waiting for decorations.  I did a little decorating outside tonight too.  I'm a little nervous about the tree because of my 2 year old son.    

No, I don't decorate for Christmas. I don't decorate for anything but I do like to dress up for special occasions, if I have a party to go to.

I'm going to give myself a seasonal manicure. I'm going for glittery green nail polish with gold star nail stickers for our "Girls Night Out" this month. That's all the decorating that goes on around here.

Yes, I decorate, but not this early. The weekend before Christmas has been the norm the past 4 or 5 years; before that I waited until Christmas Eve.

We've had a wreath I bought for charity beside the front door for the past week, but that's an exception.

i put up my tree. all i do is lights and a topper and a tree skirt. it still looks very pretty. if i do my balls i make sure i get them from the dollar store and usually made out of Styrofoam to prevent any injuries. over the years i have learn a Christmas tree is a BIG toy for the cat!

I live alone and this is my first Xmas single-sniffle. I am not a believer but do love to decorate. I may do it so Whitney can see her first real tree but not till one week prior. I think she will dig the lights and ornaments. A tree, a couple stockings, and a wreath on the door is enough for me.

I just finished decorating for now.  Mooch has been under it having her second kittenhood (she will be 10 February).  She's knocked some (unbreakable) balls off and been chasing a light reflection from a metal one.   I decided I'd put up mostly unbreakable things.  I did put up my "In Memory" ornaments; which go at the top.  Hallmark puts out one every year and I'll get one for close family members or friends that have passed on in the past year.  I'm up to 5; it just doesn't seem right not to have them out.  I put them at the very top; right under my teddy-bear angel that DH bought when we were engaged.  

I am considering looking for a container of more unbreakable balls.  I have some that I bought when my DD was tiny; but the tree still looks bare without a lot of my favorites.  I have a few that I'm hoping go un-noticed that I did leave out.  I will ask DH to keep that tote handy so I can get the others out closer to Christmas if DS is doing well with leaving the tree alone.

I will hang lights around the living room tomorrow and hopefully do the lighted garland I string around the kitchen and dining areas as well.  If I get the top of my desk cleared off; I have some snowmen scenes for there as well as my breakable nativity.  I have a Little People Nativity for under the tree.    

We don't decorate. It just makes more work before and after the holidays when I already have lots to do. It would be totally different if I was a parent and wanted to do so for my child, but my boyfriend and I can't be bothered. The cats would break it all anyway.  

My parents stopped decorating when we stopped having celebrations at our house. It was fun when I was younger, but as I got older the decorations mattered less and less. It's too much work for them now too, in their 50s and 60s.

When we moved here 2 1/2 years ago I gave all my Christmas stuff to my old apartment manager cause I didn't want to bring it to our new apartment. My sister in law asked me if I wanted some of hers because she had so much, and I still haven't seen it. She was supposed to bring before Thanksgiving but as usual she was a no show so I may not be putting any up. It is just my husband and myself so why the bother ?

I hate to see what will happen if I do cause the cats are already running around crazy enough.

You know, we usually do the living room Christmas tree the weekend of Thanksgiving, but we've not had the time yet. Rick is off work today and he said that, if it stays fairly warm, he'll do some outdoor decorating. Both of us aren't real excited about Christmas this year; usually by this time, I'm bouncing off the walls. I guess we just have too much other stuff going on right now.

No decorating, but lots of baking done and eaten already. I usually make around 70 dozen cookies. Decorating just means doing the tree and the Christmas onion. For the last couple of years, we've put the tree in the bedroom. That's where we spend most of our time. The bed is there, the telly is there, it's where we read. Christmas morning, we all gather on the bed with a pot of tea. It's nice to lie in bed at night all look at all the lights. There's just the three of us and it's cosy. Wish I'd thought of this years ago. Santa could have just said goodnight and closed the door, got everything ready and gone to bed at a decent hour instead of staying up half the night to make sure everyone was asleep! When it's time to take the tree down, our kid just tosses it off the 2nd floor balcony (Coch's balcony), then drags it to the street for green waste pick-up. This will be the first time in four years that we haven't had a litter box at the very back of the tree. The cats really liked it. Made them think they were outside.

The Christmas onion is the one onion in the bag that most wants to celebrate Christmas and declares itself by sprouting. So we stick it in a pot and decorate it with red ribbon, and place it in the middle of the kitchen table. In the spring, we plant it outside along the edge of the woods to be free. A whim that stuck around. Kind of like pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey.

Although last year, when Coch initially got so sick, I was so busy with her and I was sick as well, we never managed to get a tree, so we ended up decorating our avocado plant.

Tree's up. Kitty's stockings are hung. I got lights around my front window and my back sliding doors.

I want to find something to put in the windows other than the lights.. like snowflakes or santa or something. 

We got the decorations and tree out on the weekend but haven't done anything with any of it yet. I wanted to get it out while Aimee wasn't here because it was in the crawl space under the floor. We will decorate at some point this week, maybe wait until next weekend.

We don't decorate as we do not celebrate Christmas.  I'll probably pick up some greenery and a nice winter time wreath for the front door and pull out my menorah when it's time but that's about it.  We did put up blue and white lights one year, but it was a PITA and, the electric bill shot up so not going there again!

cats4sky said:

over the years i have learn a Christmas tree is a BIG toy for the cat!

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We usually call it a tree with cat toys. :lol3:

I don't usually do anything about Christmas, but my best friend bought Montgomery a two foot tall hot pink Christmas tree. He loves it. He rubs against it, he nibbles the boughs, he takes the plastic ornaments off it. Great cat toy!

The outdoor lights are already up. It can be sub-arctic here, so the lights go up in the fall while it's still half warm. DH came from a home where the Christmas decor go up Nov 1st. and there is not 1 inch of free space in the house or in the yard, it's all xmas decorations. Lights, blow-ups, garland, projectors, you name it - she has it. So DH naturally gets his 'xmas spirit' by decorating. Although Nov 1st is way to early for me, so we compromised on the first weekend in Dec. 

If I leave it any longer, he starts moping around the house and complaining it 'just doesn't feel like Christmas' and he's 'just not in the mood for the holidays'

Chromium Blues said:

 
I don't usually do anything about Christmas, but my best friend bought Montgomery a two foot tall hot pink Christmas tree. He loves it. He rubs against it, he nibbles the boughs, he takes the plastic ornaments off it. Great cat toy!

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A hot pink tree sounds right up my DD's alley!    We just finished decorating her bedroom tree (complete with a string of pink lights that I surprised her with) and she spent several minutes informing how much she loves the color pink and glitter but especially pink glitter.  She proved her point by dumping the glitter that had fallen into the bag we keep her ornaments in over her head.  She looks like she's been sprinkled with pixie dust. 

twinkles21 said:

 
The outdoor lights are already up. It can be sub-arctic here, so the lights go up in the fall while it's still half warm. DH came from a home where the Christmas decor go up Nov 1st. and there is not 1 inch of free space in the house or in the yard, it's all xmas decorations. Lights, blow-ups, garland, projectors, you name it - she has it. So DH naturally gets his 'xmas spirit' by decorating. Although Nov 1st is way to early for me, so we compromised on the first weekend in Dec. 

If I leave it any longer, he starts moping around the house and complaining it 'just doesn't feel like Christmas' and he's 'just not in the mood for the holidays'

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DH never wants to do lights outdoors; or at least not on the house.  So anything out there is all my work.  He is super busy this time of year so I don't blame him.  I tried telling him we could put them up in November and just not turn them on till after Thanksgiving.  He hasn't gone for it.  And I don't know how to reach the peak of our garage without a bucket truck anyway.