Well the mall is decorated for Christmas now.

[Texaswitchy]

Official.

No holiday music yet.


We put our fake tree up already, just the lights.

We have a lot of lights to put outside.

Last year so we starting early.

[johnp3907]

1. Last year?

[Texaswitchy]

2. Selling the house.

Last holiday in the house.

Been here a long time.

[johnp3907]

3. Oh! Phew!

Could’ve meant something a lot grimmer. Trust me to always assume the worst!

[malaise]

4. Well we don't have Thanksgiving here

and they are already playing the Christmas music - decorations are also up.
I give up!

[Rorey]

5. I never took mine down

Actually, I did take it down to my garage and put a cover on it. I did take the ornaments off of it. I figured it would be very easy to put up again this year, but now I've decided to give it away.

For decades I had to follow the direction of the now-ex-husband and put his very large collection of Hallmark ornaments on the tree. He would never help, but always found time to whine about placement of the ornaments. I happily handed him the three totes of those ornaments when he was removing his belongings. Then I went out and got a very nice tree and ornaments that I wanted, along with family ornaments of mine that had always stayed packed away. I had so much fun that first Christmas alone. The second year I built on what I had started. My tree was stunning, if I must say so myself. My neighbor agreed, as did my family, though none of them saw it in person because of the pandemic.

This year my son and his family will be living with me through Christmas, and I already told them that we should put up their tree with their ornaments. I want them to build on their traditions.

I think I want to do something different every year now, starting next year, for as long as I feel like putting up a tree. Having to do the same thing, year after year, was not fun for me.

[Texaswitchy]

6. We have a lot of decorations.

Some will be shipped to Canada for the kids.


A few we will take with us.

The rest give away.

Next year we will have very little tree in RV.

[Rorey]

7. It's great that you're passing many on to your kids

You can go crazy with lights on your RV next year. Solar lights are great! I put some up on my back porch over a year ago, and some are still going. Nobody sees them but me, but I figured, why not. They gave me a lift during quarantine, and then I just left them up. When one string wouldn't light up, I just reconfigured them.

[Texaswitchy]

11. Just taking out the boxes is giving me mixed feelings.

Got to get out every thing and take pictures.

Let the kids pick what they want.

This week we will be busy.

[Texaswitchy]

12. We still decorate next year.

We have 30 years of stuff.

[llmart]

13. Boy, do our stories seem to match lately.

My ex always wanted the biggest tree he could find even if it didn't fit in the house. The year before I left his lazy ass, I bought the smallest tree on the lot (called a table top tree) and left it in a bucket of water in the garage. It sat there and he never put it in the stand let alone decorate it, but in his own passive aggressive way he took one ornament out of the box and hung it on an artificial plant I had in the living room. I acted like I didn't even see it. He was a real piece of work.

Now that I've been on my own for twelve years I have a 4' tall artificial tree and I have a hand full of ornaments that are all mostly nature related and I put a small white owl on top instead of a star. I just love it. It's prelit also. Takes me all of 20 minutes to put up. I decorate my fireplace mantel next to the tree.

I've also done something different every year. I'm not one who likes to do the same thing over and over anyway.

[Rorey]

15. Similarities

It sounds like yours and mine both had the same kind of sick, narcissistic personalities. Mine also did a lot of passive aggressive things, just to see if he could get under my skin.

The last two years before the divorce, I didn't put up his damned tree at all. He pouted a little the first year. The last year was after I had found out that he was having an affair, and we were already in the process of a divorce, but he wouldn't leave. The family Christmas celebration was at my son's house, and my ex wasn't welcome. He had a very, very bad day. Of course I asked him why he didn't spend it with his girlfriend, but I got the impression that he wasn't welcome at her family events either. That wasn't surprising. Her husband hadn't been dead for very long. She and my ex started their affair just a few months after her husband of 50 years died. I just can't imagine that her family was happy about that. A couple of months ago her son died from Covid, and my ex didn't go to the funeral, which is probably another clue that her family doesn't like him much. It's hard not to laugh about that.

I love the whole owl Christmas decor thing. Most of my ornaments now I chose as individual representations of people in my life, past and present, whom I care about. I have an owl ornament representing one of my sons. Needless to say, there is no ornament representing the ex.

[BlackSkimmer]

8. I noticed people were early with Halloween this year too.

Christmas getting started early here as well. I think it’s a break from a long Covid year (and more).

People decorated early last year too. I like Christmas, so it’s all good.

[Igel]

9. Saw Xmas lights before Halloween.

Truly pathetic.

[BlackSkimmer]

14. Well, I saw them in the stores, but not on people's houses.

Neither would bother me however.

[madinmaryland]

10. Which corporate holiday is it? Nt

[moondust]

16. I heard Christmas music today.

Walmart playing "Silver Bells" on its PA system outside and indoors.

[mnhtnbb]

17. Three years ago I had moved to a high rise

apartment with no room for a Christmas tree or storage for decorations. I had room to store one large box of decorations so I decided to get rid of the 3 ft table top fake tree and all it's ornaments, plus the fireplace mantle decorations that we had used in the house that had been sold. I lost all my family ornaments from when I was growing up, along with everything we'd collected during 21 years of marriage when our house burned down in 2007.

Well, last January I moved into a house--with a fireplace--that I'd bought because of Covid. I've bought a 5 ft fake tree and I'm acquiring ornaments with a nature theme. An owl, pine cones, glitter roses, butterflies, and dragonflies. My fireplace mantle won't have a garland, but will have new decorations. I have a new wreath for the front door, and for the first time in over 20 years I'm going to put lights on an outdoor living tree--a Spruce-- which I just had planted in my front yard last week.

You never know how things might change!

[Texaswitchy]

18. We decorate the outside trees.

Lights and other stuff.

Lots of lights.

This week it being done.

Going all out.

One last time.

Getting to old now.

No grandkids to help.


Time to downsize.