Did people really put the tree up on Christmas Eve years ago?

[Polybius]

I remember my mom telling me this as a kid when I complained that December 10th was too late to put it up.

[StarryNite]

1. My mom said they put their up on Christmas Eve when she was a kid.

Maybe because they were lit up with candles? I don't know what if any kind of lights my mom's family had on their trees.

[Ocelot II]

2. Yes, very commonly. I know my own parents' families did.

When I was a kid the earliest it would go up was my grandma's birthday, the 18th. If you put it up too early it would be starting to dry by Christmas.

[2naSalit]

3. We did when I was young...

Somewhere along the line we started doing it about a week before, probably because we had so many kids and organizing everything was a major production.

[The Magistrate]

4. That Was our Practice, Sir

It went up late Christmas Eve, just before we left for midnight mass.

[UpInArms]

5. I still do

Nd it comes down on New Year’s Day, if not sooner

[Polybius]

6. Wow why?

I understand the practice years ago, but seeing a tree up say December 10th builds the spirit of Christmas. It's such a beautiful decoration; the longer it's up, the better.

[Ocelot II]

9. I am usually sick of Christmas long before Christmas because the season starts too damn soon.

I don’t need weeks of it; I liked putting up the tree just a few days before. It was something to look forward to.

[MyOwnPeace]

7. I was born in 1947.

I'm not sure when it stopped (perhaps in '53/'54) but there was NO SIGN of Christmas inside my house BEFORE CHRISTMAS as far as a tree was concerned. SANTA brought presents AND the tree!

My folks waited until I went to bed ON CHRISTMAS EVE - and THEN put up and decorated the tree, complete with the Lionel train ready to run underneath the tree, with the platform covered with little sparkle houses and plastic snow! Oh, and a row of wrapped presents in front!

I think I know now why they always looked so tired when we went to Grand-pap's for Christmas dinner....

[Mr.Bill]

8. My mom and dad put up the tree after we went to bed in the early 50s.

They told us Santa brought the tree. I actually suspect it was done because on Christmas Eve you could buy a tree for about 25 cents. My dad would never admit in in later years, though.

We weren't poor, but we weren't rich either. Our parents did lots of interesting things to cut corners and save money. My wife came from a family with five kids. Their Sunday routine consisted of going to church, And since Catholic Communion required fasting that morning, their first meal was a hearty lunch. Sunday evening was popcorn night while watching the Ed Sullivan Show. The kids looked forward to this and loved it. Can you imagine how much money their dad saved over the years by feeding five kids popcorn for dinner one night a week?

[Nay]

16. It took me many years to realize it, but our tree went up on Christmas Eve because

trees were FREE then. My father was cheap as heck. The tree sellers abandoned their lots at about 5 PM and gave trees away.

[malthaussen]

21. That's interesting, I wonder if there's a variation by region?

The old man wouldn't pay full price for a tree if you threatened him with a gun, but we still had to pay like a buck on Christmas Eve.

-- Mal

[Nay]

25. This was 60 years ago, so maybe just a difference in the era. And it was in Florida.

But even when my son was young (30 yrs ago) and we visited Mom on Christmas, she had not bought a tree yet on Christmas Eve, so we went out and . . . got a free tree at an abandoned tree lot! They had even put a "free trees" sign. I was surprised this sort of thing was still going on. Happy, but surprised.

[malthaussen]

27. I'm the same vintage, different region.

Maybe my father went out too early for the last-chancers to abandon their tree lots completely.

-- Mal

[RockRaven]

10. When you're attaching actual burning candles to a resinous conifer inside your house, it is best

that said conifer be very very VERY freshly cut.

And even after the dawn of the era of electric lighting, until the last quarter-to-half century those lights got HOT.

[Tomconroy]

11. My parents always did that. Even when the stores started

decorating before Halloween.

[MaryMagdaline]

12. Yes. Christmas Eve to Epiphany is when the tree was up

12 days of Christmas. We actually put it up about one week before Xmas as years went by.

[Mister Ed]

13. My family did.

We'd go and find the most scraggly tree on the lot, take it home, and transform it into a thing of beauty with our decorations.

Sort of like in the Peanuts Christmas special, but this wàs before that show first aired.

[Nittersing]

15. That was my family tradition growing up. (born in '54)

One or two strings of lights on the front porch... an assortment of household decorations... and the tree. All on Christmas Eve Day. And at one point, Mom started putting McDonald's gift certificates with friends names on the tree... So friends always found their way over to our house for those and the mini candy canes that also decorated the tree.

And everything came down on New Years Day. I think part of that was an attempt by my parents to not over-commercialize the day.

[Scrivener7]

17. There is actually some old Celtic reason why you don't bring in the

greens till the eve of the Solstice or something like that, but I forget what it is. I'll try to find it and post it if I do.

[Solly Mack]

18. Perhaps it stems from the 12 days of Christmas starting on the 25th/Christmas Day.

It's not simply a song. It's an actual thing called Twelvetide. It's a Christian celebration and it ends the day before the feast of Epiphany.

Put the tree up on the eve and leave it up until the feast of Epiphany (Jan.6th) or Orthodox Christian day (Jan.7th).

That's twelve days plus 1 or 2 days.

I don't know why people did it and still do it. But maybe it is rooted in Twelvetide.

Maybe. Maybe not.

[dameatball]

19. We usually put ours up about the third week of December, although I recall one year we bought our

tree on Christmas Eve. Maybe we were broke that year, not sure. I was pretty young at the time.

[malthaussen]

20. Dunno about "people," but...

... my father was a notorious procrastinator, and so our Christmas Eve "tradition" was to race around frantically trying to find a halfway decent tree among the (leftover, marked down to a dollar) lots still open. This was compounded by the need to deal with my elder brother's birthday, which fell on 24 December. I remember a lot of yelling.

So, insofar as 50-60 years counts as "years ago," I'd say some people did.

-- Mal

[rurallib]

22. My recollection is that the tree went up when the kids were off for Christmas break

So somewhere @ the 21st.

We had electric lights but there was a real concern for fires.
The tree came down on January 2, absolutely.

[Irish_Dem]

23. My mother said that this was the tradition when she was a child.

The tree was put up Christmas Eve.

[Elessar Zappa]

24. Our family has always put it up around December 10th.

Not too early, not too late.

[Polybius]

26. Same with my family as a kid

I was that kid who pushed for it earlier though.