Preparing for Christmas yet?

[gottahaveahoove]

Is anyone doing any 'holiday cleaning' yet? Do you use vintage machines? Or, do you wait to deep clean AFTER everything is put away?
It seems like a lot of people are decorating early....maybe after all of the COVID depression, social distancing.. they need/want something pleasant.
Are you going 'all out' decorating this year?
Last year, I sort of hit a wall..... and did very little.
This year, I hope/plane to do everything.
So............. share with the class??

 

[kirboover]

Well

We usually do our outside cleaning and decoration around now before it gets too cold, for which I use a vintage lawnmower vac to pick up leaves. We hang our lights and move on. After thanksgiving, we move the furniture and vacuum usually using my Kirby tradition(I believe it cleans better than any modern) and put up our Christmas tree. After Christmas we throw that out and vac the needles(we get a real tree) and then I clean the carpet using my Electrolux floor pro and Kirby Sentria to vacuum( I believe it has slightly stiffer brushes thus better agitation for cleaning the carpet.

 

[human]

Rushing the Season...

I'm never home for Christmas so any sort of major holiday cleaning is a moot point; in fact, I don't even decorate for the holidays. And I certainly would not be cleaning in mid-November for Christmas, which happens in late December, since that would be utterly pointless anyway. I refuse to live by the retail calendar so as far as I'm concerned, it's NOT the holidays yet, despite what all the stores would have us believe. When I worked in retail, I was totally sick of the holidays by the time we got past Black Friday. We would start getting the Christmas crap in on the trucks in late May or early June.

When I was a kid, we would go to visit my grandparents for Thanksgiving and see no Christmas lights at all on the trip down Wednesday evening and we'd then laugh at the few we'd see on the trip home that Sunday as people were severely rushing the season. That week after Thanksgiving would be fairly magical as stores and public spaces would gradually begin to be decked out, followed by people's homes. Retail has ruined that. I have a friend who actually put up her tree a month ago! Not me.

 

[air-waycharlie]

I have a friend that already has his tree up and his house is fully decorated.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to leave lights/trees and other decorations up all year long. People put lights and decorations up just after Halloween and leave them until the end of February. 4/5 months out of 12--Wow!

As Miss Daisy said, "Everybodys giving the Georgia power company a very Merry Christmas". And then some.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I never decorate , (trees, etc) until after Thanksgiving .

I will put lights up outside if the weather dictates, but nothing gets lit until December. Some 'houseclean' before. I've started doing that after it all comes down.
I don't like to rush the holidays, myself. It's awful to see Christmas stuff up before Halloween.

 

[madman]

>implying Christmas isn't going to be cancelled like Thanksgiving
lol

 

[fan-of-fans]

Not sure about this year. We may not be doing anything. I would like to do some decorating but not really in the mood after all that's gone on this year. I guess it's one of those things where it's more about perspective than circumstance.

That all said, I cannot believe that there is already Christmas music playing in stores! ! And has been for a few weeks already! Plus heard some on the radio in the car today. We are not even to the week before Thanksgiving yet and they've been playing since early November.

As for Christmas decorations, to me the time to decorate is just after Thanksgiving. For me, that's a long weekend, so Black Friday and the Saturday after is the perfect time to start putting them up. And since that's the end of November, it gives a good month to look at them without getting bored of them by the time Christmas comes. Then take them down around New Years' Day.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Speaking of Black Friday

When did this trend actually start? I only grew up in the 90s, but it seems like the trend of crazy Black Friday events I don't remember hearing much about until maybe 2008 or so. I mean, I know there have been sales for decades, but that's when I first remember hearing about early morning doorbuster sales and crazy crowds and people getting trampled.

Then it seemed since maybe 2015 or so, it started getting stretched out to Thanksgiving afternoon/evening (possibly to lessen the chaos).

Then the last couple of years this practice seems to have been a dying thing. This year I'm already hearing about Black Friday offers during the first two weeks of November. So by the time Black Friday gets here, it won't be much of an event, I don't think.

Of course this is just talking about the United States. Not sure Black Friday is/was even a thing in any other countries.

 

[tolivac]

Like a few others on here I am burned out of Christmas-TOO MUCH publicity and the "season" is starting earlier and earlier-I got some junk mail about Chiristmas in August!!!!Into the shredder it went!!!I am NOT going to decorate or special clean for Christmas-guess I am a GRINCH!Seriously-enough is ENOUGH!!!I will be glad when its all over!Remember when Christmas wasn't so publicized-that was BETTER!

 

[suckolux]

I did full tilt decor this last week before bad weather, mud and a ladder combo. They are not plugged in yet, just up. Now inside, those are working! No thanksgiving at my place.

 

[dysonman1]

My in-laws are coming this year for Thanksgiving. I'll put one of my husband's wreaths that he made on the front door. That's about it. It seems pointless to me to drag boxes of Christmas stuff out of it's very restful storage space in the garage, only to have to put it back in a few weeks. If I want to see the magic of Christmas, I only have to look at my wonderful husband and play with my awesome dogs and cats. Making them happy is the real meaning of Christmas. Not "stuff".

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I must admit..

my place looks great during the holidays.
It seems to lend itself to decorating.
It's nice to see the (4) trees decorated, as well as the staircase, mantle, etc.
People feel very welcome here during the holidays.

 

[suckolux]

Perhaps it's some of the cookies too John!

 

[thevacuumman]

We've been getting the house ready as my wife and I just finished moving out of our rent house and into the home that we purchased in mid October. Most of the unpacking is done, but everything is still not quite right yet. Unfortunately, we aren't going to have Thanksgiving as planned since we will be in Dallas with my daughter the first and possibly most of the second week in December since she has to have heart surgery to repair a birth defect that went unnoticed by the doctors until about a month ago when they found a significant heart murmur at her last checkup and its been down the rabbit hole from there. We have already done some decorating around the house to help take our minds off of the upcoming surgery, and we are hoping for a easy recovery and the doctor in Dallas is reassuring us that with how healthy she is that recovery should go well.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Wow, Tyler! Lots going on there.

Best wishes that all goes well.
Sometimes, a nicely decorated home CAn take your mind off things a bit.
Prayers to you and your family.

 

[human]

Door-busters...

I worked as a cashier in a grocery store in the early '80s and was amazed that Thanksgiving, being such a food-oriented holiday, was almost completely ignored in favor of getting a jump on Christmas. Of course, it's gone completely insane since then.

I lived in a small town in the late '90s and early 2000s and had a colleague who would go to a nearby city with her husband on Thanksgiving night to stay in a hotel so they could get up and go to the Friday door-buster sales at o-dark-thirty the next morning. Now, of course, they've pushed the door-busters back to Thanksgiving evening.

I was very thankful (no pun intended) when I worked in retail from 2009-2015 that we didn't do the early morning door-busters. We just opened at our regular time—10:00 a.m.—but that was also the day we started staying open two hours later in the evening, which ran until Dec. 23. Christmas Eve, we closed at 5:00 and we were back to regular store hours on Boxing Day.

@thevacuumman: Your family will certainly be in my thoughts over Thanksgiving with prayers that your daughter's surgery and recovery go smoothly.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I, too, worked in retail

But, it was before the stores were open on Thanksgiving.
I remember, as a kid, watching the city turn on the lights T giving night. welcoming in the holiday season. I judged a scholarship talent competition for 32 years on Black Friday, Sat, and awards on Sun. They put us up in a great hotel across from the huge mall. I'd go to sleep in Thanksgiving mode, and wake up with the Xmas rush. It WAS fun to be in that mall. But, it was AFTER thanksgiving.
I'll decorate outside when the weather allows. Inside. Dec. And, it will be the time for the "cookie Blitz". I make a lot of them for a lot of people enjoy them. Our family had a bakery years ago. It's fun to "re-create" as it were.

 

[brando_husky]

As a young guy living with my partner, I haven't put up a holiday decoration since living on my own. Don't even own any haha

Living in vegas now I have no family near me so no holiday parties or meals. Just my mate and I

For thanksgiving we are likely to go to one of the casinos for dinner and same for Christmas.

Since it's Vegas nothing is closed for holidays so makes it convenient for us