As Halloween approaches, I’ve noticed decorations going up on people’s lawns in town and in folks’ pictures online. (Georgia Dunn’s insta shows her Halloween decorations in the background.)
That got me thinking about seasonal decorations and wondering if I’m the only person who doesn’t bother. (Remembering to get/find the kids’ costumes and candy for giving out is about all I can handle for Halloween.) Apparently I’m not because #2 doesn’t either.
#1: Just Christmas. Most years we get a rosemary tree and decorate it, unless we’re traveling over Christmas, in which case we have a felt tree that DH and DC1 made. And the kids have stockings. Usually all of this happens a few days before Christmas after I’ve gotten my final exams graded and entered and school has ended for the year.
#2: Just Christmas. We have some seasonal towels but they’re just red and green so we use them normally. We have stockings and some random tchotchkes people have given us.
#1: Oh yeah, we have towels and a bunch of random Christmas tchotchkes people have given us too. There was a time when DH’s relatives would give us Christmas decorations for Christmas. We also have Christmas theme hand towels and if we have ppl over for Thanksgiving we have fall themed table runners, courtesy of DH’s grandma.
#2: There was a time when people gave us holiday stuff, but much of it has gone to goodwill. We don’t have that kind of room anymore.
#1: If we moved we would probably do that. Our stuff hangs out in a cupboard.
Do you do seasonal decorations? Did you do them growing up?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
October 5, 2016 at 5:33 am
My parents are big into seasonal decorations, tho they are more into it now that they’re empty nesters than they were when growing up. We always did something when I was a kid, especially for Halloween. I strongly suspect that’s my mom’s favorite holiday. We decorated for Halloween, Christmas, and Easter for sure. My parents now have a bin (or more) for each (plus more) and really go all out with decorating. They love their fourth of July decorations.
We don’t decorate much now, but I’d really like to do more. I don’t think it’s necessary, but I like how Gretchen Rubin talks about celebrating holidays and decorating. The year zooms by so fast already, and celebrating special days helps slow down the pace a little bit. It’s far too easy for all the days to blend into each other.
October 5, 2016 at 6:47 am
I LOVE Christmas decorations. We always decorated for that growing up, and I am happy to continue the tradition. I typically use Thanksgiving break to decorate – we don’t go anywhere since we have classes through Wednesday afternoon here, so that gives me 3 days to indulge. We never decorated for Halloween, but I have found that I have been putting more things up. Mostly because I pick up one or two things each year, so the collection grows. It makes me happy so that’s mostly why it happens.
October 5, 2016 at 7:12 am
Part of me wants to do yard decorations, like for Halloween, and then another part of me doesn’t want to have to store that crap for the rest of the year. We usually travel to our parents’ homes for Christmas and don’t have any outdoor power outlets for lights, so we don’t even do Christmas decorations currently.
October 5, 2016 at 7:47 am
We were kind of surprised in Paradise last year how so many people went all out for Halloween despite having tiny homes. But then they didn’t decorate much for winter holidays, so I guess Halloween decorations took much of their yard decoration storage space. Either that or there’s someplace that rents out Halloween yard stuff.
We don’t do Christmas lights. While we appreciate others’ light displays, I feel bad about hurting the environment.
October 5, 2016 at 8:00 am
Of course, driving home from preschool last night DC2 declared that zie wanted to make spooky decorations and pretty decorations for Halloween, so I guess we will decorate after all.
October 5, 2016 at 10:00 am
I don’t decorate for any other holiday, but I used to do a lot for Christmas. In past years, I put up two Christmas trees in my house (even though I live alone) because I love Christmas trees so much. But now I have two young and hyper cats, so no tree for me.
October 5, 2016 at 12:07 pm
We put up a Christmas tree and some indoor decorations growing up. Now, we hang outdoor lights and put up a few yard decorations the kids like. We also put up a few outdoor decorations for Halloween, but nothing fancy. Pretty much all of our decorations are due to poorly timed trips to Michaels for some art supply, and the kids seeing something they like and me deciding I’d rather not argue about a $5 purple cat and just buying it.
October 5, 2016 at 12:25 pm
We had a Christmas tree, stockings, centerpieces, and ancillary décor when I was a kid. I don’t remember us doing anything major for any other holiday.
Now, the DH and I have some Christmas ornaments that he puts up around the apartment, and we have a little tiny tinsel tree. Otherwise, the only time I do any “décor” is if we are having a party, and it’s typically not “seasonal” – it’s just to dress the place up a bit.
I tend to be a little Bah Humbug and feel that seasonal displays, exaggerated holidays, overdecorated anything, is just toxic consumerism. This weird competition to see who can deploy the most disposable crap, ugh. I see balloons blowing around and think “there’s another dead bird.” Not much of a party animal, me.
October 5, 2016 at 12:35 pm
Nah.
I lived a number of years in a country that doesn’t do the holidays I grew up with, and neither decorating for holidays no one near me celebrated, nor decorating for the holidays I didn’t personally observe, really appealed.
Now I’m back in my home country but spend all the important holidays at the homes of friends/family. This is by design, as my apartment is not only too small to host, but I also have no interest in hosting :)
(Several relatives are already competing for who gets to host what so I leave it to them)
Decorating just for me and the cat seems like more trouble than its worth.
Growing up, we certainly carved pumpkins for outside display, put up trees and lights at xmas, etc., but I had the impression that this sort of thing was really for us kids.
October 5, 2016 at 1:02 pm
Growing up, my mom always decorated for holidays – minimal stuff for Halloween, Easter, etc. but major decorations for Christmas. I loved it as a kid and always felt that the decorations made things seem so much more festive, even if they were just cheap little things from the grocery store.
Unfortunately, as an adult, I fall more into the “bah humbug” category. I do have quite a few decorations for several holidays, and put some of them up every year, but often the hassle outweighs the enjoyment. We carve pumpkins for the kids. I do put out Christmas decorations and we always get a tree. The kids always want to do lights on the house, but that only happens every few years when there happens to be a warm-enough evening at the end of November that coincides with us having enough energy to muster the considerable effort.
I’ve worried a little that my adult boringness might dampen the kids’ enjoyment of holidays. But I do try to do other things to make certain days special. We have Halloween plates and Easter plates that we use in the fall and winter. We always get glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas for Halloween and special Christmas pajamas. We do special things on St. Patrick’s day and Leap day. I guess I’m not that much of a humbug after all. End guilt trip.
October 5, 2016 at 1:08 pm
You don’t sound humbug at all! And even if you weren’t there’s no reason to feel guilt.
Apparently if our kids care enough they’re able to get DH to move to action on the craftiness/decoration front. DC2’s current preschool went all out with Halloween decorations and DC2 has been making noises that home should have decorations as well.
Candy is still a big important thing marking the holidays for the kids at casa grumpy, even if I’m a huge scrooge with anything involving effort.
October 5, 2016 at 4:50 pm
My mother had an entire Christmas wall as well as a wazoo of decorations. I have a few that my husband grudgling accepts – a wreath for the door, some pillows, linens, etc. The only decorations that he really enjoys are some geek Christmas tree ornaments that he keeps out year round. Go figure!
October 12, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Not much–a tree & wreath at Christmas. For context: when I was a kid people didn’t go nuts decorating for all the various holidays; Christmas was the only one, & even then it was maybe some outside lights. But of course we give out Halloween candy!