Why do we constantly need to have holiday do-dads and decorations festooning our homes year round for every conceivable holiday? Most of these are ugly and tacky. Put out a pumpkin or two the week before Halloween and be done with it. And take it away on November 1.

I love Halloween and start putting a few things out in early October. Nothing too big/elaborate...these pics are from past years. All the witches and white ghost on the brick wall came from HomeGoods...love that store!

One thing nice...I buy lots of pumpkins for decor only that don't get carved. They'll last way beyond Thanksgiving.

I saw this in a catalog last year...pretty creepy if placed outside someone's window. I like my witches and ghost better!

I say a week prior. Anything longer than that just seems a bit tacky to me. I'm always down for fall-inspired decor though as a means to still celebrate the season!

Seems that Halloween has become so popular these days...so if you have kids...for sure 2-3 weeks early is good!

All the major holidays have become very popular for one reason. Retailers know they can make money pushing loads of disposable decorations. At any time of year, walk into your local Target or Walmart and you'll be confronted with piles of junk they want you to buy for the latest holiday, be it Halloween, Valentines Day, or the Fourth of July. Not to mention Back to School which has become a shopping event in itself. We live in a consumer society and we love to buy stuff. Unfortunately, much of that stuff is unnecessary, scarcely used, and disposable. It ends up putting a hole in our pockets, filling up a landfill or cluttering up our garages and basements.

Here are some suggestions. Keep holiday decorations to a minimal. Use the same decorations each year. Don't buy what you don't need. You don't have to go out and buy new decorations for every holiday. And please compost your pumpkin after halloween ,

I agree on composting carved pumpkins after Halloween. The uncut ones we keep until after Thanksgiving. My mom used to manage a gift shop, and I remember their Halloween sales weren't far behind their Christmas sales.

It depends on the decor. If you are just putting out a few pumpkins, mums, and maybe a hay-bale or scarecrow - those are "harvest" items that are fine anytime from September forward through Thanksgiving. However, if the pumpkins are carved into jack-o-lanterns and you have creepy things like spiders, witches, ghosts, tombstones, etc. those should be relegated only to October from the 1st through the holiday itself and removed as soon afterward as realistically possible.

I get extremely annoyed by the commercial entities pushing the season and starting to sell Christmas items before Thanksgiving has even rolled around. I want to enjoy each season as it occurs. I actually want to spend time thinking about Thanksgiving and what I'm thankful for during November and not think about Christmas till December rolls around. I don't want to be seeing leprechauns before Valentine's day.

I was just reminded today that Christmas is 100 days from today by a friend on Facebook. ARRGH!

quercus2- my guess is that * The Grinch that Stole Christmas * is your holiday movie go to;)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I don't love Halloween, I may put a few things out a week or so before. I LOVE Christmas, so I decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving!!

When ...
You have scary neighbours ....
Who needs Halloween ....

Gosh, I don't put out any Halloween decorations anymore. We have lived in this house since 1993 and there are barely any children who ever came into our small area of a much larger neighborhood so I was always disappointed.

Now, since we have grandchildren, we close up the house, turn off the lights and head to their house for trick or treating. Hubby stays and mans the door and candy handouts and the rest of us go out and have a fun time with the grandkids along with a pleasant stroll through their neighborhood. Works out great!

I'm not a participant in the Halloween decor, but my collection of dressed St. Nicholas floor decor stays up until valentines day, although my hubbie would like them packed away mid Jan with the artificial pre lit tree.

Just finished today. I always feel like it not worth it for all the effort to put everything out late and only enjoy it for a week. That said I really don't like going to the store and seeing thanksgiving and Xmas stuff out when it isn't even Halloween yet

As soon as you feel like doing so-
Nothing else matters.

4 weeks ahead.is awesome!

Hoping to do it this weekend.

How about never...I hate halloween decor!

Never early for Halloween decorations. Halloween decorations always demands something unique, Love to prepare decorations for Halloween as it required special attention to create different characters.

In Canada, our Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October, so anytime after that!

In Germany Halloween isn't very popular, so we "decorate" only at 31. October, so the few children who trick or treat know, we have candy.

Well I think if the stores already have the Halloween stuff out and you paying for it why not have the option to do what you feel. I just took my items out today to see what I had from last year I'm going to do mine after labor Day!!!!

i don't decorate for halloween but enjoy seeing things out from mid october on. i do decorate for fall, just not ghosts and witches.

The stores start very early, and more so each year. I start late September or early October when it's still very warm here in Southern CA. However, it can be very warm in late October, too!

I love to decorate for Halloween and given the effort it takes, as I go all out, I usually put things up around mid-September. This year I will be in the UK from Sept 19-Oct 4, so I started putting the inside decorations up last night and will put the outside decorations up this weekend! I definitely want everything up and in place by the time I get back from my trip!

When October comes, you can start doing Halloween decorations.

Just found this at HomeGoods. At first I wasn't sure what to do with it, but then the Wizard of Oz thing clicked in. I had to move an end table, and I'm not sure this will be a permanent place. Maybe somewhere right outside the front door with a broom and witch hat.

cute!

i was at homegoods this morning, returning decor i'd errr....rented....for my daughter's wedding. shhh!

i walked through the 'seasonal' dept but the glass pumpkins i bought last year were nicer than anything available that i might switch in. so i stuck with a new tablecloth and some new pillows for the couch in more fall sympathetic colors than what i had all summer.

nnigrt, HG is great but dangerous! Ours is less than a mile from home, and I stop by way too often. Can't beat the prices. I bought a Halloween tablecloth for $12.99 that I saw online for $45.

mine is a 15 min drive... and i'm rarely in that direction unless i'm going there so, i'm safe a little. HG is very disappointing compared to how it used to be tho... they used to have overstock from a lot of interesting web stores, now its mostly manufactured for HG so the values arent as great i think. all of the pillows were 20 bucks each, not bundled in pairs for $16.99 like they used to have.

and 30 day return now, used to be longer.

I'm sure that 15 minutes saves some money. I'm really in trouble since there's also Marshall's and TJ Maxx close by. That can be helpful when one might have what the others don't. I tend to agree with your comments. I've also noticed less appealing seasonal items compared to years past. Not that I need more!

People who are saying a week to 2 weeks prior is the earliest... Are crazy. I work full time. I go to school at night full time. I have a 9 year old who is in every imaginable extracurricular he can think of. I have mid terms next week. We put our Halloween decorations out tonight (Sept 23) and that's close enough. I think it depends on when does it fit into your crazy schedule... I don't think it is tacky to be the first on the block. I've never driven by a home in our largely suburbia neighborhood and and been like "omg can believe they have their Halloween or Easter decorations out so soon?!? Another thing to consider is if you've spent a lot of money on these decorations, do you want them out for 1 or 2 weeks a year. That's 1/52 of a year. Put in those terms "1/52" is it even worth it?!?

i wanna know why we even ask when it’s too early to decorate who cares what everyone thinks if we feel like decorating a week or 2 weeks before october 1st we should do so. lol i decorate for christmas november 15th every year so there’s no different with me putting up halloween decor september 20th or after or before. not trying to be mean just feel like if it’s your home decorate when your ready not when others tell you too.

I just decided that the first day of fall is when we are doing it from here on out. we dont have a lot. some orange and purple lights along the porch, a couple ghosts hanging from the trees... Then the weekend after we will take down everything but the lights, which I will leave up until i put the christmas lights out. I will do this mid novemeber- again, we dont do a lot, just a string of large colored bulbs along the roofline and a string of small clear lights along the porch. I wait to decorate the inside of the house and to put out this large xmas giraffe i have and love until black friday. Tree comes down January 1st but we leave the lights longer. everyone should do what they want!!

It's never too early for Halloween decorations!

I thoroughly enjoy the darkest holiday of the year, but not everyone does.. So I kindly wait till the end of the end of the first week in October. Always on the 7th, and back down the 1st of September or the next following weekend.

Whoops-
NOVEMBER 1st I take them down, not September but leave the fall only decor

I keep pumpkins out until right after Thanksgiving.

I say whenever you like!

If you're anything like me, then you live in a permanent state of Halloween all year round. I love creepy things. I love antiques, old books. Even my house itself has been described as "dark", "haunted", and "gothic". It was built in 1925. It has thick, dark trim, and cast iron radiators, and old rope and pulley windows. One of the exterior doors still locks with a skeleton key. There is this mysterious little closet halfway up the stairs and I keep a disembodied mannequin hand in there just to freak people out whenever they open it. My house has a big, distinct attic window (think Amityville horror). I even have two black cats and they exist all year round.

I set up the first week of September and my kids and the neighborhood kids love

My first Halloween decoration, but I just got him and he won’t be back out for a couple weeks.

I bought this the other day to tuck away until it's time.

We start digging out the Halloween decorations around beginning of October. Before that it is just too warm and still too summerlike. We start decorating mostly three to four weeks before holidays. But we remove the decorations pretty quickly after the holidays. Only the Christmas tree remains standing almost until mid-January.

Bruno, it's still pretty warm here in Southern CA in late October but doesn't stop me. 🎃

When it makes you happy! Nobody will be harmed in any way if you decorate now.

Screw it im going for it 🧛‍♀️🧟

Since we LOVE Halloween & our neighbors & their children know us, we start the 2nd week into September, with the smaller things. By the end of September, we are in full swing. We live on the east coast of Florida, so there have been many years that we are pulling almost all, if not all, of our decorations down, because of nasty storms. We watch the weather ALOT more when our decorations are up, then any other time of the year. We see Christmas decorations going up BEFORE Thanksgiving, so it's far game. I turn around the plastic pumpkins & keep up the more Thanksgiving items, but i do take down the 1st week of November, so all the Fall decorations can come out. Have Fun & Stay Safe