I'll keep my Pilgrims, Indians, Turkeys and pumpkins up until the day after Thanksgiving. Then will start the Dec Decor. Snowmen can just about go up anytimeI think. I have some darling new little snowmen ornaments I got at Walmart in their 97¢ area. Each one represents a different month. I got all but July, Aug and Sept. They are so cute. I also got some snowmen there that are animals An elephant snowman, a cat, dog, pig and some others.

For some reason, I dont have any Thanksgiving or fall decorations,,,not sure why, geuss I should wait till later and stock up on all the clearence items for next yr.

I tend to almost skip right over Thanksgiving decor. I have some but only put out a little bit and have already started doing some Christmas decorating. I have never started so early but for some reason this year is different. My kids are teens now and nobody gets into decorating the tree anymore so I decided this year I may buy an artificial prelit tree (I know, bad word) for the family room and am leaning more toward a more traditional theme this year but haven't figured out exactly what that may entail. Somewhat simple decorations throughout the house, using candles, poinsettias and some pine roping and pinecones, etc. I have a 5 foot Alpine tree with pinecone lights in my formal dining room already (no ornaments) just because that is my only formal room that I fuss over a little.

This reminds me of the year one of my sons got orders to go to Korea. He came home on leave and put up all my Christmas decorations and the tree. This was just before Halloween!!!~
It looked wonderful and made him feel so good. Of course I had to look at it for three months haha.

Tips and tricks I have, though they may be lame:

I use jumbo paper clips to hang lighted garland from my lacey curtains and from my iron curtain rods. It's better than trying to just lay the stuff up there. The paper clips bend and grasp the garland just right.

I do everything in "threes"... little groupings... not a bunch of stuff all together. Like, a group of 3 reindeer, a group of 3 snowmen, a grouping of 3 candles, etc.

Since my house is really colorful I use white lights with some colored lights, lots of greenery and silver/gold bows. No red or green really. On the flip side since my workplace is not colorful (it's all wood, antique stuff) I use lots of maroon & green along with white lights.

I put up my Tree already but I sort of had to. New kitten and three other "interested" cats have to get used to the Great Green Temptation before those ornaments get into place.

I don't have Thanksgiving decorations because my house is already done in "harvest" decor. My home is decorated in pumpkin/peach colors, sage green, and taupe, and I have leaves or something leafy in each room. Autumn rules!

Oh and one more thing that is a must, homemade gingerbread men to hang anywhere. You take Elmers glue, cinnamon, and applesauce and mix it together and then use Christmas cookie cutters, let dry, then decorate with puffy paints and hang from ribbon. They are SO real looking and smell SO good! Hang a few from the lace curtains in the foyer, hang them from the ceiling fans, in the bathroom, etc.

I also like to hang candy canes from the tree and also hang them from garland strung in doorways, along with hanging the fake gingerbread cookies from there!

- darkeyedgirl

I put the kids tree up downstairs this past weekend. It's about 6 ft. tall and holds all of the ornaments for my son, nephew and nieces. I get them all one every year that represents their interests for that year and put their name & year on it. They are 12, 7, 4 & 3mos. so the tree is starting to get full of them. It also has a lot of colorful ball, ornaments made by them over the years and musical lights that blink to the beat of Christmas songs. Christmasy things they've collected over the years underneath. They have more "creative control" over this tree. LOL

We will do the main tree and other decorations after Thanksgiving. I can't wait to do a few homemade gingerbread houses with them. I want to do a big, nice one. This will be my first year attempting without a kit. Wish me luck! :D

We went away for Thanksgiving and just got back late last night. I have to work today. So DH and I are going to do the decorating tomorrow. Tonight, if I have time, I'll make a bunch of bows for my outdoor wreaths. The ribbons had all worn and faded, so I got some ribbon on sale to make new bows.

But I absolutely refuse to even walk into a store that has Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving. It makes me such a scrooge to see the stuff up that early- I just resent the commercialization of it. Never bothered me so much on people's homes for some reason- I guess because they aren't trying to get me to part with my money. People who decorate early seem more sincere about the holidays than merchants who are just trying to make a buck (not that I blame them, but they aren't getting mine until after Thanksgiving).

I heard the words "for Valentine's Day" on TV today and it made me cringe!!