When the air gets crisp and leaves start falling, the holiday season can be felt waiting just around the corner. It’s generally agreed that October is the domain of all things autumn– and Halloween-related, but once the calendar turns to November, the lines between other holidays aren’t always so clear.
The annual concern of when you should put your Christmas decorations up can be a bit debatable. Should you set up your tree before Thanksgiving? Only decorate it on Christmas Eve? How soon is too soon, and when does waiting patiently turn into just decorating at the last minute?
So to help settle the uncertainty on the best time to put up a Christmas tree, we went in search of every opinion on it we could find on the matter—and then tried to make sense of it. Turns out there are a few different answers depending on how and why you celebrate Christmas.
When Do Most People Put Up Their Christmas Tree?
There are lots of opinions on the right time frame, with outliers suggesting that the tree should go up as early as before Halloween. However, most people can agree on a couple of different dates that work best. In informal polls online, the day or weekend after Thanksgiving emerged as the best time to put up your Christmas tree, with the first week of December coming in as another popular timeframe.
Decorating right after Thanksgiving is a great option because often, family is still gathered in one home and can decorate together. It also allows for a great transition between the two holidays.
The first week of December is just as valid, providing some time to separate the two holidays and still leaving a whole month to have your tree and decorations on display.
When Do You Put Up Your Christmas Tree If You Want to Focus on the Religious Celebrations Around Christmas?
Your Christmas tree traditions may also depend on your religious beliefs. In Christian tradition, there are several events immediately before and after Christmas that can give you an idea when to put up your Christmas tree.
Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas and is a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of Christ. It ends on Christmas Eve, at which point the official Christmas season begins. This lasts for 12 days and ends on January 6th, the Feast of Epiphany (which celebrates the three kings reaching the baby Jesus).
Within this timeline, it’s important to not take away from the significance of Advent by putting up your tree too early and jumping into Christmas celebrations. Most religious sources recommend waiting till at least the third Sunday of Advent. Looking at Christmas tree history, any day until Christmas Eve is fine to put your tree up.
Questions to Ask Before You Put Up Your Christmas Tree
Current trends and religious traditions are not the only factors that may affect timing during the holidays. Be sure to ask yourself these questions before penciling in your decorating day:
Is your tree live or artificial?
Live trees can last around four weeks, so you should probably not put a live tree up before the beginning of December. Otherwise, you risk a carpet of dried needles before Christmas even gets there. If you are using an artificial tree, you have a lot more leeway as it will look the same regardless of timing.
When do you have time?
The holidays are a busy season, and when it comes down to it, not everyone has time to decorate on a schedule. If it makes the holidays more enjoyable to put up the decorations before all the hustle and bustle takes over, then do it earlier.
When will any guests be there?
If you have loved ones coming for the season, you may want to plan ahead and have the tree decked out before they arrive. Alternately, you might wish to wait until they are there so that you can all decorate together. Either way, this is something to take into account when deciding on a timeline.
So, When is the Right Time to Put Up Your Christmas Tree?
The earliest you should put up your Christmas tree is the day after Thanksgiving, and the latest is Christmas Eve. Between those dates, decorate whenever best suits your religious or family traditions.
Now that you’ve decided to set up your tree, get decorating ideas and inspirations here.
Ready to decorate with your Christmas tree? Read these next:
9 Comments
Please! Put your tree up when you FEEL like you want to. I do the day after Halloween because I have so much I like to decorate I like to enjoy the holidays and family time and that is one major project to get out the way so I can get ready for all the other church work and family time.
Can you tell me which tree is in the first picture?
Hi Nicole, thanks for asking. That is our European Fir Tree. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Mine would ideally go up Christmas Eve and come down Jan 6th – but my husband starts complaining around Dec 7th that “it’s getting too late!!”, so we compromise on mid-Dec…
Ours goes up around the 15th of December and comes down after the Epiphany of Crist.
It takes a lot of time to first get the tree out from storage, assemble it, fluff it out, string the lights then put on all the ornaments whew! So, I think the weekend after Thanksgiving or1ST /2nd week in November is probably when I’ll put my tree up. I have tried putting it up later in December but never Christmas Eve. What happens is I felt that I didn’t get to enjoy the beauty of the tree long enough and it was already time to take it down! Plus I felt worn out and didn’t want to do it because of the boxing, and repackaging the ornaments. This way I’ll have more time to get into the holiday spirit and
enjoy the tree, friends and family,
When I was a child the tree appeared as if by magic Christmas morning, due to my older cousins who would drop by. Today we put our artficial tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Do you have to leave fresh in garage like setting to transition before setting up in house?
Thank you for reaching out to Balsam Hill, Peter. We hope you’re delighted with your tree! You can immediately set it up in your house. We recommend asking family and friends to help with tree setup, since it can take around two hours to assemble and shape a tree for the first time. For additional guide in setting up your tree, you can click this link: https://bit.ly/3wohNb8