How early is too early to put up Christmas decorations?

We’re barely into November and it looks like shops around Australia have started their Christmas marketing full swing. Fake snow, Christmas stockings, poinsettias and mistletoes are every where. Most shops started repositioning their products as early as October. In Big W and Kmart, you will notice that toys and decorations are positioned upfront.

Last September, Kmart aired a Christmas ad 105 days before Christmas. AdAge said it was the “earliest ever kickoff to holiday marketing,” and an analyst the publication reached out to called Kmart’s extreme timing “eye-opening” reports The Atlantic. 

While some shoppers feel annoyed over how these celebrations have become so commercialised, others actually don’t mind it. It does make it convenient for shoppers to find exactly what they are looking for and more often than not, remind them that they do have a celebration to prepare for. 

Mark Edwards, Auxiliary Bishop to the Catholic diocese of Melbourne, said he was not opposed to shops selling Christmas merchandise months before the event, reports ABC.

“In some ways I’m sort of happy… because I think it’s a way of saying that it’s important to people,” he told 774 ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine.

Edwards said Catholic churches would not follow the retailers’ lead in bringing out the Christmas decorations early.

“Church decorations go up at the start of Advent, which this year will be about November 20,” he said.

ABC listener Dale said that when it came to holidays, the retailers followed a “simple formula”.

“Father’s Day immediately followed by Christmas, immediately followed by Easter, immediately followed by Mother’s Day, and the 365 consumer buy now cycle continues,” he said.

But what about decorating at home? How early is too early to put up Christmas decorations?

Some families believe that Christmas decorations should not go up before December and that being too eager somehow can be seen as not valuing Christmas traditions.

Writer Colleen Quinn said, “When I was growing up, we never put up our decorations until after December 8th, a tradition I have continued over the years.”
“My husband however belongs to a family who often put up their decorations on the Friday after Thanksgiving,” said Quinn to Apartment Therapy.

Others are a little bit more flexible and pay by ear when it comes to decking their home with Christmas decorations. Amanda T. said on Netmums, “My decorations and Christmas tree normally go up the 1st of December, it was the 30th of November last year and the year before (it was) around the 3rd or 4th of December.”

Do you have a set date the tree goes up, or do you wait until the time seems right? We would love to hear about your holiday decorating traditions.