I'd say go for Thanksgiving; add to the festivities of your son being home then. (also one less thing to do as the Christmas holidays approach.)

I put mine in a bay window in the livingroom and usually get started decorating mid December. If we get a snowfall that will stay on the ground for the season, I get in a more festive mood and will start earlier.

I was just thinking the same thing as we are in the middle of a snow storm here in Western Canada.

I normally wait until after my b-day (otherwise known as American Thanksgiving..lol) to put up the tree but this weather is putting me more in the mood....plus the fact the I just bought a 7.5' pre-lit artificial spruce (1/2 price) and am curious to see it with the decorations that I bought after X-mas '06 (1/2 price as well).

Here is X-mas '06

My tree has been pretty lame the last two years (DS was born Nov 4 2005 and has been ill since). But, we put it in the corner of our living room/library. It can be seen easily from the side window for folks wandering on the lake, and we can enjoy it from the living room, kitchen and dining room.

{{!gwi}}

We used to put it up around the 10th or so of December. We have a real tree and need it to stay alive and strong through the holiday. I have a small fortune in ornaments (all Radko that I've collected for years) so I don't want to put them on branches that will droop (which causes the ornaments to slide off because they're heavy...and then they break). I normally take it down around the 1st.

This year we expect to be in the house we purchased as a corporate rental. For all of you christmas freaks...I got a bee in my bonnet last week and decided to go "ornament shopping" for the tree. (So my renters will have a full tree worth of ornaments on hand). So I spent...well umm I spent a bunch of money and purchased several hundred ornaments :) And man it was fun to do a new tree!

I am going to buy a fake tree for this house so the renters will have a tree and ornaments, and I think we'll put it up the first week in December. We are visiting the family until the 29th and then hopefully will come home to set up the tree and attend a couple parties, then back on the 11th across the country to hospital with the baby. I thought an artifical was best since I won't necessarily come home for a couple months...so the "when" could go to February LOL or even March unless DH feels the need to take it down while I'm gone. (Unlikely).

DS is 2 this year, so I want him to really have time to enjoy a tree. We'll leave it up as long as possible just to enjoy his experience with him.

Our tree goes up the week before December 25. It goes in the corner of the LR so that it shows in the front bow window. During the time it is up, we generally don't turn any lights on in that room, and just have the glow of the white lights on the tree that stays on 24/7. Obviously aritificial! The tree comes down about mid-January.

We are planning on putting our Christmas tree up the weekend of Thanksgiving. This will be the first year to have our tree in our new home. We are planning on putting it in our den by our fireplace and wall of windows. It will be seen from the entry hall and our open kitchen and breakfast room. I'm a "Christmasholic". Can't get enough of it! We keep it up as long as possible, i.e. around the Feast of the Wise Men.

I think you should put it up for when your son is home. Thanksgiving is early this year so you can get away with it. My tree ALWAYS goes up the day after Thanksgiving! It is my favorite time of the year (DH and I were married on X-mas eve) and I would but it up earlier, but most of my neighbors still have their fall decorations out and I just don't have the time until the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I am putting up 2 trees this year. We are in a new house and we have 2 big bay windows off each side of the front door. So I will be putting one tree in each!! Can't wait!!!

We'll put our tree up about 2 weeks before Christmas.

Shopping for a tree is quite a production though! We have a very "social" neighborhood and we all get together for a day of tail-gating and visiting various tree farms. Since most of us prefer very large trees, all the men get together afterwards and help each other to set up the trees. Some are so large that they require tethering to eye-hooks screwed into the wall behind the tree. Thankfully, our's is usually a bit more on the modest side!

We usually put the tree in the foyer where we have the highest ceiling. I'm not crazy about it's placement, because then we're all sitting on the foyer floor on Christmas morning.

Since I've been doing some re-accessorizing (thanks to all of YOU!), I have an open spot in my living room in front of the large window...so that's where it will go this year. Woohoo, we actually get to sit on the sofa!!

I am putting up my tree this weekend. It will have lights, lit on Thanksgivng eve. I don't know if I will get to decorating it. I am putting it up then, because daughter and three children will come home, but won't be here for Christmas. So want some decorations up for the kids.
Barb

I ADORE decorating for Christmas!!!!! I was up to three trees last year...

We are moving in January - and the new house has 10 ft ceilings... So I guess I will be looking for a BIG one on after Cmas sales!

All the trees posted are lovely. Can't wait to see more!

This year we are putting our Christmas tree in the sunroom. I just in the last year started collecting vintage tinsel and scrap ornaments and they will go on this tree. We usually spend time each evening out there. I am doing a smaller, very full, table top tree in the great room. I'll use some of the ornaments on it that I have been doing on the big tree in the past. I have a large cabinet and an old ice chest in that room - will have to see where that tree looks best.

I usually do one of the 4 ft. trees in our bedroom and then a very small tree with old cookie cutters in the kitchen. Yes, I love Christmas!

We usually put our tree(s) up right after THanksgiving - usually early that next week. Once Christmas is over, I am ready for the tree(s) to come down.

tina

My parents and grown children will be here for Thanksgiving. I thought it would be fun for all to go pick out the tree together on either Thanksgiving night (if they are opened)or on Friday. My parents don't out up a large tree anymore, so they might enjoy the festivities. If I can get some help with decorating this year, from my children, that would be great before they all head back to their respective cities. Normally I don't put the tree up until the first week in December - with no help!

Last year was our first in this new house. There isn't any room to put the tree in the family room, so we put it in the foyer. I really liked it there, but there is no comfortable place to "gather around" on Christmas morning. We took all the gifts into the family room and in front of the fireplace. I miss having the tree in the room with us. :(

We always have a live tree that we cut at a tree farm. Usually about two weeks before Christmas. I love the smell of the freshly cut tree. (Reminds me of childhood Christmases). I like to have it down before New Years'. I find nothing more depressing than a dying tree with needles dropping all over.

I prefer to keep Thanksgiving a separate holiday - but of course if I had out of town family coming, that would be different.

I put mine up around the 1st of December and take it down a day or two after Christmas. It just seems sort of lonely without presents under it.

We will put ours up the weekend after Thanksgiving in the corner of our living room. All the ornaments will be either blue, green, or silver to match the blue and green lights outside the house. And, there will not be even one present under it this year.

We always put our (fake, due to allergies) tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our main tree goes in the bay window of our living room, then we have smaller trees in our family room and dining room.

This will be our first Christmas in our new house. I'm itching to put the tree up already.
This will be our 2nd year with an artificial tree. I swore I'd never do it, but I really love it.
We usually get a tree tag and go in the mountains to hunt for a tree. The kids missed that last year. So this year we are making bird food decorations and we are going to go up and hunt for the perfect tree and then decorate it for the birds.
So, we still get the fun day out hunting for a tree :)

I think we will end up putting our tree up this weekend. We have company coming over Thanksgiving weekend, so we won't be able to do it then.

I can't believe we are talking Christmas already! The years go by so fast.

Dh refuses to get a fake tree - I would like one so that we could put it up at the beginning of December! Ours usually goes up around the 15th, depending on how busy we are.

Here is ours from last year:

We had lots of presents under our tree last year - my SIL and BIL and their two kids spent Christmas with us and we had all of their presents along with ours. Plus each of my 10+ neices and nephews had a present under the tree as well - for us, Christmas is always about the children.

Carrie

This is always a source of frustration in my house. I want to put it up the weekend of thanksgiving but dh wants to wait. I usually win. Last year we were remodeling so me and my poor kids did not have a tree. so sad! This year I may do 2, one in living room and one in family room. One year in our old house I made my husband move my tree from my family room to my dining room (just a few feet away) so that we could open presents in front of it in the morning and have dinner with it at night. He really loved that!!! We try to cut down our tree but some years we just don't have much luck. Season's Greetings!

i can't wait to put up our tree. probably t-giving or the day after. we're finally in our new house, and this will be the first tree we've had in 3 years. (dh used to travel for work, so i never wanted to have one alone). i got a new artificial tree from balsamhill.com. i can't stand the thought of killing a tree for yule.

Newhomebuilder, that's a gorgeous tree! Couldn't you move something out of the family room to make room for the tree in there?

Hellpaso, most cut trees come from farms. Really no different than any other farmed commodity. Here in Louisiana they're recycled and used to help stop coastal erosion.

This may be the second year in a row without a tree. Even if we wrap up this (so far 18 month) remodel, I'll be putting all my energy into setting up the new rooms. I'll do a little outdoor decorating, but more than likely no tree.

This was 2005. Tree sits in the living room near the picture window and usually goes up the first week in December. Always fresh and usually a Noble fir.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recycled Christmas trees in Louisiana

Thanks, your tree is very pretty, too.

No, there really isn't any space. It's a small room off the kitchen. We could move a wing chair (and give up seating) but the tree would be too close to the fireplace and would really dry out FAST!

We get a fresh cut tree, also.

We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. After last Christmas, we bought a pre-lit tree to replace a tree we'd had for probably 15 years. So, I'm really excited to see how it will look. I'm hoping I'll like the all white lights as opposed to the colored that we had. We put it up in the family room. I have many ornaments that are really special to me. My mom gave me my first ornament when I was three I think. I had an aunt who did beautiful egg ornaments. She blew out the whites and yolks of the eggs and then cut holes in them. All my eggs have the most wonderful scenes inside. The outsides have rhinestones, pearls, sequins etc. They are works of art. She was so talented. Anyway, I got off on a tangent there. I'm really looking forward to putting my tree up!

Threegrad, I will tell you like my SIL told me with my first newborn. I lived in a small town and you know back then it was just the custom to give the expectant mother so much that she would never use it. So my SIL told me, "you have enough clothes for this baby to make everyday Sunday and you can have 2 Sundays if you want each day of the week, but keep the baby looking special for those are fleeting moments.."

So make the time you are with your family, Christmas, each and every occasion and if it means putting up a tree or watching a football game or going to the park, having a cookout or a big dinner party, just make every moment with you son a special day, as they go fast!

My tree is artificial due to my allergies, so I put mine up the weekend after Thanksgiving. My home has a corner that works perfectly for the tree!

I have a dilemma this year. We've decided to get a living tree (with the roots) so that we can plant it in an area that we need to start re-landscaping next year. It really shouldn't be indoors more than a week. My sister is visiting from out of state from December 15 to 20, and she has never been in my home (or any of my homes) at Christmas, so I want to have the tree up when she's here. I'm thinking of putting it up around the 18th or 19th and taking it down the day after Christmas.

We will probably get a shore pine, like this one, which was our Christmas tree in 2002:

{{!gwi}}

Here's an incense cedar we got in 2001:

{{!gwi}}

Here's the same tree today:

{{!gwi}}

One nice thing about living trees is that they don't drop very many needles. But they sure are a bugger to get into the house!

Incense cedar is a wonderful tree. I had one at my old house. Thanks for that reminder. I need to put that on my list when we get re-started with the landscaping here.

I love the fact that they don't get real big around as they grow and their fragrance.

Our Christmas trees are usually noble firs. After Christmas, the county has a place to take them where they chip them and add to the yard waste. Then next spring it's compost.

Uxorial, what a fantastic idea. Except for only having them in the house for about a week, I would be very interested in a living tree.

I put up 3 trees last year. One 6.5' artifical in the entryway with just lights, and one each in front of the window in the living room and den. Both these rooms are on the front of our house and face the road, so both trees were visible to the street.

The den tree was very traditional, all the ornaments we've been collecting for years, etc. In the living room, I tried something different just for fun. Hubby thought I'd lost my marbles when I came home with feathers, lol. Here is the living room tree.

{{!gwi}}

and a close up of the top:

{{!gwi}}

I like a really tall tree, right to the ceiling. I went back through my pictures, and for some reason I don't seem to have any of the other 2 trees...

A small tree goes up in a corner of the dining room by the first of December ..... with other assorted decorations and lights outside ......

All decorations MUST be down and put away by the Jan. 6th or bad luck occurs ........ old Scots traditon around here!

Hmmmmm My mother is Scottish and she says tradition is it has to be down before the New Year. It doesn't have to be put away, just down. BAD LUCK!

rilie - Very pretty tree!