Yes, we’re those people.
I personally get irritated whenever stores skip holidays. For example, if I’m walking around Target and they have Christmas stuff out but it’s not even Thanksgiving. Not ready yet. Let me get through Turkey Day before you push your red & white santas and snowmen on me. But this year we did the unthinkable…
… we set up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. I’m so sorry. Feel free to virtually slap us or break out an “oh no you di’int.”
We’ve already warned our Thanksgiving guests, and thankfully they acted like it was some fun novelty. So we’ll be able to tell you firsthand if turkey and mashed potatoes taste less Thanksgiving-ish when eaten in the same room as a big glowing Christmas tree.
Why the rush? Well, we usually like to decorate our tree the first week of December. Sometimes the second if we’re not especially on the ball. But since we’re moving in mid December we decided that in order to enjoy it for the three-weeks-or-so period that we normally do, especially since it’s Clara’s first Christmas, we had to break that baby out a bit early this year (before we have to pack everything up for the move in a few weeks).
Our color scheme this time around is champagne, metallic green, silver, and pink – all in honor of Clara’s aforementioned first Christmas (check out last year’s citrus theme here, and the year before that’s monchromatic scheme here). Thankfully we already owned a lot of silver and champagne colored ornaments so we got the pink bulbs along with some metallic green ones for $20-ish at Michael’s (where they were having a half-price holiday ornament sale). I was going for something frosted and girly but not too feminine for the guys in the house (I resisted the urge to bring in some over the top pink feathered boas as garland with John and Burger in mind). Speaking of our four-legged son, this festive chihuahua ornament (from John’s Godmother) is too hysterical not to put up- even though it’s not technically pink, silver, green, or champagne.
Ditto for our just married moose ornament (it’s a bride moose and a groom moose, procured during our Alaskan honeymoon). So even though it’s hardly glam and baby-girl-esque, it’s too sentimental to leave out:
And you already may have noticed a few other personalized ornaments that worked their way in- like this silver (yes, it even fits into our color scheme) Empire State Building ornament that reminds us of our early days in NYC.
In the end we love how soft and sweet it looks (John approves, and Burger seems oblivious as always). Definitely baby-girl-ish, but not too overdone and pastel-y to work in a room with a geometric rug and a clean-lined modern sofa. And of course I tossed down our faux sheepskin rugs as a tree skirt (an odd tradition that we’ve kept up for the past 4+ years).
Oh yeah, and for the second year in a row we’ve had a bit of an issue with the pre-lit tree (the bottom strand of lights was out, but the solution was as simple as stringing a strand of lights around the bottom to correct it). I’m sure we could try to find the bulb that’s burned out to fix it for real, but the added-strand-o-lights approach works just as easily for us (since we already had one around).
So that’s our tree this year. What about you guys? Any fun color schemes or themes swimming around in your head for your own tree decorating adventures in a few weeks (edible? jewel toned? Jersey Shore inspired?). Let’s chat. If you’re ready, that is. If not feel free to wait the obligatory week or so to join the conversation.
Psssst- If you’re excited to get into your red footie pajamas and go holiday crazy, check out this section of our Projects page for lots of Christmas-related stuff.
Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!
shanna says
That video was adorable! My four year old son loved it too, especially “that cute baby with the really round head!” I think it is so great that you’ll get one last Christmas in your first home and your first Christmas in your new home in the same year.
lovethisjunk says
gah – i so love the adorable video…and my tree was up last weekend. i’m a christmas freak. :)
Handy Man, Crafty Woman says
Ok, that video was too funny. Love how Clara kept trying to “eat” everything. I remember when our lil man was a baby, doing everything one-handed…or one-armed…
Ali says
Such a cute video! I’m sure it’s around here somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it – what do you use to film with? I definitely need a camcorder for Christmas!
YoungHouseLove says
We use a Flip HD. Love that thing.
xo,
s
Ashley says
Hey Guys!! The tree is BEAUTIFUL and I say the earlier the better when it comes to decorating for Christmas!! In the video…it looked as though you did not put lights on the bottom of the tree…regardless the tree is gorgeous but I was wondering if there was a reason for keeping lights from the very bottom of the tree? The pink is really cute too :) Happy Holidays Guys!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Ashley,
The tree is pre-lit, so the bottom strand was out. We fixed it by adding an extra sting of lights at the base of the tree (but we did that after we filmed the video). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
andrea p says
How tall is your tree?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Andrea P,
It’s around 7′ tall. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
rashmi says
I Love the Little Video. Clara is so adorable wanting to taste everything! Precious! You tree is lovely. Great going Guys!
tricia says
Love it! Your tree is beautiful. Enjoy Clara’s first Christmas! Where did you get your tree?
YoungHouseLove says
We got it from Target about 4 years ago (the day after Christmas so it was on clearance).
xo,
s
Mallory says
I love your tree! If I had it my way, I would have decked our halls last weekend but I promised my husband that I would hold out until after Thanksgiving!
My decorations are very similar to your monochromatic scheme, mine are silver, platinum and cream.
So chic and sparkly. Where did you get your white stockings?
YoungHouseLove says
Our stockings (which we’ll be putting up soon) are from Target. They’re actually an oatmeal color with white trim. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jasmine says
Awww, Clara is growing up so fast, and she’s so darn cute!
Love the tree, love the video, and yea seeing Christmas in the store before Thanksgiving totally annoys me too. :)
We usually put up our Christmas tree either on thanksgiving, the day after or a few days later.
Anyway, I think having your tree up for Thanksgiving will totally make the day more festive.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
~Jazz
Zerique says
Very nice. We are getting ready for our first christmas with our baby girl too!! Have fun!!!
Nicole says
We’re totally with you on the not-til-after-Turkey Day…however, we beat you this year. One of two trees has been up for over a week! Crazy I know, but like you it just made sense with everything else going on this year.
On a side note- my husband and I have a travel tree. Everytime we go somewhere we collect an ornament (or something that we make into an ornament) and put is on our tree. New additions this year include- wooden shoes for Amsterdam, A Beatles Love ball (saw LOVE in Vegas), and wooden animal masks (from Africa)!
Meaghan says
Sherry and John,
That video was so fun! Clara is incredibly cute, and she is going to LOVE looking back on videos like that when she’s older. What a great idea. You should do it every year as a tradition.
So fun to have a different theme every year!
If my husband wouldn’t look at me like I had lost my mind, I’d put up a tree now too!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Kath says
I fully support Christmas trees any time of year!
That video was so cute. Speed decorating!
Raychel says
I like to wait after Thanksgiving myself but the tree definitely needs to be up for St. Nicklaus day on Dec. 6th. Then it stays up until early January for the 12 days of Christmas. If my grandmother had her way I would put it up on Christmas Eve and take it down December 26th as per the German traditions she grew up with, but I like to enjoy my tree!
Mary says
I love these super fast videos of you completing a project! KInda fun to watch. Oh, and when I have kids, I hope they are as animated as Clara.
JenWoodhouse.com says
I’m so with you guys. I totally set up my tree last weekend. It’s Evie’s first Christmas too, so maybe that’s why I jumped the gun. That, coupled with the fact that I’ve been collecting Christmas decorations for the past two years (buying them after Christmas, at 75% off!) and this year is the first year I’ve been able to break them out and go to town. Woohoo!
Merry Christmas, y’all! Oh, and Happy Turkey Day too. We have so much to be thankful for.
<3
Adam, Jen, Watson, & Evie (aka the Eggroll)
Kaitlyn says
That’s such a beautiful tree! We have a small 4-footer from our apartment but now that we have a house, we would love to get a big tree! Probably after Christmas on clearance this year. In the mean time I can’t wait to decorate–just one more week of graduate school and I’ll be free to break out the Christmas magic!
Heidi H. says
Ohhhh THAT’S how you spell ‘di’int’!! Thank God y’all cleared that one up for me. It was getting pretty hairy over here, what with spelling too many words correctly & whatnot. :)
Well, even though I would profess the same as you (irritation at having Christmas shoved down my throat before I was ready) I will confess that I think your tree is lovely & it’s giving me a itch to get ours the second Thanksgiving is over.
Maybe next year we can both pull a di’int.
Di’int.
Love that word.
Cecelia says
That Clara just sends me into pinch cheeks mode.
Rosemary says
Love the tree this year! Are you looking forward to baby proofing your tree next year when Clara becomes a toddler? :)
Not related to this post…how long do you think you’ll keep the pic of your current home as the banner for this site after moving into the new place? I can’t wait to see all of the fun and exciting projects you both come up with for the new place!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Rosemary,
It’ll definitely be a whole different ballgame when we decorate the tree next year! We love a challenge, so it should be fun. As for the blog header, we hope to change it around the time that we move, but things might be hairy for a week or two so maybe a bit after. Here’s hoping we’re on top of it so we can make that change when we change addresses!
xoxo,
s
annabelvita says
Love it! Just thinking, if your new house is in the same neighbourhood, couldn’t you just pop the whole tree in the van and carefully drive it over? Maybe strapped so it wouldn’t fall? It could instantly make the new casa feel homey for the holidays.
I love your sentimental holiday things!
Rebecca Foxworth says
Of course, you’ll start buying an ornament each year for Clara. So here’s a tip from someone who’s “been there”. If you still want a “show tree” in the living room but don’t want to break your kids’ hearts by not displaying their hand-made school ornament each year…get a smaller tree for your bedroom in future years and decorate it with a mish-mash of kid-made ornaments and non-matchy sentimentals. Then tell them it’s in your room because you want to see it every morning first thing when you wake up. It’s the best of both worlds!
Laura says
If the holidays make people more giving, more mindful of others (as it hopefully tends to do) then I say celebrate it anytime, anywhere.
Happy first Christmas with Clara!
betty in munich says
Loved your video!
betty in munich says
Due to various reasons having to do more with our guests availability than anything else, we celebrated Thanksgiving Dinner (in Munich) last Friday, with Turkey and the works! We rarely have it on the actual day as it obviously is not a holiday here and people have to work the next day. So it is usually the weekend before or of that we have the big Turkey dinner with German friends. So the next day my husband (he’s German) says, “I guess we should put up the tree right?” I am like, “nooo we’ll do that the day after Thanksgiving.” He was a bit confused looking and said, “Correct wasn’t that yesterday?” He had no idea it was the last Thursday of the month. He thought it was just whenever we had Turkey…haaaahahahaha
Leah O says
LOVE IT!! I put my tree up last week…I just couldnt wait any longer!! Its an all white and silver theme with white feather ornaments that I diyed myself!
Laura C. says
Love the tree, and I think it’s great that you’ve already got it set up.
We traditionally put ours up on Thanksgiving Day (my husband “sneaks” it up each year while I’m cooking, and we decorate after cleanup). This year he’ll miss the holidays with us because of deployment, so we put up the tree a few days ago (at the kids’ request – none of us wanted to follow the tradition for fear of sadness). Our theme is elegant in red, white and gold, and ornaments range from $1 bargains to Waterford and Swarovski.
Since you’re purchasing a new home, you may appreciate this: we’ve made 12 military moves, and of course that means 12 different homes. Our criteria for suitable homes goes in this order: safe area, good schools, little traffic on street, big yard, good place for Christmas tree. :)
karen says
Putting up that tree was easy…we always do a real tree, but I am starting to feel Non-eco-freindly about it. And the fake tree has that no stress factor. No stressed out husband grumpy about having to get it on the stand and into a bucket of water without spilling it factor. Hmmmmm
Meredith K A says
Totally understandable with the holiday schedule being interrupted by a big move! If you’re careful, maybe you can wrap the tree in a bedsheet or something as-is to keep all the ornaments stable, and just move it wholesale (if you’re getting a moving truck) so that at the new house all you have to do is plug it into the wall and go!
How do you guys find the music for your videos? It’s always cute and modern and enjoyable, and fits the mood perfectly.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Meredith! John gets all the credit for the music. He always goes to creativecommons.org (which is full of free-to-use music that artists love sharing). There really is tons of talent there, and you can’t beat the fact that it’s 100% usable for public videos and other online projects. We’re always sure to link directly to the artist at the end of the video- so feel free to follow that url over to download the song!
xo,
s
Shanon says
I am usually one of those that don’t put the tree up until a week before Christmas and it usually comes down the day after. I love Christmas, but only in small doses. With 3 little ones underfoot, once they get their toys they could care less about th tree and stuff so I have to get it out of my way. I also don’t change my color scheme every year. It would be nice to be able to, but most of my stuff is homemade by my kids and friends, along with some favorites I’ve purchased.
Your tree looks great, and Clara is too cute!
Heather says
Pretty tree!! I have to say, though, I am a firm believer in a REAL Christmas tree. There’s nothing like the smell of a fresh-cut frasier fir to get ready for the holidays.
Why do you have a pre-lit tree? I’m just curious!!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Heather,
We got it about four years ago, and in the interest of being as un-wasteful as possible, we hope to get many more years of use out of it (as opposed to sending it to a landfill when it’s still in good condition). It definitely doesn’t compare to a real tree and that gorgeous smell, but since we’ve always had a tiny car, we didn’t know if we’d be able to transport a real tree each year so it has worked out pretty well for us in the past. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll craigslist it (so it can continue being used instead of being trashed) and make the switch to a real tree…
xo,
s
KRISTI says
We are Christmas lovers too…..I put up ours last weekend! It makes it feel more like the holidays are here when I do it. :) Oh and the Christmas music is all I listen to right now too!
D says
Tree looks great! And, I’m impressed at how skilled you’ve become with one hand…everything’s done with baby on the hip :)
I’ll be decorating on Friday and I can’t wait!
Kaci says
My entire Christmas collection is in storage :(
So I got to buy new ;) This year I will have a little 4.5′ tree decked out in red/white/blue – I didn’t want to double up on those that I already have but are in storage and since I’m an armywife, I thought it would be a perfect extra tree to have in the future!
Andrea says
I’m sorry, was there anything in that video other then Clara?! She gets cuter by the minute!!!
Sarah says
Ugh, no, not you too!! I’m ignoring all the facebook postings of my friends’ Christmas trees.. I just feel that Thanksgiving is such a great holiday, it deserves its own time! Haha!
That being said, cute tree :) And we did get this video, full of cute little Clara moments out of it, so I guess we can let you slide, just this once! (LOOOOVE that look of complete and utter joy on her face when she sees that big pink ornament, around 53 seconds..too cute!!)
Dan says
I’ve had my tree up since Nov. 7th, my last day of vacation. I figured my vacation was almost over and I needed to do something productive so the house is completely decorated. Haven’t lit it yet but having everything decorated makes me happy since last year I didn’t bother putting up a tree. And, Thanksgiving is at the parents’ but I can’t wait until the 26th to flip the switch and watch the magic of new LED Christmas lights illuminate my space!
Dayna says
Oh, no now…just kidding! It looks so lovely you are forgiven! :-) Funny story about the “pretty trees…” They go away when the children are of age and start making those precious, huge ornaments from school and want to put them in the middle of the tree. The season is for them right? So it’s wonderful, but I had to give up decorating my perfect, matching, department store tree and embrace our beautiful tree of handmade, classroom ornaments.
Amy says
I’ve always been the same way…..until this year! My fiance and I were giddy with excitement about spending our first holiday together as an almost-married-couple and we jumped the gun, bought a tree and decorated it. Actually, we half decorated it when we realized the ornaments we bought didn’t come with hooks!
Hanna says
This is one of the reasons that being a Canadian is sooooo sweet… since we had our thanksgiving over a month ago, many of my compadres and I have been sneaking Christmas into our houses (and onto our ipods) for a couple of weeks now. Believe it or not, we totally don’t get sick of it and there’s already been a lengthy stretch between holidays so it just feels apropriate somehow. Since you two are Christmas early birds, maybe you’ll just have to move north!
anna says
We put ours up early to because we usually travel at Thanksgiving. Your tree looks great. I love the print behind your tree…where is that from? thx
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Anna,
Just scroll back through the comments for a link to a post all about that print. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Connie says
Very cute! I love how Clara gave her “taste” of approval! Where was Burger during the whole deal?
YoungHouseLove says
He was having fun watching from the sofa. He actually made it into the video for a bit when John picked him up and held him in front of the camera.
xo,
s
Julie says
The tree is beautiful! I loved the video. Clara is such a cutie pie! :)
We will get our tree up the first week of December probably. Ours is always decorated randomly with keepsake ornaments from when I was little and from our son. But next year I will probably have a color scheme and then have a smaller table top tree for our keepsake ornaments!! :) Can’t leave those out!
Lou Ann says
Love the tree and the video!! Great job!! Our tree does not go up until December, sometimes the week of!! I can’t stand that and it is like why bother!! My family does not want it up earlier than Thanksgiving so for now I will let them have their way! And the cats will just have to wait to play with the tree a little longer!! I really enjoy watching what you have done with your home and can’t wait to see the new adventure! Thanks for sharing!Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!
Jamie says
That’s another reason I’m glad we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada – it leaves a little more space between holidays!
Since you like changing your tree “theme” each year, what do you do with any decorations that don’t fit the colour scheme for this year? The simple inexpensive decorations, that is, rather than the sentimental ones.
YoungHouseLove says
The sentimental ornaments go up no matter what, but the other bulbs in colors that we’re not using that year just stay in the two tupperware bins that we keep in the basement. We love that they can hold all of our ornaments (both the ones that we use and the ones that we don’t).
xo,
s
Sharon Holden (Shaz Aussie) says
I’m one of those people too this year! We are heading off to Canada for Christmas on December 17 and so I put up the trees and lights last weekend so I can enjoy them for a while before we leave. My sons (aged 11 & 14) weren’t nearly as excited as I was ;)
Angela says
Totally off topic but Sherry where’d you get your outfit in the tree decorating video?? I love the outfit, but especially the jeans! :)
YoungHouseLove says
The jeans are from Gap (clearance) and the shirt is from Old Navy. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Casey says
That’s crazy that you asked if anyone is having an edible tree! I am! I share an apartment with my boyfriend which, while not tiny, doesn’t have room for a full-size tree. We generally just get a potted rosemary plant for the “real tree” smell and then cook with it.
This year, my parents are coming to visit for Xmas (instead of hosting), and my brother and his girlfriend too. I’ve decided to kick it up a notch with a popcorn garland and mini candy-cane ornaments… keeping it entirely edible!
Monika says
I seriously enjoyed that video!
I’m sure you will have so much fun showing that to Clara a few Christmas’s down the road, when she will be able to appreciate watching a special part of her first Christmas.
Perhaps make the tree decorating video a tradition, like your weekly photos?
YoungHouseLove says
We were thinking about that! It’s definitely a plan!
xo,
s