When is the right time for Christmas decorations?

I saw a few pictures last week on Twitter and Facebook showing that Christmas decorations are well and truly up in many households across the UK. For me, it was too early. It's wasn't even December! I stubbornly refuse to even think about Christmas until December. I dislike shops filling with Christmas things as soon as Halloween is out of the way. I have even noticed shops selling Christmas things which go off before Christmas. Maybe other people do stock up on chocolate and junk but I leave that purely for Christmas Day.


In our house, we buy a real tree and put it up at the very earliest, two weeks before Christmas. It stays up until the 5th of January though. I really like to make the most of that time. I guess it is mainly because that is the time we have off work usually, although now that I am at university it I break up ten days before Christmas so have plenty of time to make the house look magical. This year I have been slightly tempted to start earlier, I have even already made my Christmas bunting! But I have held back on decorations for now, the children seem to get too excited if we start too soon!

I know it's a personal choice but I find it really interesting how different people get ready for Christmas. So, what do you do? Are decorations already up in your house, and if they are, when do you take them down?