All the Buzz at Honey B Farm: Decoration Plan

Now that December is here and most of us are beginning to decorate for Christmas, how do you go about it? Do you start right after Thanksgiving? Do you put everything up at once? Do you put outdoor decorations up? Do you put a little bit of Christmas in every room of the house?
     Back when my children were small, I would put up all the decorations I had all at once, and put the tree up about 10 days before Christmas and take everything down either on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.   We usually had a real tree, so having the tree in the house for that long a time was probably stretching the life of the tree.   Sometimes my kids would help me decorate, but most of the time it was "Mom's job" to put up the tree and decorations.
     Now that my kids are grown, I tend to put up the decorations a little at a time. By the time Christmas Day arrives, the house is all decorated. I still leave things up until New Year's Eve. I like to start the new year with a clean house and a clean slate. So, on Dec 1st, the first thing to put out is the window candles.   I have electric candles that I put in almost every window of the house, and some larger ones on the porch.   Also on Dec 1st, I get out my Christmas dishes! During December, I only use my Christmas dishes (unless I run out of clean ones!) Tomorrow on Dec 2nd, I'll put up a few more decorations, and on the 3rd, a few more things, etc. etc. By the time Dec 25 is here the tree is up and my house is fully decorated.   I do try to put a little bit of Christmas in every room of the house (even the bathroom, which gets Christmas towels and a bar of Christmas soap, and some holiday scented liquid soap.).
     This year my son Jerry is coming with my grandson Jeffrey, and we are going to have a real tree! A while back on my blog entries I mentioned that there was a blue spruce growing in the ditch alongside the road.   That will be our tree this year. I will put that up a few days before the 25th, and leave it up until New Year's Eve. Ten days is plenty for a real tree in a dry house.
     Another favorite decoration item to put out is my village that a neighbor gave me as a housewarming gift many years ago.   She bought it at an auction and thought it might fit on her bay windowsill, but it didn't, so she graciously gave me the entire village when she saw my big bay window seat area. I don't have a recent photo of the village, but here is one from a few years ago, before I added trees and people:

I put the village out sometime around the 6th of December.

The village at night

One set of my Christmas dishes is a set that Harold bought at a garage sale in Canada back in the days when he was a trucker. They are a lovely set of Scio dishes with a 'made in Japan' on the back, so I know they are old. I have looked up these dishes on the internet for pricing, and they sell for about $50 to $75 a set. Harold says he gave 5 bucks for them. When we were first married, my dishes were in storage and when Christmas time came I was upset that I wouldn't have any holiday plates to use, like I always did. Harold just smiled and went out to a shed in the back yard and came in with a box of those lovely Scio Christmas plates and cups and saucers. Was I surprised that he would have Christmas dishes (guys don't care about such things, right?)! He told me how he bought them at a garage sale in Canada years ago and sort of forgot about them. I have a couple other sets of dishes, too, so here is a sample of the plates and cups we will use during the holidays: