When do you begin planning your decorating?

[Cinder]

My family starts the first weekend of December. Since we generally do the same things, not a lot of planning is needed.

[Fezziwig]

I am normally driven to begin decorating the day after (American) Thanksgiving. I say driven because I generally get some good deals on decorations later in the day on 'Black Friday' and am very impatient. Each year I say I am gonna wait until December 1st and each year I find a new decoration or prop and, while the little lady is in the house napping, I am on the ladder in the yard whistling jingle-bells.

[ornamentmaven]

I used to always wait until the 1st of December, but as I get older, it takes me longer to get things done, so now I start the day after Thanksgiving. I wouldNEVER decorate before Thanksgiving. It is a great holiday and deserves it's own attention and respect

[Mistletoe]

I usually begin planning next year's decorations sometime in December, while looking at this year's decorations.

[Falksonchristmas]

Like Mistletoe i begin planning in December, If i came across some nice decorations or some really good light displays i get new ideas for next display.
This year our homepage celibrates it´s 5th year and we make a totaly new display. I usual start cutting and painting in end of august, then the more hands on work is about now ;-) And now the first lights are in place :-)

[frostythesnowman]

i will start decorating on the 24th november...its starting to feel like christmas!

[DayTek]

There's not really much to 'plan' as it were. I do just about the same thing every year. I get out the 'winter' stuff on Remembrance Day, which is November 11th here in Canada, like Veteran's Day in the US. I always get the holiday off work as I'm in banking, so I take the day to listen to a service on the radio and then decorate. More Christmassy stuff will go up a bit later.

We don't have a front yard as we are in a semi-detached home and there isn't yard in front of the house, just driveway. So we can't do much of a display. We do up our porch and garage with lights though - Hubby will do that around the middle of November.

One thing different I would like to find this year is a large, pre-lit wreath for the house outside

[Fezziwig]

A bit of a change of plans with this damned "Frankenstorm" that has just rolled through. I was without power for about 4 days and spent much of the evening with my girlfriend going over plans for Christmas (its good to talk about good times in the wake of tragedy) Then during the day I was replacing much of the siding which had fallen and began mapping out my outdoor christmas lights plan.

[precious007]

I already started to think about the decorations.

I am basically decorating my entire house and put lights on the exteriors and interiors of the windows.

[ornamentmaven]

A bit of a change of plans with this damned "Frankenstorm" that has just rolled through. I was without power for about 4 days and spent much of the evening with my girlfriend going over plans for Christmas (its good to talk about good times in the wake of tragedy) Then during the day I was replacing much of the siding which had fallen and began mapping out my outdoor christmas lights plan.

Yeah Hurricane Sandy really put a damper on things. Lost power for 6 days- just came back on last night. Now I hope to concentrate on Christmas!