When do you decorate?

You hear so much controversy over Christmas decorating. Should you wait till after Thanksgiving or should you do it as soon as Halloween is over. I for one have never decorated before Thanksgiving in my entire life. I guess because that is the way everybody in my family did. But I may stray from that tradition and put my tree and decorations up on the evening before Thanksgiving this year. simply because my family Thanksgiving is the weekend before and I will be the only one at my house for the holiday weekend. Not to mention I work a few hours on Thanksgiving day. I try to do what others do but this year, I'm going to do what makes me happy. We are coming into a busy season at work so I won't be home much. I want to enjoy every minute of my decor while I can. 

I think part of it is the excited in the kick-off transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I love getting up on Thanksgiving morning and looking at the Black Friday ads while eating some type of dessert I have made for Thanksgiving weekend. Usually it is me, my ads, a glass of milk and my no bake oatmeal cookies. I usually watch Miracle on 34th Street (the original) while I do a rough scan of the ads. Later that night I sit down with a piece of graham cracker pie and a Pepsi to make a list and plan my two day shopping trips for the Black Friday weekends. I never purchase the big ticket items that make people crazy and I absolutely refuse to shop on Thanksgiving day. It's my own personal tradition and I like it that way. Since I lost my hubby a week before Thanksgiving 3 years ago, I have hung on to some of our traditions but some I have changed because the holiday is just too hard if I try to keep some of them the same way. So I am decorating at a different time this year.

But right now I am looking at some of the vintage Christmas decor memories and checking out antique stores to see if I can find any on my wish list. I hated this aluminum trees but at the same time I loved the sparkle of them. I would love to find a small version even if it modern to put in the spare room and decorate it with beach Christmas theme to go with the beach room.

Mom had one of these and it went out every year. I would love to find one at a reasonable price. I found one last year locally for $85. Ummmm....NO. Maybe I can find one cheap this year.

Do you remember wearing Christmas corsages on your coat? We got new ones every year. 

I think I actually had one similar to this. I just love them. I would like to find one, not to wear, just to have. Maybe I could make some and start a revived trend. LOL.

Hopefully I find something new vintage this year. Last year, I was able to find me one of the small nativity scenes I was looking for. It was like this only no palm tree. I was so thrilled to find it in an antique store for just a few dollars.

I wanted a vintage Mr. & Mrs. Santa kissing S & P shakers. A friend found me a set similar to this one this past summer. Can't wait to set them out.

I love the old Shiny & Brite brand of ornaments. I have a set of over 30 of them that belonged to Hubby's grandmother. They are over 60 years old. I always hang them first on the tree.

A few years back a friend found me two of the little deer I wanted like these. I would like to find a couple of more of these.

I wanted this really bad and was able to find it one year as well. 

Everybody is Elf on the Shelf crazy. I have a vintage one that I have had for 41 years. He gets into mischief some. This isn't him because he's not "here" right now. But he looks like this one.

I collect Santa's and this is not my collection, but I see some vintage things in here I would love to find. I think Friday will involve some antiquing. 

Hope you have a great day!