Every year around this time, somebody walks into our Littleton store, lowers their voice, and asks when to start decorating for Christmas, as if the wrong answer might get them reported. We have been fielding that question since 1976, so consider this the official answer from people who decorate for a living: start whenever you like. It is not too early. It was not too early last week either. But there is a smart order to do it in, and that is what this guide is really about.
When to Start Decorating for Christmas: The Honest Answer
Christmas decorating has no rulebook, no deadline, and no penalty box. What it has is three schools of thought, each convinced the other two are doing it wrong, and a store like ours gets to watch all three shop happily every year. The only genuinely bad timing we ever see is the December scramble: the household that waits for the perfect weekend, loses it to weather or a work trip, and ends up decorating in a hurry with whatever lights still work. Every piece of advice below exists to prevent that one outcome.
The Three Camps, Respectfully Considered
The After-Halloween Camp
The moment the jack-o-lantern hits the compost, the tree goes up. This camp gets teased the most and enjoys the season the longest. If your decorations bring you weeks of extra joy for the same setup effort, that is simply good math. Many of our Department 56 village collectors live here, because a display that takes a weekend to build deserves more than three weeks on stage.
The After-Thanksgiving Camp
The traditional American schedule: gratitude first, garland second. Decorating over Thanksgiving weekend gives you a solid month of glow and pairs nicely with houseguests who can be handed a box of ornaments. If this is your camp, your preparation still starts earlier; you just save the reveal for the long weekend.
The Whenever Camp
Some houses decorate for the first snow. Some wait for a daughter to fly home. Some of our customers keep a village up all year and simply change the season of it. All correct. The tree does not know what month it is.
Work Backward, Not Forward
Whatever your reveal date, the professionals plan in reverse. Here is the order that saves Decembers:
Early October: Test Everything
Plug in every light strand while stores are fully stocked and replacements are easy to find. A dead section discovered in October is an errand; the same discovery on December 14 is a crisis. Our guide on how to hang Christmas lights covers the testing ritual properly.
Before the First Hard Freeze: Outdoor Lights Go Up
This is the Colorado rule. Hang outdoor lights on a mild afternoon in October or early November, leave them unlit if you like, and flip the switch whenever your season officially begins. Nobody has ever enjoyed a ladder in an ice storm.
Early Fall: Order Anything Personalized
Every personalized ornament is hand-lettered to order, and December stacks those orders deep. The store does not publish a cutoff date, which is exactly why smart shoppers refuse to gamble on one. Order while the selection is full and the elves are relaxed.
Mid-November: The Tree and the Village
An artificial tree can go up any time, but mid-November gives you a calm weekend for assembly and fluffing before the calendar fills. If you are choosing a new one this year, start with our tree buying guide or browse artificial Christmas trees by height. Village buildings, with their cords and landscapes and debates about where the skating pond goes, deserve their own unhurried afternoon.
November 30: The Advent Calendar Is Loaded and Hanging
An advent calendar that arrives December 6 starts the season with an apology. This is the one true deadline in all of Christmas decorating, so we will say it plainly: advent waits for no shipping estimate.
Your Reveal Weekend: The Fun Part
With testing, hanging, ordering, and assembly already done, decorating day is just ornaments, music, and arguing about tinsel. Which is how it should be.
Why Artificial Trees Rewrote the Calendar
The old too-early worry came from cut trees, which dry out on a schedule no one can negotiate with. An artificial tree removed the expiration date, which is precisely why the After-Halloween camp keeps growing. Put a quality artificial tree up November 1 and it looks exactly as good on New Year’s Eve, and the same logic covers wreaths, garlands, and everything else in holiday decor that once wilted and now simply waits.
A Word from a Store That Decorates in July
We run Christmas trees, lit villages, and full displays twelve months a year, and we can report the results of this long experiment: nobody at St. Nick’s has grown tired of Christmas yet. The season starts when you start it. Our only firm advice is the boring, load-bearing kind: test early, hang before the freeze, order personalized pieces now, and keep the advent calendar off the gambling table. The magic takes care of itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most American households decorate between the weekend after Thanksgiving and the first week of December, but the after-Halloween crowd grows every year. There is no official date and no wrong one. The pattern we see in the store: village collectors and artificial-tree owners start earliest, because their displays last effortlessly.
Only if your own household says so. Nothing about an artificial tree, a lit village, or indoor decor expires, and plenty of collectors run autumn and Christmas displays side by side in October. We decorate year-round at the store and can confirm the magic does not wear out.
Before your first hard freeze, which in Colorado usually means October or early November. Hang them on a mild afternoon, leave them dark if you like, and light them whenever your season starts. Ladders and ice make a terrible team, so the hanging date and the lighting date should be two different decisions.
Give a village its own unhurried afternoon or weekend, separate from tree day, since arranging buildings, cords, and landscapes is half craft and half negotiation. Many collectors build in early-to-mid November, and Halloween Village collectors start theirs in late September so the display earns a full month.
Yes, and this is the quiet reason the calendar keeps shifting earlier. A cut tree dries out on its own schedule; a quality artificial tree looks identical in week one and week eight. Once the expiration date disappeared, decorating early stopped costing anything at all.
Early fall, and earlier is always safer. Every personalized ornament is hand-lettered to order, December stacks those orders deep, and the store does not publish a cutoff date, which is exactly why you should not gamble on one. Ordering in September or October also means the full selection of designs is still available.
Hanging and loaded by the night of November 30, because the first door opens December 1 and children keep meticulous records on this subject. It is the one genuine deadline in Christmas decorating, so shop for advent calendars in September or October rather than racing a shipping estimate in late November.
Tradition says Twelfth Night, the fifth or sixth of January, closes the season, and many families take everything down on New Year’s weekend. There is no penalty for later. A tree glowing into mid-January hurts nobody, and some of our village customers simply never stop, swapping seasonal pieces instead.
Testing comes first, before any decorating at all: plug in every light strand in early October while replacements are easy to find. After that, most decorators anchor the room with the tree, then build outward to mantel, village, and table, so every other piece can answer to the tree’s position and style.
We never really stop. The store has run trees, lit villages, and full displays year-round in Littleton, Colorado since 1976, which makes us either the least qualified or the most qualified people to rule on what counts as too early. We vote most qualified, and we vote not too early.
Find It at St. Nick's
Everything this guide leans on lives a click away: artificial Christmas trees in every height, Christmas lights tested and ready, personalized ornaments worth ordering early, advent calendars for the December 1 deadline, and the Department 56 village world for the early birds.
St. Nick’s Christmas and Collectibles has been Littleton, Colorado’s Christmas store since 1976. Shop online, visit us in person, or call 1-800-875-8865 with any questions.
