No tree, no lights, no muss, no fuss.

I live in South Korea now and while we have some decorations, we don't bother putting them up. One problem is with our cats. The lights freak the older cat out and he sits there crying.

It may look like xmas decorations but the solstice is the only thing I celebrate this time of year.

We have the tree and a boatload of ornaments (many of them animals), some winter-holiday types of stuff out (a snowman one of the kids made, a nutcracker dude, a wooden Rudolph, etc.) but nothing remotely Jesus-related. We put a bird on the top of the tree. I see it as an homage to nature and the Solstice, which is, as you say, the true reason for the season.

...regarding their actions of the past year.

We have a small tree, some wreaths on the door and windows, and some decorations on the fireplace. That is enough. I wouldn't bother if the kids weren't coming home.

colored lights. And a string of LED lights on another little window (little colored stars).

I love christmas lights.

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Well, not to a Clark Griswold degree anyway.

Four lighted deer in the front yard. Net lights on around 12 bushes. An unlighted wreath on the overhang of the front porch. And a little Santa slay with a couple lighted "gifts" in it.

Inside a tree in the LR, a tiny one in the den, and my wife puts up a "Wonderful Life" village on the top of the big credenza.

So, to some it might be a lot. But, you can't cut meat on our electric meter when our stuff is on.

and the neighbor took them all.

So no we got nothing and don't really want anything.

but the little devil in the box changed all that



I even tried going to a small artificial tree but well ...

that poor little tree in the bottom photo, knocked over. And the little character in the decorating storage bin. Oh man, do I know. Do I ever know. Thanks for posting the photos; they were amusing.

I don't do much in the line of decorating, and it's only due to lack of time. I work so much that it's practically Christmas when I get a day or so free. I would actually love to decorate. If I did, it would be all-natural decorations, like pine cones, evergreen swags, and that sort of thing.

I love looking at the decorations others put out. Some of them are simply stunning, like when they get inside the bare branches of a tree and cover every single branch with lights, including the base of the tree. The white twinkly lights are nice, but I really love all blue lights.


Cher

p.s. I have two that look just like kitty-in-the-box.

but for my indoor trees I've always liked multi colored lights with a few twinkle lights scattered in, it helps give sparkle when you can't have tinsel.

I don't think I could survive two Ravens, she is a handful. Three years old now and we still have kitty shenanigans on a daily basis.

that keeps her alive. Fortunately the other kitty Symone never causes any trouble, well relatively speaking.

and I bring out my holiday cocoa mugs. I do a little bit everyday and it just makes me feel good. I'd keep Christmas lights up year round if I could. I also decorate our office reception area with my daughter the weekend after Thanksgiving.

We do have the tree, a wreath, a few indoor decorations, and a few outdoor lights.

Four houses down from me though, it's like a Griswold Family Christmas competition. These two neighbors try hard to outdo each other, whether it's Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Independence Day, you name it. They both are so overkill that it's quite funny.

Balloons set in the branches along the trunk didn't distract her (she joyfully popped every one within ten minutes of placing them in to "discourage her&quot , and she batted off the a spare tree topper (a straw angel that had been a large present ornament a few years ago) and a few cloth and plastic ornaments as "test ornaments" to see how much damage she could do (the belled ones were the first to go flying) by the end of the first day up.
After we retrieved the ornaments (strangely sans bells) and what was left of the angel (now just a straw poppet with no wings) from various locations around the house, I think we'll just have to go with a Holiday "Goblin Kitty" Exercise Tree with a few unbreakable ornaments tied tightly on (oh, and the balloons, which the goblin loves),and keep the presents in the nearest closet until we give them out.
Our tree topper this year is apparently going to be a 4/5 month old solid black kitten with crazy gold Goblin eyes clinging to the top tree section blissfully cleaning her teeth on the short branches. It's been up since Sunday, and she hasn't knocked it over yet...
Everything else that would go decorate indoors has remained packed (especially great-grandmother's old glass and lace ornaments), including Laz's old childhood electric train that was supposed to go under the tree and my pair of porcelain renaissance holiday dolls and rustic Santa that usually go on top of the book cases.

Which was an severe annoyance to the 4-year old grand-daughter living with us who really wanted to help decorate the tree this weekend, put all our bells, icicles, snowflakes, cloth items, colorful luminairy tea candle holders along with fir branches, pine cones, and cloved citrus all around the front room this weekend. ("I am most upset with the Goblin, Da'ma!&quot
She'll have to make due with helping some more with outside decorations this year. Perhaps next year, Goblin will have settled down some, and we can do a proper holiday decoration job.
I've had cats for over 25 years; never had cat problems with the holiday decorations before. Dog issues, yes - but that was a matter of keeping breakables above the tail level.

I guess we'll make dumplings, sausage balls, cookies and holiday tarts this weekend instead.
Maybe make some cat-nip and chopped mint infused kitty cookie ornaments (and their replacements) to go on the tree, too.

Haele

but the last two years I've been too burned out from work to cope with it. They keep doing Christmas concerts - multiple ones in different locations - leading up to christmas, and I keep ending up working late and on saturdays because of it. (Teacher here).

I observe and applaud.

A poinsettia on the table. No religious decor.

With a recent knee injury, I'll be too tired to do any more this year.

Merry Christmas from this old atheist who just likes holidays.