When I was little, the Christmas tree went up on Christmas Eve. It might have been acquired a few days earlier, probably from the chap over the road who grew them in his garden, and it might conceivably have come into the house then, but the decorations would go on during the Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, at 3pm on Christmas Eve. Beginning, of course, with the lights.
These days I am a little less strict, though I enjoy Advent so much that I do tend to keep Christmas pushed back to the back half of December. But I shan’t be fighting the lights going up, because there’s a small person in the house who is absolutely fascinated by them. This afternoon we went and looked at the Christmas tree in the market square, and then visited a coffee shop with an excellent array of little white lights. Strict I may be, but I’m not going to begrudge anyone else their cheerful twinkly lights. Particularly this year.
Kathleen Jowitt 
In my wife’s family, the tree didn’t go up until Christmas Eve. She and her siblings didn’t even get to see it until Christmas morning. She takes the exact opposite approach now. She likes to put it up early with lights. We don’t actually decorate until our adult kids are home, but she loves seeing the lights and relaxing in front of it throughout much of December. It’s funny the different traditions we all follow and then change when we’re on our own. Ha, ha.
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I was just explaining to a co-worker today how as a kid we didn’t get to put up the tree until Christmas Eve. Not so much a love of Advent as my mother hating the mess (and probably Christmas too). I mostly stuck with the tradition, even with a small person (boo! meanie!), but last year I felt so grey band miserable that I put the tree up on Dec 1st and it came down again after Candlemas. I’m undecided this year.
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