[mike182d]

That's fantastic!

My bride and I bought our tree early in Christmas and I put lights up immediately on it, but we are leaving it off until Christmas day. (I've done the same with the lights on our house and I'll have them on until Christmas is really over, which may confuse a lot of my neighbors :-) In the meantime, my bride bought some elegant purple ribbon to wrap around the tree as we wait in anticipation of the "light" that is to come into the world. The ribbon will be removed on Christmas Eve of course as we go nuts with ornaments and garland, but celebrating Advent in the meantime can be a lot of fun. It makes the entire Christmas season (the several weeks after Dec. 25th) so much more meaningful....and fun!

...and of course there's an advent wreath :-)

[lightman]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who does a gradual buildup with the outdoor lighting!

I add things gradually, just like the candles in an Advent wreath. There's not a whole lot during the first week of Advent, November 27 through December 3. More is added each successive Saturday evening.

By the final week of Advent (Saturday December 18 through Thursday evening, December 23) all of the window candles will have blue bulbs, plus blue icicles, a blue garland on the deck that runs the length of the house, as well as seven evergreens covered with blue lights. I tried counting this year, and I think there will be over 2600 blue bulbs.

Come Christmas Eve the deck garland and icicles and a "tree" fashioned of stings from a central 9 foot pole will be blue and white combined. All together there will be at least nineteen lighted evergreens in a variety of colors. And I'll keep all of that illuminated for all twelve days of Christmas.

[sionnsar]

My bride and I bought our tree early in Christmas and I put lights up immediately on it, but we are leaving it off until Christmas day.

In my family it's tradition to put up the tree on Christmas Eve, and take it down (or at least finally turn off the lights) on January 5th.

It always pains me a little to see trees taken down and discarded on the 2nd Day of Christmas. *\:-|