I could easily put up my Christmas tree today. Living in Canada, Thanksgiving is long gone - more than a month ago. Remembrance Day has passed. This means we're right on track for Christmas with poinsettias, frosty ferns, amaryllis, and Christmas cactus plants in the stores. What about December 1st - it sounds like a nice start to the Christmas season.
If I were in the U.S., it would be too early, wouldn't it? Thanksgiving is about to be celebrated, and a Christmas tree would conflict with the celebrations. The autumn colours of Thanksgiving would clash with the colours of Christmas red and green. The American market has an orange poinsettias, specifically hybridized to complement the colours of the Thanksgiving dinner.
The U.K. tradition allow people to unpack their Christmas decorations immediately after Halloween. That would be November 1st. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, is recognized as the man who made the Victorian Christmas tree tradition happen in the 1840s. He put up his tree on Christmas Eve.
If we were Italian, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, held on December 8th, is the appropriate date for the Christmas traditions to start.
At the opposite end, Russia has made the Christmas tree a secular icon. The crowning star was determined to be the Red star, and not the star of Bethlehem. The celebrations are about the New Year and not Christmas.
In Germany, the tradition is to put it up on Christmas eve, and take it down on Epiphany - January 7th. It can even be kept up until Clandlemas, February 2nd.
What about countries experiencing summer during December? Take Australia, their summer holidays start the middle of December and go until February. They might be camping over the Christmas holidays. They seem quite relaxed about the timeline of tree setup - it can go up around December 1st. They seem to go with the flow of the social tradition of December 1st, rather than a religious designated date.
The Fantasy of Trees is underway at the Grimsby Museum. It goes until December 8th. Perhaps it will inspire visitors with ideas for their own Christmas trees and decorations ideas. I decided 3 years ago, that every Fantasy of Trees needed a chocolate tree. You can see the little packages from our local chocolatier shop. It is a beloved tree each year.
