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November 24, 2008
[...] my hardest job yet….an elementary school teacher. I had an absolute blast. Special thanks to Matt Singleton for his as usual excellent work (Matt’s wife Holly is expecting a baby any time) and to [...]
ABOUT PETE
Pete Wilson is one of the pastors at Cross Point Church. Cross Point is an eight year-old church with five campuses: CP Nashville, CP Dickson, CP Hendersonville, CP Bellevue, and CP Downtown.
Pre-Order on Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble.
His first book Plan B released in April 2010 through Thomas Nelson Publishing.
Pete has been married to Brandi for 15 years and they have three wild boys - Jett (10), Gage (7), and Brewer (5).
Just finished on Friday putting out the items in the house, going to put the tree up today. lights go on day after Thanksgiving.
I say wait till after Thanksgiving.(The most underrated of holidays)
Poor Thanksgiving. Sadly overlooked, year after year.
My pet peeve is christmas decorations before December… if Christmas stuff goes on too long it means we lose the specialness and just get immune to it all.
I say wait until December 1st when Advent starts…November 30th at the very least…(hang on no, that’s a very important day…St Andrew’s Day – it’s so unfair, that could be as fun as St Paddy’s Day but I guess like Thanksgiving gets swallowed up by the commericial side of Christmas…)
Growing up we always waited until after Thanksgiving. Our mom thought it was important to respect the heritage of Thanksgiving and to always remember to be thankful. Now my sister and I are the same way. No decorations go up until at least the day after Thanksgiving. It’s funny how it’s become a pet peeve of my son’s also and he’s only 8.
light ‘em up after thanksgiving, i think it build anticipation.
I heart all things Christmas…but my husbands birthday is December 3rd, so tradition has it that we all have to wait until after his big day to start the festivities. Woo hoo…I am starting to get excited though. It is kind of wonderful to see everyones pictures and warm winter clothes! Us, yeah, we are in tanks and shorts. It is a balmy 95 around these parts. It will be our first Christmas in the Summer so I don’t know how that will look. But we are so getting a tree. Maybe a palm tree this year. Yay. Any ideas?
I have been listening to Christmas music for about two weeks now, but I am making myself wait on the decorations. Growing up, we waited until after Thanksgiving and I’ve done the same thing with my family. A couple of years ago I declared the day after Thanksgiving, the “decorating extravaganza” day. All of the boxes of decorations get pulled out and I spend the day setting things up. It is way more fun than going shopping that day!
I like your sons (Gages?) giraffe boots! Those are great.
We usually decorate in December, but I think it’s so much fun when the lights are first lit! I think after Thanksgiving is probably more appropriate…but hey, that’s just me! I love yall’s wreath!
I will admit to sometimes complaining about early decoratint, but I get so excited when driving to and from family events Thanksgiving week when I see all the lights. Brighten someone’s spirit. TURN EM ON
Lights sparkling at night anytime of year give me such a happy feeling so if I had my way I’d have one or two trees in my yard twinkling with white lights all year long. I’d hold off on anything else until after thanksgiving though.
We have a ficus tree in a built-in planter in our foyer, and our front doors are double-wide with full-length glass. So I keep white Christmas lights on the ficus tree year ’round, set on a timer. They turn on every morning so my girls have light downstairs when they get up to get ready for school (HS aged girls) and turn off around 9 a.m. They go on again at dusk and off at bedtime. Looks great from the street and gives us a little cheer all year ’round. That’s my solution to wanting the Christmas lights on too soon, lol.
P.S.: Makes my house sound MUCH grander than it is. Once you get inside the doors, you get to see the seventies kitchen and the paneled family room with the track lighting!
I say turn ‘em on! We should celebrate christmas every day throughout the year. We also celebrate Thanksgiving, with the appropriate food, just with Christmas decor. And it in no way takes away from Thanksgiving–in fact, it adds, too. After all, shouldn’t we celebrate the meaning of Thanksgiving every day and the birth of our Lord every day? I LOVE IT! Turn ‘em on!
I prefer waiting on Christmas until after Thanksgiving, although it makes sense, sometimes, to put out lights before the snow flies. That brings up a question though — what are all you doing in coats and hats? Aren’t you in the South? The boots are hilarious too.
In our neck of the woods, if lights are up at a residence before Christmas (with the exception of a wedding celebration), it usually means there is a family member in that home that may not be home at Christmas, due to fatal illness or being in the military.
Personally, I hope to put a lot of focus on being thankful first, in preparing my mindset and heart for Christmas.
It’s not too early – we watched Miracle on 34th Street yesterday! It helps that we have over a foot of snow and more on the way tonight!
PLEASE WAIT!!! There’s nothing more commercialized and generic than early decorations… it’s too common and depletes the intensity of how special this time of year should be. I wish we still lived in a world where decorations went up just days before and the trees were decorated with family on Christmas Eve. Guess I should have been born a century ago…
Even in an age of moral relativism, there are still absolutes: No Christmas decor until after Thanksgiving!
give the turkey his day, man! lol!!!
after Thanksgiving.
nice pics….did u get ur new camera yet?
Your family is so beautiful! What a blessing!
As for us, well, we live in the ghetto – so IF you don’t nail down your decorations, they’ll walk – so we wait until the first of December and do a pretty thorough job. We’re usually the only house decorated on our block – my kids still love it – and we like the think we make our neighbors smile.
Ah, yes, life in the city…
Can I come down and visit Nashville for a few days? Ha!
Happy Thanksgiving my friend. You’re a blessing!
I agree with Brandi… WAIT!!! And… take them down on New Year’s Day. I have strict rules. Love those giraffe boots!
@Chilly, you can come down anytime you want. You’ve always got a place to stay in Nashville.
I am awfully guilty of not letting the Turkey have his day. Here in Minnesota it’s just plain Smart to put the outside lights up early. Because who wants to freeze their fingers off on an icy ladder in December?? But I still think the outside lights shouldn’t get turned on until after Thanksgiving. And by that I mean, after Dinner on Thanksgiving. Because while y’all are watching the game, I’m decorating the house, LOL.
Blessings, Whitney
I say wait until after Thanksgiving, too. As a child we always waited until after my sister’s birthday (Dec. 9) to decorate the family tree in the livingroom and Santa decorated the family room tree on Christmas Eve – we would wake up to the tree all decorated and gifts under the tree. Now, my husband and I decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving!
I would like to remind you that there is only 3 weeks this year in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m just sayin’.
If you have small children LIGHT’EM up, who cares what others say. It is all about the delight of the children!!!
Maybe the better question is not when is the best time to put them up, but WHEN DO YOU TAKE THEM DOWN?
I have a secret pet peeve about Christmas lights still up at Easter. I hate that.
I know there are greater things in life to get perturbed about but I’m just sayin’…
We put our house lights up last week and our inside tree up yesterday (makes the house feel so cozy). I haven’t plugged in the outside lights or put up the inflatable snowman…it just seems wrong before Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving night, it’s ON! I’ve been listening to Christmas music for weeks! I live in Houston (where it’s currently in the 70′s), so it’s not the weather that made me get it done early…I just love the decorations!!
Light ‘em up!
i’m with you, pete. we put our tree up friday, music going and started outside today. people always complain that christmas is so rushed…so why not spread out the christmas love?
My husband is outside right now putting up our lights! We did our tree last night! We are having my parents in from NC for Thanksgiving, so that might have put a rush on our decorating. But, they only get to stay around for about a week after Christmas so why not let them hang out longer on the front end??
I guess my opinion is known in the fact that I have already changed my blog header to Christmas
) So there’s my opinion 
) I LOVE Christmas so I can never get enough of the season…although I too feel that the holiday of Thanksgiving gets way overlooked 
)
You must share photos once you and your family decide when to turn on those lights
)
Turn ‘em on… call them Thanksgiving lights.. who cares!!! DO IT!
not too early bro. I took a vote over on my blog and a handful of people said they do it before Thanksgiving
It is your yard and your holiday. Why not ask God if He cares? As for me and my house (smiling), we wait til Thanksgiving is over…as not to rush over our thanksgiving to God. I put a large poster on kitchen pantry two days ago with markers on table…the title of poster…”I Am Thankful For…” It is so full now….it is so nice to see what everyone is thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches. I think this will be a tradition for our home.
Christmas comes after Thanksgiving. Turkeys and pumpkins out til Dec, then Christmas decorations.
I say turn them on! There are already some houses in our neighborhood with them and I love it.
We were just having this conversation at my house this afternoon. I don’t like to decorate until after Thanksgiving. I am unpopular right now, but I like to take one Holiday at a time. Now, where’s the Turkey and dressing?
After Thanksgiving. Commercialism has almost completely obliterated Thanksgiving, and it ticks me off. I absolutely refuse to put up decorations or play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I understand why people put Christmas decor up before Thanksgiving, because schedules get too busy between T-giving and Christmas…emphasis on “too busy.” It would do us all good to make the holidays much simpler with emphasis on less money spending.
@thescribespen, does putting up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving have to make you any less thankful?
I totally agree with simplification and less spending though.
My house is gettin it’s Christmas on!
Look at it this way Pete…last year Thanksgiving was November 23rd!
Life’s too short, turn on the lights!!!
ps…those pictures could be in an LL Bean catalog! Awesome! And I want to see some pictures of the house post decorations!!!
We put ours up yesterday and turned them on too. It doesn’t make me enjoy Thanksgiving any less, if anything, it makes me enjoy it more. It reminds me the gift we are celebrating is the greatest reason to give thanks of all.
Pete, listen to Brandi and wait until after Thanksgiving! Poor Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday and it gets marginalized a little more each year.
Well, considering I’m looking at a house full of Christmas decorations….I say go for it! I’m ok (this year) putting it up before Thanksgiving. Maybe that is because tgiving is so late. But, in my weird head, I don’t have a problem wrapping Thanksgiving and Christmas as two bookends around this season. Much to be thankful for….much to celebrate!
So, there you have it.
Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving!
I have done half of the inside of my house and worked on the outside today. I have mine on. It is a short season this year with Thanksgiving late. There are several that put theirs up this weekend and they are on.
Go ahead, turn them on.
Pete, you did the work you should go ahead and turn them on, enjoy them.
I can’t multi-task… so one holiday at a time for me
We put our stuff up last weekend and finished our lights in our windows (all the outside that you decorate living in an apartment) and turned those puppies on! I’m usually all about waiting until after Thanksgiving…but it is nice to know that everything is done and I don’t have that task waiting for me this coming up weekend!
TURN them on! I LOVE the lights! Did you get something new this year to add to the yard?
I started listening to Christmas music Nov.1! I would put up decorations but my husband says NO WAY! To keep peace…I keep listening to the music but the decorations are still in the box. If it doesn’t cause family stress…TURN THEM ON! and let those of us who are avioding family stress have something to enjoy until our day comes.
There’s no way I’d put up lights and not turn them on….do it!
I started the outdoor lights today, but won’t turn them on yet. Mainly because they’re not finished . . . never fails that 1/2 of the lights that I packed away last year don’t work this year! I also didn’t tackle the trees yet . . . from your photos, it looks like Brandi is a master at decorating a tree! I could use her help because that frustrates me completely!
Ours were up two weeks ago.
However, we are not turning ours on until Thanksgiving night. 
There are some people on base who have theirs on already and it looks like we’ve got some competition. Time to add some more yard decorations and more lights. This time of year Jake goes by “Clark Griswold” 
My outside lights are up and on! I think saving the tree until after Thanksgiving covers the bases. It takes a long time out in the cold to hang all those lights – you might as well get as much use as possible.
I say turn’em on. Of course, I start getting the Christmas music out late August/ early September. I see Halloween/ Reformation Day as Christmas candy practice (building up sweet sugar immunities), Thanksgiving is Christmas Dinner practice (gluttony, family, and holiday traditions!). Then the big day – Christmas!
So in my mind we ARE IN the Christmas Season — turn on the lights and let the festivities begin!
@Tina, Just one new thing this year. I’ve added a North Pole mailbox that opens and closes.
Definately after T.G.Day
I like that everyone even the tiniest is a part of the decorating.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dude! I refuse to get in between you and Brandi. Could sort of look like a UFC match (she would win). However, if you lived up north (not in the wimpy south where one snowflake cancels school) you would take advantage of good weather to put up them lights. But at least wait until after T-day to turn the lights on. There…how’s that for compromise?
My birthday is Dec. 11th and my sister’s is the 17th so we would always wait to decorate for our birthdays! A fun birthday thing as well as a Christmas thing! My dad’s family growing up just set the tree up and when Santa came he would decorate it, so the kids would wake up Christmas morning to a beautifully decorated tree…compliments of Santa!
It’s too early – Our tradition growing up was to put up the decorations and turn on the lights December 1st. We tear down on January 7th. My husband’s family does it for Thanksgiving.
After Thanksgiving!!!
Mixed on this one. Part of me say turn them on and the other tells me to wait until after Thanksgiving. But hey, if you got them up then go for it. Provided your homeowner association permits. Ours say we have to wait until after Thanksgiving…uncool of all us who love the decorations and lights
DUDE….NO LIGHTS BEFORE THANKSGIVING. Really not yelling.
What drove me the craziest was I went to Home Depot and Lowes this year to find Halloween decorations and they had completely skipped over them and went straight to Christmas…in October!
If Starbucks can release the red cup the day after Halloween, we can put up our lights and let ‘em blaze!