How early is too early?

Deciding when to deck the halls is a great divider. Although it certainly feels like winter outside and some of us are antsy to start decorating for the festive season, there are several different traditions and beliefs as to when we should start putting up the Christmas tree and decorations.

While some prefer to wait until mid to late December to dig out the decorations, others like to get their Christmas on the minute Halloween is out of the way.

What does tradition say?

Traditionally, Christmas trees should be put up and decorated at the start of Advent, which is the season when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, known as Advent Sunday, and always ends on Christmas Eve. This means that this year, Advent falls on Sunday, 27 November.

So, if you're keen to follow tradition, this is the earliest date that you should be putting your tree up.

Some say it’s unlucky to put your tree up prior to this date. However, other traditions also claim that popping up your tree more than 12 days before Christmas is unlucky, too.

Meanwhile, Roman Catholic tradition states that Christmas trees shouldn't be put up until the afternoon of Christmas Eve, as any time earlier than this was also deemed to be bad luck.

Could decorating early have mental health benefits?

Before the “it’s too early” brigade start sounding off about the festive fast-forward, it's worth noting that digging out the decs sooner rather than later can actually give your mental health a boost.

"Research has shown that people who put up their decorations super-early are generally happier and even more friendly," explains Lucy Beresford, psychotherapist, relationship expert and broadcaster.

Why do we decorate for Christmas?

For many of us, we’ve been putting up trees and decorating our homes for as long as we can remember. But this custom can actually be traced back centuries ago, through both history and religion.

For thousands of years, both Pagans and Christians would bring in evergreen trees to celebrate winter festivals.  For Pagans, trees were put up during the winter solstice. Its branches were a reminder that spring that was just around the corner. Romans would decorate temples at the festival of Saturnalia with fir trees. And for Christians, fir trees represented resilience and were used as a sign of everlasting life with God. Over time this morphed into the Christmas tree tradition.

So the question is, when will you be decorating?..