Do you decorate your home for the holidays? If so, when do you put your decorations up and when do you take them down? (Question and answer cross-posted from LiveJournal / Dreamwidth)
Hellooo, Pagan here.
My Beloved hankered for a tree this year — until I shrieked, 'You want to CUT DOWN A TREE???' and added, 'It's not even our festival.' In the Northern Hemisphere you can at least say it's Yule, which got coopted. Here, it's Midsummer actually. (Though it's a bit hard to tell this year, with all the rain and storms.)
For a few years I had a nice glittery 5-pointed star in a circle, which I hung on the front door so we didn't look too Grinchy. Whoever cared to could interpret it as a xmas star. WE knew it was a pentacle! Sadly, it finally went the way of all flesh and I haven't been able to find another. I settled for a big silver star and a big gold one, hanging in front and back windows respectively. (6-pointed; only bought 'em cos I thought they were 5, but I was mistaken.)
This small town has a great mix of religions — Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, 7th Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, Sikh, Buddhist, Hare Krishna, Sai Baba.... We don't have a synagogue or a mosque, but all the aforementioned have churches/temples. And then of course there's us Pagans, whose temple is the whole outdoors. Though many of us are out of the broom closet, very few people seem to notice that we exist. Funnily enough, most of them others look normal too!
My point is that there is some degree of tolerance, because there simply has to be. Even on this street, no-one much would care what we did or didn't have up by way of decoration. The stars are to mollify Hubby. He wanted streamers and all, but I pointed out that we have no grandchildren visiting this year, and asked if he was going to be the one to climb up and do them, reminding him we are both somewhat elderly and arhritic these days. End of conversation.
We have received a few xmas cards, and they are up on the mantelpiece. We aren't sending any, but will send 'Season's Greetings' or Happy Holy Days' by email and social networks. (The grandkids got pressies, because I won't inflict my views on them, and in any case I like an excuse to give them things. I cannot persuade Spouse that I don't want anything myself, so we have figured out an exchange of gifts — no surprises, things we wanted anyway.)
We'll get to go out to meals a bit, to kind (non-Christian) friends who invited us. And Youngest Stepson is visiting for a few days. But for the most part we are taking as little notice as possible of the occasion.
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