When is it acceptable to put up the Christmas tree? – Glenn Dwight

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Decorations are appearing in the shops, Christmas music is starting to sneak on to the radio, and households across New Zealand are preparing for one of the great annual domestic…

Decorations are appearing in the shops, Christmas music is starting to sneak on to the radio, and households across New Zealand are preparing for one of the great annual domestic arguments.

There are two distinct camps when it comes to putting up the Christmas tree. They’re as divided as Kiwis over whether feijoas are delicious or little green anti-taste grenades.

These are the people who would happily put their tree up in July, start playing Mariah Carey in August and genuinely believe forcing the family dog to wear reindeer antlers isn’t a violation of the SPCA’s Geneva Convention on animal humiliation.

For them, Christmas isn’t a day. It’s a season, and preferably one that lasts six months.

These people believe December 24 is quite early enough and even then; they’d prefer to wait until the evening.

They regard Christmas decorations as unnecessary clutter, Christmas music as a form of psychological warfare, and the whole business of putting up a tree as something that could probably be avoided if everyone just agreed to meet at the pub.

But somewhere between these two extremes, there must be a sensible answer.

And because I believe in approaching important domestic disagreements with the same scientific rigour normally reserved for CSI Miami, I’ve decided to investigate.

First, we need to establish some ground rules. And the most important is that we’re talking about a real Christmas tree.

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