I tell you what Frank, I've made the most of Christmas for years now.
As a child the tree never went up until around the 20th, because the baubles might get dusty - everyone else had them up for weeks before!
Christmas Eve night my Dad would always say "This time tomorrow it'll all be over!" Just what you want to hear when you're 7.
Christmas Day he'd say "It's as far away as ever now".
Once I had my own kids the tree went up on the first Saturday in December, we've created little traditions as the years have gone by and made sure that a good time is had by all
Of course there was one year when we almost didn't have a tree. I had a nightmare month at work, busiest time of the year and add to that three alarm call outs at 3am in the week before Christmas, and it just wasn't getting done. I ended up chucking a string of lights on it when I got home on Christmas Eve