Today is — and you are in —. So:
NO
Working out where you are…
This site gives you the socially acceptable date to put your Christmas tree up, based on the tradition in your own country.
The short version
There is no universal date. There is a date for your country.
Almost every argument about tree timing happens because the two people arguing inherited different calendars. Three traditions do most of the work.
The Advent calendar
Britain, France and Brazil hang the season on the first Sunday of Advent — the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. It moves every year, which is why nobody can ever quite remember it.
The feast day
Catholic Europe and Latin America use a fixed saint's day. 8 December, the Immaculate Conception, governs Italy, Spain, Ireland, Argentina and Malta. Mexico waits for the Virgin of Guadalupe on the 12th.
The Christmas Eve reveal
Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia and the Nordics put the tree up on 24 December itself, often behind a closed door so the children see it for the first time already lit. Everything earlier is, to them, deeply strange.
The full table
Tree dates in 45 countries
Up, down, and the reason behind each. Tap a country for the full story, the local superstition and the sources.
| Country | Tree goes up | Tree comes down | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 8 December | 6 January | 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is a non-movable national holiday in Argentina and has become the near-universal day to assemble the tree (“el arbolito”); legend traces the local custom to 1807, when an Irish immigrant reportedly decorated a tree in a Buenos Aires public park. |
| Australia | 1 December | 6 January | No strong religious anchor locally; 1 December has become the informal secular marker for “the start of the Christmas month” and is now widely treated as socially acceptable, partly reinforced by retailers and lifestyle media. |
| Austria | 24 December | 6 January | Shares Germany’s Christkind custom: the tree is traditionally decorated secretly and unveiled to children on Christmas Eve. |
| Belgium | 6 December | 6 January | Belgium’s linguistic split means Flemish areas share Dutch-style Sinterklaas sequencing while French-speaking Wallonia leans toward general Advent-season timing similar to France. |
| Brazil | the first Sunday of Advent | 6 January | Brazil, a majority-Catholic country, loosely follows the general Advent-season convention rather than a single fixed feast day; the first recorded Brazilian tree dates to 1824 in a German immigrant community in Rio Grande do Sul. |
| Canada | 12 November | 6 January | Remembrance Day carries strong solemn weight in Canada, and many Canadians consider it disrespectful to display Christmas decorations before it has passed; Canadian Thanksgiving falls in October, so it does not anchor the season as it does in the US. |
| Chile | 8 December | 6 January | Chilean media commonly cite Catholic tradition’s 8 December Immaculate Conception feast as the reference date for assembling the tree, alongside the alternative custom of the first Sunday of Advent; the main celebratory event, however, is Christmas Eve (“Noche Buena”) on 24 December. |
| Colombia | 8 December | 6 January | 7 December’s Night of the Little Candles — when candles and lanterns are lit throughout towns and cities — is Colombia’s clear, well-documented unofficial start of the Christmas season, immediately preceding the 8 December public holiday; Christmas trees are commonly set up around the same period alongside nativity scenes (“pesebres”). |
| Croatia | 24 December | 6 January | Croatian custom, similar to other Central European Catholic countries, traditionally reserves tree-decorating for Christmas Eve itself, even though the broader Advent season (sometimes beginning as early as 25 November, St Catherine’s Day, in some regions) marks the informal start of festive preparations. |
| Czechia | 24 December | 6 January | Czech tradition, like Poland’s, concentrates the whole Christmas ritual — including tree decoration and the arrival of gifts from Ježíšek (Baby Jesus) — into Christmas Eve itself. |
| Denmark | 24 December | 6 January | Danish Christmas centres overwhelmingly on Christmas Eve, including the family ritual of dancing or walking hand-in-hand around the decorated tree while singing carols (“at gå julen ind”). |
| Finland | 24 December | 6 January | Finnish Christmas is centred on Christmas Eve, marked civically by the historic “Julfrid”/“Joulurauha” (Christmas Peace) declaration read aloud at noon in Turku, a tradition dating back to medieval times. |
| France | the first Sunday of Advent | 2 February | Advent is widely observed via the Advent wreath and calendar, and many French households treat the first Sunday of Advent as a natural point to begin decorating, alongside the broader European Advent custom. |
| Germany | 24 December | 6 January | In classic German custom the tree is decorated in secret by parents on Christmas Eve itself and its reveal — accompanied by the ringing of a bell — is the magical moment marking the arrival of the Christkind (Christ Child), who is said to bring the tree and gifts. |
| Greece | 6 December | 6 January | Greece’s original, more distinctive maritime decoration is the “karavaki” (small decorated boat), begun on St Nicholas’s Day (6 December, patron saint of sailors); the Western Christmas tree was introduced only in 1833 by the Bavarian-born King Otto and became widespread much later. |
| Hong Kong | 15 November | 6 January | Christmas Day and Boxing Day remain public holidays, a legacy of British colonial rule retained after the 1997 handover; celebrations are heavily commercial and retail-driven rather than tied to a home religious custom. |
| Hungary | 24 December | 6 January | Hungarian tradition holds that the tree is decorated in secret and revealed to children on Christmas Eve evening as a “magic” surprise, similar to the German/Austrian Christkind custom; the tree is often hung with “szaloncukor” (fondant sweets wrapped in foil), a distinctly Hungarian ornament. |
| Iceland | 11 December | 6 January | Iceland’s 13 Yule Lads (“Jólasveinar”) begin arriving one by one from 12 December, and some households treat the arrival of the first Yule Lad as the cue to decorate, while others wait until just before Christmas Eve. |
| India | 1 December | 6 January | Christians are a small minority (roughly 2. |
| Ireland | 8 December | 6 January | Historically for Irish Catholics, the festive season formally began on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a public holiday and traditional shopping-trip day, and trees went up accordingly. |
| Italy | 8 December | 6 January | 8 December is a national public holiday marking the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and has become the conventional day Italian families decorate their tree and nativity (“presepe”), which is at least as important as the tree itself. |
| Japan | 1 November | 26 December | Christmas is a secular, commercial, couples-oriented holiday in Japan (akin to Valentine’s Day) with no religious significance to the vast majority of the population; retail decorations begin very early to extend the shopping season, though home decorating is more modest and later. |
| Lithuania | 24 December | 6 January | Lithuanian tradition centres on Kūčios, the Christmas Eve feast of twelve symbolic dishes and wafer-sharing, with the tree traditionally decorated on the same day as part of the overall Christmas Eve preparation. |
| Malta | 8 December | 6 January | The tree custom was imported from Victorian Britain and Germany in the 19th century (paralleling the UK’s own adoption); 8 December is cited as the “correct” religious-tradition answer, but is not strictly observed by most modern households. |
| Mexico | 12 December | 2 February | The Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint, marks the informal start of the holiday season, though the nativity scene (“nacimiento”) is generally considered more central than the tree itself; Las Posadas processions run 16-24 December. |
| Netherlands | 6 December | 6 January | The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) as the primary early-December gift-giving occasion; Christmas trees are generally not put up until after this has passed, to avoid the two festivities overlapping. |
| New Zealand | 1 December | 6 January | Mirrors the UK/Australian secular convention of treating 1 December as the acceptable start; no strong indigenous religious custom dictates an earlier or later date. |
| Norway | 23 December | 6 January | Norwegian tradition designates 23 December, the day before the main event, as the customary day to decorate and light the tree, building anticipation for Christmas Eve itself. |
| Peru | 1 December | 6 January | Christmas trees have become increasingly popular in Peru’s urban centres (Lima, Cusco, Arequipa) but are a comparatively recent, imported custom; the traditional focus remains the nativity scene, assembled early in December with the baby Jesus figure added at midnight on Christmas Eve. |
| Philippines | 1 September | 6 January | The Philippines has the world’s longest Christmas season, rooted in Spanish Catholic colonial heritage; 1 September marks the informal but deeply embedded cultural start, reinforced by radio stations playing Christmas music and malls beginning decorations, with the season formally running through Simbang Gabi (dawn masses, 16-24 December) to the Feast of the Three Kings in early January. |
| Poland | 24 December | 2 February | Polish tradition centres almost entirely on Wigilia (Christmas Eve), the most important day of the season, when the “Choinka” (tree) is traditionally trimmed; gifts are said to be brought that evening by Gwiazdor or the Star Man. |
| Portugal | 8 December | 6 January | Blends the general Catholic Immaculate Conception custom with a secular public-holiday marker on 1 December; the Christmas tree arrived comparatively late in Portugal (first recorded example 1844 at Pena Palace) and only became a nationwide standard mid-20th century. |
| Romania | 24 December | 7 January | Romanian custom concentrates the tree-decorating and gift-giving ritual on Christmas Eve, with the season formally framed by Ignat Day (20 December, traditional pig-slaughter day) at one end. |
| Russia | 20 December | 14 January | Christmas (7 January, Julian calendar) has been secondary to the secular New Year celebration since the Soviet era banned religious Christmas observance from 1929-1935 and rebranded the tree and gift-giving as a New Year custom fronted by Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden). |
| Serbia (and other Orthodox countries) | 25 December | 14 January | The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, placing Christmas on 7 January (Gregorian) and New Year on 13 January (“Serbian New Year”); the ceremonial Badnjak, burned on Badnji Dan (6 January), is the genuine traditional “Christmas Eve tree” equivalent, distinct from a decorated fir tree. |
| Singapore | 1 December | 6 January | No local religious feast dictates timing; Singapore’s multicultural, highly commercial approach to Christmas treats 1 December as a practical, retail-reinforced marker, similar to other majority-secular, English-influenced markets. |
| South Africa | 1 December | 7 January | No unique local religious feast dictates timing; South Africa broadly follows Western/British-influenced Christmas custom, with 1 December functioning as the informal “acceptable” marker once Halloween-adjacent retail displays have passed. |
| Spain | 8 December | 6 January | As in Italy and Latin America, 8 December’s Catholic feast day has long served as the conventional marker for beginning Christmas decorating, aided by it falling on a public holiday and creating a long weekend (“puente”) that many use for decorating. |
| Sweden | 21 December | 13 January | Swedish tradition historically kept the tree out of the house until close to Christmas itself, reflecting practical norms around real trees and a broader Nordic emphasis on Christmas Eve as the main event. |
| Switzerland | 21 December | 6 January | Switzerland’s mixed German-, French-, and Italian-speaking regions blend Central European Christmas Eve customs with broader Advent traditions; there is no single nationwide norm. |
| Ukraine | 6 December | 15 January | The tree in Ukraine has historically been associated with New Year (Novy Rik) rather than Christmas specifically, a legacy of the Soviet era when religious Christmas was suppressed and the tree was rebranded as secular; this is shifting following Ukraine’s move away from the Julian calendar. |
| United Arab Emirates | 2 December | 6 January | As a majority-Muslim country where Christmas is not an official holiday, timing is driven almost entirely by the large Western, Filipino, and other expatriate Christian communities, each often keeping their home country’s custom (e. |
| United Kingdom | the first Sunday of Advent | 5 January | Traditional Western Christian practice ties tree-raising to the start of Advent, the season of spiritual preparation for Christmas; strict Roman Catholic custom instead waits until Christmas Eve. |
| United States | the day after Thanksgiving | 6 January | American Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday of November) has become the de facto secular kickoff of the holiday season, reinforced by Black Friday retail culture and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s traditional Santa appearance. |
| Venezuela | 1 December | 6 January | Venezuelan folk custom holds that the “Christmas Spirit” descends to Earth on 21 December (the winter solstice) to grant wishes, a home-grown belief distinct from the more common religious feast-day anchors used elsewhere in Latin America; formal morning masses run 16-24 December. |
No country by that name. Try “Ireland”, “Japan” or “Peru”.
When the answer is finally yes
The bit you actually need
A short, unsentimental list. We only link to categories worth browsing, not to a hundred near-identical products.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links marked “Browse on Amazon” are paid links — if you buy something after clicking one, this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change the dates. See our affiliate disclosure.
Never argue about it again
Put the date in your calendar
Two calendar entries: the morning the tree is allowed up, and the morning it has to come down. Downloads straight to your device, no email required, no account, nothing to unsubscribe from.
Or the once-a-year nudge
One email, each November
We send exactly one email a year, on the day your country's tree window opens. Nothing else, ever.
One email a year. No sharing, no selling, unsubscribe in one click.
Settled questions
The arguments, answered
Is 1 December really the rule?
In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore it is the closest thing to one — a secular marker for the start of the Christmas month rather than anything religious. Much of Europe works to a religious calendar instead: 8 December in Italy, Spain and Ireland, and Christmas Eve itself in Germany, Austria, Poland and the Nordics.
Why does the UK date move every year?
Because the British norm is tied to the first Sunday of Advent, which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, so the calendar date moves every year. The next five: 29 November in 2026, 28 November in 2027, 3 December in 2028, 2 December in 2029 and 1 December in 2030.
Is it bad luck to leave the tree up after Twelfth Night?
Not historically. English Heritage's Dr Michael Carter has pointed out that the bad-luck superstition is a modern invention — medieval households often kept greenery up until Candlemas on 2 February. The 5 or 6 January deadline is a convention, not a curse.
Why do people say 5 January and others say 6 January?
Twelfth Night depends on whether you start counting on Christmas Day or the day after. The Church of England reckons the twelve days from Christmas Day, which puts Twelfth Night on 5 January. Counting from Boxing Day puts it on the 6th, which is also Epiphany. Both are defensible, which is precisely why the argument never ends.
Which country puts its tree up earliest?
The Philippines, by a wide margin. The “Ber months” begin on 1 September and Christmas music starts with them. Japan is next at around 1 November, though there the tree is a commercial and romantic decoration rather than a religious one, and it is gone by the evening of 25 December.
Does this site track me?
No. There are no cookies, no analytics beacons and no geo-IP lookup. Your country is guessed from your browser's timezone setting, which is read on your own device and never sent anywhere. You can override it with the selector at any time.