I just love how our opinion varies when it comes to Christmas and its timing

I must admit that I totally embraced the Germanic Christmas tradition when I lived in Luxembourg for 3 years with Friends in both Moselle and Alsace in France as well as Germany who taught me that the festive spirit starts on St Nicholas day, December 06th each year. This is the date I would chose to slowly build the Christmas spirit around the house with candle lighting, mulled wine making, ginger bread baking and so on.
I love Sylvia's idea of gradually add little touches from December onwards to bring the Christmas spirit in.
Karim