Traditionally, in both my husband's family and mine, decorations are usually not put up until about now (about a week before Christmas) or even a little later. That is, other than maybe an advent calendar. However, the decorations stay up until a good week after New Years.

This year, I bought a poinsettia about a week ago. That was the first Christmasy thing. A few days later, we bought some mistletoe. The day before yesterday, we bought a small Christmas tree for our window. That's probably the most we'll decorate this year.

Do you usually exchange (or request) wish lists for holidays, like Christmas or birthdays? What do you do if you have no clue what to buy someone?