House decorations

I'm trying to make our house a little more "seasonal"...although I'm also trying to do it without spending much money.  Do you have a "decorating calendar"?  I do, although some points are more concrete than others.

Christmas decorations go up ASAP.  I would do it the day after Thanksgiving if I could, but usually my in-laws are here and we learned early on it's better to wait until they've left (my father-in-law tends to have opinions on everything).  Regardless of the specific day, they are the weekend of Thanksgiving, and stay up for a while.  They always stay up through the new year, and then it kind of depends when they come down.  Sometimes January 2, sometimes the weekend after New Year's, and sometimes the following week once everyone is back in school.  As Christmas comes down, the snow men go up, and they are up for a while.  In the beginning of February, they are joined by the very few Valentine's decorations I have, which are only up for about two weeks.  Sometime in early March the snow men come down, and if I remember I put out the (even fewer) St. Patrick's Day decorations (I really don't consider it much of a decorative holiday).

Easter tends to present a decorating dilemma.  There are years when Easter falls later in April, and if we are having a rough March it seems ridiculous to be putting out spring and bunnies.  This year they went up as soon as I took down the (really few) St. Patrick's day decorations, but there are times even at the end of March it seems silly.  The house stays pretty bare until Memorial Day, when things red, white, & blue go out.  I love decorating with those colors, and those summer things stay up pretty much through the end of August or no later than Labor Day.  September is a month where I'm really antsy to put up our cozy fall decorations, but again the weather often makes that seem ridiculous.  Finally on October 1, the fall and Halloween decorations go up.  On November 1, the Halloween comes down, (the fall stay up) and the Thanksgiving go up...just until the end of Thanksgiving!

I'm trying very hard to make our house a cozy home.  I really, really love being here, and want us all to look back and have fabulously cozy memories!