I am but a poor student so I also tend to go low-key on the Christmas decorations... that said, every year I try to get an Advent wreath set up in time for the first Advent (fourth Sunday before Christmas, in between the 27th of November and 3rd of December) and every year I run into new and interesting obstacles! This year, I bought a wreath that didn't work out (the ones you get in the UK are generally made for hanging on doors and stuff, so they're just branches twisted together without a base - Advent wreaths have candles on them, meaning that sort of construction isn't sturdy enough), then I finally managed to get green branches to make my own... from my PhD supervisor's hedge

as he heard about my difficulties and offered. But then I couldn't find candles - proper Advent wreath candles need to be red and sort of squat, and the only ones satisfying that condition I could find here were scented. I have asthma so that was right out. Thankfully I still had some left over from a few years ago, but next year I'm getting my mum to send me a packet. The trials and tribulations of trying to manage Christmas decorations as a German expat, I tell you...
That said, I'm flying home (i.e., to my parents) on Tuesday and will be able to help put up and decorate the tree there - we do it on the morning of the 24th, don't know why all you strange people do it early

@Olen - it amuses me that I instantly know from your soft drink choice what country you're from! Although after a traumatic encounter in which I was expecting it to be Fanta, I haven't been overly fond of the stuff myself.