Too soon for lights?

I got all the tubs of Christmas crap out of the shed over the weekend.  My wifey has literally a dozen of those large plastic storage bins jammed full of ornaments, garland, little trees (each kid has their own tiny tree), more ornaments, more garland, etc. I know. It seems excessive. However, I don't dare mention getting rid of any of it. That would make me an evil scrooge.

She wanted me to put the lights up outside, since I won't really have time this weekend.  And I couldn't argue with the weather. So... I pried the phone from my 13 yr old kids fingers and made him help me untangle the mess of lights from last year. No matter how careful I wrap them up, they're always a mess. I don't know why they even bother including those little packets of extra bulbs and fuses.  Like a guy can ever figure out which bulb is actually the burned out one?  After years of trying to troubleshoot strings of lights I now just toss them in the trash and go buy a few new strings. Wasteful? Sure.  Sanity saver? Absolutely.

I managed to get most of the lights up on the fence over the weekend.  Not doing the house this year, since we just painted it and I don't want to shoot the new paint full of staples. Bonus, right? I still gotta' wrap the deck and maybe add a few more strings here and there, but I think I'm pretty much set.

Has Christmas exploded at your house yet? How soon is too soon to put up lights?

-Michael