AIBU to find 'Easter trees' ridiculous?

[WaltzesWithSnobs]

I'm already annoyed at the general melding of traditional holiday themes, eg Easter crackers, Halloween wreaths etc. Yes it is precisely none of my business and people can decorate or pull crackers however they wish but I have lots of irrelevant opinions.

But Easter trees? Easter trees have tipped me over the edge into proper Grumpy Old Women territory. Now (an important distinction) if the 'tree' is the shrubbery type then that's fine. But NOT an evergreen tree. That's nonsense!!

Evergreen trees are very well suited to Christmas because they are a symbol of life and hope when most trees are empty and bare. Makes no sense then to use them for a springtime celebration. Easter time is time to celebrate new life; lambs chicks, flowers budding and trees growing new leaves. An evergreen tree does not symbolise these things.

YABU: it's just a decoration, fuck off and mind your own business
or
YANBU: Evergreen trees have no place in Easter decorations

Rant over. Thanks for reading. I'm off to have a herbal tea to calm down. 🍵

Celebrate Spring by all means, put up your Eostre decorations but don’t think it’s Easter you are celebrating.

Presumably if it evolved after it was co-opted by Christians, it can evolve again and be celebrated differently in a society where religion is happily becoming ever more irrelevant and that atheist society can celebrate it any damned way they want.

I look forward to the time when spring and winter festivals can be enjoyed without having fairytales rammed down our throat, being told we are allowed to celebrate and how we should do it.

They're traditional indoors where I live, often this sort of thing (photo found on internet). Called literally an 'Easter branch'. You buy the branches at florists and in every supermarket at this time of year and hang decorations on them yourself.

I've seen them outdoors in Germany.

What I find completely unacceptable is the 'Easter crackers' I've seen in the shops here the past few years. I mean WTF? This is clearly Not OK and I'm not sure to whom I should complain.

They're ridiculous, people I work with do it then plaster that and their kids Easter gifts/activities all over social media. It's just getting a bit much, most of these folk aren't even religious?!

@EssentialHummus

Yup. I saw someone coming out of a shop with an Easter wreath the other day. Just why? Why not enjoy xmas traditions at xmas, Easter ones at Easter, Halloween ones at Halloween etc? Why does everything need to meld into one hyper-commercialised sludgefest?

Some people have wreathes all year round. Why not? Anything that cheers someone up is fine in my book after the grim year we’ve had.

I first experienced them on an exchange to Germany in the 80s, that fell at Easter time. Some years we have one some we don't, but we use pussy willow twigs or forsythia, and have little painted egg decorations the children did themselves, and coloured feathers.
John Lewis have sold painted egg decorations for at least ten years, I think, they had Gisela Graham ones before JL own.
But we don't do the Easter bunny or egg hunts at all, and we don't put anything up during Lent as I don't see that as appropriate.

My neighbour has a wreath on her door all year that she changes the decor on or leaves bare, according to season. It's really quite lovely to look at. She's Catholic, but I don't think the wreath is anything to do with that.

I hate to tell you this but it’s a European thing. When I lived in Germany we all had Easter trees (some form of stick/branch in a pot decorated with eggs and chicks)
Naturally I kept the tradition when I came to England, because it’s part of my heritage.
If you don’t like it, don’t do it, but don’t bash those of us who were born in other countries and still have our own traditions.
I bet you eat Christmas lunch on Christmas Day too, you heathen!

I’m so pleased we’ve found something else to judge people over.

I just can’t bring myself to be this pissed off about how people choose to live their lives. Get a hobby 😅

The painted eggs on branches are pretty.

The Christmas trees covered in Easter decs? monstrous.

@EssentialHummus

Yup. I saw someone coming out of a shop with an Easter wreath the other day. Just why? Why not enjoy xmas traditions at xmas, Easter ones at Easter, Halloween ones at Halloween etc? Why does everything need to meld into one hyper-commercialised sludgefest?

My mum had an easter wreath in the 70s and 80s. Nothing new here.

Now you know how the pagans felt when Easter got approriated

We have a forsythia bush that we keep in a pot in the garden for this very purpose, it flowers beautifully and looks great with some Easter decorations on it, we bring it into the conservatory for a few days every Easter. But we do it because the DC like the idea of it, we don’t do any other decorations (apart from anything they make from their craft kits and want to put up) and the idea of a getting the Christmas tree back out again is completely ridiculous.

YABU.

Time for you pagans to get used it, perhaps

Good to see old fashioned imperialism alive and kicking.

By the same token these days, since most people are not observant Christians we should accept whatever has taken over.

We had Easter twig trees in school when I was a child. As pp have said, they were catkin branches decorated with little hand painted eggs. Nothing new about them at all.

This year I've bought some Easter gnomes

What in the world? I'd love to see what an Easter gnome looks like

Just had to google that! Looks like it’s a Swedish tradition, but one where you make everything yourself.

The supermarket is laden with plastic eggs, plastic tat of a wide ranging variety and the commercial aspect of all these festivals where it's all about spending money on tat is my bigger bug bear. A tree not so much.

@InvincibleInvisibility

In other European countries its traditional to hang painted eggs from branches.

Exactly this. It’s a tradition from my home country where Easter is a very important holiday.

OP maybe learn about other cultures first before being so judgemental.

Joy in diversity, people! At this time of year, many different groups celebrate different festivals in their own way. The Jews have Passover, we Christians have Easter, the pagans have Eostre and the atheists have, um...a bank holiday. Or they borrow the traditions of others.
Plenty of room for varied tastes of decoration. As Christians, we have no decs at all during Lent, a time of prayer, fasting and contemplation. On Good Friday, even the candlesticks are removed from church, and we mourn Christ’s death in a totally bare and sombre room.
Easter Sunday is the most important festival in the whole church year - the celebration of the Resurrection, much more significant than Christmas. That’s when we go to town on decking the church in flowers, rolling our Easter eggs down the aisle, having an outpouring of joy at Christ’s triumph over death.
And if some folk want to fill their homes with wreaths, trees, tacky plastic rabbits, well, who are we to judge? Each to their own!

I need an Easter gnome now.

I have an evergreen in a pot in my courtyard. it's an outdoor Christmas tree. There are no other shrubs or trees.

What I choose to put on it and when is fuck all to do with anyone else.

No @Babdoc we have two bank holidays! I love and cherish them

I give you Easter gnomes. Apparently TK Maxx shoppers are "going wild" for them this year

Maybe we could have Bank Holiday Trees!

They could be made from the skeleton of a sun umbrella, and we could hang tiny barbeques, lawnmowers, tins of beer, half washed cars and ice creams on them.

I have some paper honeycomb decorations in pastel colours and we will blow and paint eggs this weekend to hang.

Perhaps you could use a little imagination to work out why people might want to herald and celebrate the arrival of this particular spring even more than in previous years.