To find it strange to hang a fake flower wreath on your front door at the height of summer

[Buxusmortus]

I have seen quite a few of these recently, in houses with actual front gardens.
It's the height of the flowering season, real flowers are everywhere, why on earth does a door need a fake flower wreath in summer?

I hate fake winter wreaths at Christmas but at least I can understand it more then, with bare gardens and trees and with it being more traditional to have a wreath at that time of year. Sometimes I make my own out of real foliage etc then or sometimes I don't bother with one.

A couple of people near me have had a fake flower one up since before Easter, surely they get dirty, dusty and faded, as well as looking generally crap.
It's a very strange thing.

Edited to say I accidentally appeared to have added a poll, did not intend to do that.

My DM suffers with Alzheimer's, she recognises her front door, in the assisted living community, because of the fake summer flower wreath on it. She loves it, so whether mumsnet consider them tacky or not I love it too for the little bit of comfort it offers her knowing she has the right door.

It also matches the fake flowers we've decorated her bacony with, which she delights in, but she would forget to water real plants

I like having a wreath on my door. Adds a splash of colour (all the doors around here are the same boring black) and it’s handy for directing delivery people / visitors. I have different ones for different times of the year. They bring me pleasure. They don’t mean I’m tacky or trashy. I started doing it because the door looked so plain after taking down my Christmas wreath. I didn’t get the idea from the Americans, Instagram or so-called influencers.

Oh dear, I am a Brit in the US and I have the following wreaths; Christmas ones (actually have at least 10 as I have them in windows with candles and on doors inside my house), a spring one, St Valentines day one, an Easter one, St Patricks day one, a summer one, fall one and Halloween. Some have fairy lights, others don’t. I also have decorations in my house for most of those occasions too but I do go crazy at Christmas. Makes me happy. Do I care that there are judgmental people in the UK that live differently to me and don’t like it, absolutely not.

Also, if other people are bothered by the decor in or around my home, they are not my people.

I'm a single mum, well-educated but financially ruined after a difficult divorce.

I feel lucky to be in the position I'm in (solvent, home with a very small mortgage). I could aspire to better neighbourhoods where people looked down on anything they didn't see as "tasteful' but why would I?

If my neighbours want an artificial wreath on their door and that's the biggest of your worries, consider yourself very lucky indeed.

I have a fake floral summer wreath on my front door. For me it brightens up the front of my house, and adds a bit of interest. I've only git a tarmac driveway, so no front garden. Also, the front of my house is north facing, so anuthing i've tried to grow in posts over the years hasn't fared very well. I'd prefer a real wreath, but they need refreshing and my finances don't stretch to that, and i dont have the time to be faffing. The faux wreath is a happy compromise, and it pleases me.

sorry but this just seems so mean, and to start an actual thread about it. ?

Obviously the people who do it think it's lovely, cheery, bright. They feel they are adorning and loving their home in a way that will endure (would need two fresh wreaths a week in the summer if not 'fake'!)

What do you want us to say? Yes what a lot of skank losers? Fake flowers are so naff, and why would they put up plastic flowers when all our borders are bursting wtih real roses?

Some people don't have gardens, or flowers.
Some come from a culture where fake flowers are a sign of caring and decorating your home. (eg in countries full of flowers, like Greece and Spain!)
Some people do this and think passers by will think oh how lovely.

That's my advice. Just because it's not your taste, doesn't mean it isn't valid and I think it's unkind to disrespect it, and be 'superior'.

Have you never looked at some gardens? Concreted over for parking, or fake grass. The same ‘floral abundance’ in December as in June.

Oh god OP have you seen the explosion of restaurants in London (and possibly elsewhere) that are head to toe with fake flowers on the outside? Absolutely hideous. Seems to be a trend even in some posh bits like Chelsea and Mayfair. Just why.

Of allthe things in life to find strange THIS iswhat occupies your mind. I must say, there's some bizarre irks posted about on here or people get heated over pretty innocuous things, but this is hilarious. You have too much time on your hands if this annoys you. You don't need to stare at them and people like different decorations, colours, styles etc which adds to the variety of life. Get on with your day and let others hang one on THEIR door.

Do you prefer wreaths composed of dead, wilted blooms?

It's dealer code for heroin.

We get it OP, you are just a much more tasteful person than us plastic wreath hanging paupers.
Obviously the only reason we don't hang a fresh flower wreath, carefully curated from flowers grown in our one acre garden is because we lack the vision to design and make our own every two days, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact we are working 40 hours a week to keep body and soul together and my one acre garden is a tiny back yard.....
Perhaps I should just accept that pretty wreaths are only for those with the means to have fresh flowers every few days, whilst I'm at it I have a few vases of fake flowers inside too. I am going to immediately put them all in a bin liner and send them straight to landfill so no-one has to look at the atrocities.

I think you do understand it OP but it’s a very MN thing to post sounding faux confused when what you actually mean is - they’re really tacky and for people who are poorer/lower class than me.

I don’t like fake flowers much but it’s not hard to understand why people might - lots of reasons given above. I do like a bit of seasonal decorating though, life’s tough for a lot of people so if a cheerful wreath on the door makes it a bit nicer what’s the harm?

I had a mini eggs one for Easter, wouldnt have made any sense for that not to be fake.

Judgy much?!

Why are you so judgemental?

Around me people change their wreath with the season. I particularly like the orange and black ones around Halloween

I have a fake sunflower wreath at the door right now. It's simply GORGEOUS doncha know! In winter I make a real one with spruce and cedar cones and dried oranges, cinnamon sticks, plastic berries and little red Christmas baubles. I also have a BEAUTIFUL fake garland around the door at Christmas to show it off.

Yep, more things that people think they need - all just going to landfill when they look tired in a few years time. I blame B&M.

100% with you, no idea why they are so popular, not something I would put on my door either.

It's a new trend for sure but I am embracing it! I have always loved Christmas wreaths. Now I have an Easter wreath too.

I have volunteered to deliver leaflets near my home for several years. Until about 2 years ago I hadn’t noticed any wreaths on doors at all, except at Christmas. This year the artificial flower ones were all over the place, especially in a very large new housing estate. Some of them look good, especially the little twig one adorned with tiny gardening tools on the door of a gardener. They usually look quite pretty but not really to my taste, I just have a Christmas one and one I put out at Easter when my adult sons come home. So, I think it is a new thing, but no idea how it started.

One word - Instagram

I find it tacky too.

i do the winter real one and the have an Easter Sainsburys wreath, have fake hanging baskets too, even though I have a country house I’m a crap gardener and busy and there is no hose of water supply at the front of the house, so we have a few fake ones. My neighbour who runs the local gardening clubs said how lovely I keep my hanging baskets, I Daren t tell him!

But it’s not American.

Hanging wreaths are thought to have begun in the 1500s in ancient Germany and Scandinavia especially around Yule.

I honestly wish people wouldn’t assume everything they find annoying is American (edit: or the fault of B&M Bargains!!) See also Halloween.

Just because Americans seem to embrace ancient European traditions more than we do doesn’t mean it originated there.

I like them. I haven’t got one. I have got lots of flowers in the garden.
The ones I like are too expensive for my tight fistedness .
I especially like the autumnal ones, they look nicer than all the leaves swirling around my front door.