An Easter Egg Tree

As my kids get older, I find myself more and more alert for ideas that can remain relevant (or at least fun) for them as they rush past their elementary years. So you can imagine the satisfaction of learning about a German tradition called Ostereierbaum (also Eierbaum or Osterbaum): an Easter Egg Tree.

This is an old, old practice (so old no one knows how it got started), but the basic idea is to welcome Easter (Spring) by hanging colorful eggs on tree branches (or bushes).

Which is what we did:

This is the perfect project for older kids. Not too time-consuming, independent of supernatural or mythical interactions, and (because it can involve standing on small ladders) with an air of “grown-up” about it. It’s expandable, too: We just threaded two dozen plastic eggs and hung them, but if your kids are Artists, there are hundreds of ideas on the web for making fancy decorative pieces for your tree.

It seems the origins of decorated trees are so ancient they’ve been obscured by time and practice – though they most likely predate Christianity. (We encounter the same obscurity with Christmas Trees, too). But Eggs are universal symbols of life, and have long been part of festivals celebrating the end of winter/return of spring –including May Day and the Summer Solstice.

Perhaps colorful eggs on a leafless tree are reminders of the Cherry (or Dogwood) Blossoms soon to appear? In any case, Christians found the association between eggs and new life easily transferred to a celebration of Christ’s Resurrection and Eternal Life.

Of course, it’s still a mystery why Christians in the Germany/Ukraine part of the world began to decorate trees with eggs. But we do know that German immigrants introduced America to Osterbaum (just as their Irish counterparts brought Jack-o-Lanterns).

Easter Trees were especially popular after the Civil War. And in the 1890s, says the Kansas Historical Society, German Osterbaum were pretty much just like Christmas trees. Both were evergreens, both sat on a table in the living room, both were decorated, and both had gifts around them.

Even into modern times, some Osterbaum still look like Christmas Trees. (In fact, a recent cover of Martha Stewart Living featured an old-fashioned Feather Tree trimmed into an egg shape. And The Egg Tree Tree (Katherine Milhous, 1951) looks very triangular and fir-like).

Not a fan of re-booting Christmas Trees, though, and prefer an Eierbaum made on winter-bare deciduous branches.

And that’s how the most famous Easter Tree was constructed, too. A German couple from Thuringia, Christa and Volker Kraft, began decorating the apple tree in their front yard in 1965 and continued to do so until 2015. Their final decorated tree held at least 10,000 eggs, each one hand-decorated. Though the Krafts are retired now, they still maintain an Official Website with many pictures of the tree – and a year-by-year egg count.

Happily, the tradition they started continues (I think — at least, there’s a 2017 story about their hometown hosting a new Egg Tree (a locust on Blankenburger Strasse).

Another tree in Germany once held the Guinness Book of World Records title for Largest Easter Egg Tree: In 2007, a Red Oak at the Rostock Zoo was hung with nearly 77K painted eggs. And that record was broken in 2017 when citizens of Santa Catarina Brazil managed to fit over 82K painted eggs on a pecan tree.

So why not give the Easter Egg Tree a go this year? You won’t need anywhere close to 80,000 eggs, and, as you can see, you’ll be in good (historic and worldwide) company. Of course, you could always try using feathers...

HomeSchool Go2 Postscript
What Can You Do with this story?

One Egg Tree is created by hanging eggs on a large bush or tree in the yard. If you’d like to take another approach, you can force bloom and/or decorate a branch

The Kraft’s Official Webpage is available in both English and German. If you’re studying German, visit the site in that language

Many eggs on the Kraft tree were made by removing the liquid inside and (carefully) decorating the shell. Try that yourself

Thuringia is a very old region of Germany; the Romans knew of it, as did the Franks. It’s associated with Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Lucas Cranach the Elder, glass-making, porcelain production, and sports. (Half the country’s Winter Olympic gold medals have been won by Thuringian athletes). Learn more about the general history or geography of Thuringia, or focus on one event/industry/period/person

You might have noticed that the eggs on our trees were surrounded by leaves and flowers, while the Kraft’s tree has bare branches. Compare the spring weather in your part of the world with that of northern Germany

Before Rostock Germany, the world record holder for Most Eggs on a Tree supposedly was Dresden (also Germany). Use your Internet Research skills and see if you can verify this information

Milhous won the 1951 Caldecott Medal for The Egg Tree. Learn more about this prestigious award OR look further into the PA Dutch folk art that inspired the book’s illustrations