There are a lot of old world traditions in Europe that never took off in America; castles, soccer, the metric system, public healthcare. Five years ago nobody in Arizona knew what Nutella was and now they smear it on burritos. Because that is what we do best, America, we take old timey European favorites and Pump Up the Jam.
And that’s the way I feel about Easter. I like to take one of the oldest European customs — the Scandinavian paskris tree — and take it to new heights!
If you go to a grocery store in Sweden right about now, you’ll see these feathered branches for sale next to the carnations and potted plants. It’s a thing. And yeah, we can be jealous. The tradition comes from tying feathers and shiny bobbles on to the ends of barren branches as a way to usher in spring (and possibly promote growth, depending on the tree). Come this time of year, folks get so hard up for color and vitality they get sick of waiting on Mother Nature and decide to DIY it. So that is what we are doing here — making our own paskris Easter trees.
Good news: They double as excellent egg displays.
Extra good news: They are easy to make!
Materials
1. Branches in a vase. Make sure to weigh the vase down with stones or sand.
2. Feathers. You can buy them individually, or just yank some extras out of feather boa.
3. White glue. Anything will do, but the thick stuff won’t drip and that’s a big bonus.
Just get a little white glue on the branch and wrap the feather around it. The great thing about feathers is that they stick to anything. I mean, anything.
As Easter trees are one of Europe’s favorite traditions, this post is brought to you by Paas, America’s favorite Easter tradition.
Man oh man, we love a good dye tablet, don’t we? Hey, did you know Paas is taken from the Dutch term for Easter? That is why I used my leftover Paas dye to make tulips. See what I did there? Dutch. Tulips. Tradition. Easter. It’s the circle of life!
Happy Easter!
How do you keep Lola from destroying the paskris?
Isn’t it odd? She doesn’t even notice it.
That is odd.
I’m going to try it–maybe the cats won’t eat it.
Do it!!
You make me happy. Blessings on your household.
Aww, thanks Nancy 🙂
That’s lovely! But you’re supposed to put the påskris in water so the brabches will sprout tiny new leaves in time for easter!
Oh, I was just assuming folks would grab dead branches off the ground instead of cutting down new ones. But yes — if you cut them, get them in water.
Ahhhh, i just spent this weekend trolling thrift stores for vintage paskris ornaments and grabbing a few branches from the ground, still need to trim off dead leaves… perfect! I’ve been blowing out eggs for a couple weeks so I have about a dozen to dye, but probably need more.
Awesome tutorial…thanks for sharing!
I think it’s so fun that you have found on of our Easter tradition!
I see that you glue your feathers to your branches – we actually use a piece of wire, and you can buy feathers that already have wires on them in the stores. That way you can reuse the feathers year after year, while you toss away the branches.
We are really big on not wasting here in the Nordic countries! You seldom see anyone make things out of food for example (like macaroni necklaces and things like that) or hear about food eating contests, and the same thing goes for things like this – this way you can reuse your feathers year after year. I think some of my feathers are from the 80s when I was little actually!
Glad Påsk!
I do the wire thing with my Christmas tree, but sadly the tips of branches around here (at this time of year) are too brittle. They just snap off if you handle them too much. I wish they would hold up. I’d like to paint and glitter and do all kinds of nifty things to barren branches.