Don’t Do What Mr. Bean Did! - January 15, 2020

Now that even the twelfth day of Christmas has come and gone, I am again in the Christmas spirit from seeing all the Christmas trees in brush piles and sidewalks.

The waste also reminds me of the Mr. Bean Christmas Special, in which he was desperate for a tree. He chops down the giant 30-foot city Christmas tree, drags it to his flat, cuts off 5 feet from the top so it fits through his window, and leaves the rest as waste. I still laughed but felt the irony.

Although most of us won’t do that, we still buy cut Christmas trees. But in Germany, Christmas tree shaming seems to have swept the country. The prevailing thought being that it is ecologically irresponsible to buy and discard a once living thing, the trend now is to rent a potted tree.

Whether it is just a fad or a practice that will last, at least, it has gotten people thinking about environmental responsibility, which will hopefully last longer than a season of dead trees and television specials.