Tesco, the supermarket giant, has seemingly changed the name of its Christmas trees to “evergreen trees”, causing an uproar among many Brits who have branded the move as “woke nonsense”. The 6.5ft “Luxury Evergreen Tree” is being sold at £60 on Tesco’s website and in-store.
Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, was vocal about her thoughts on social media, writing on X: “Wretched ridiculous nonsense, call it what it is, it’s a Christmas tree. There, I said it out loud. I’m fed up with all this woke stupidity.”
Olympic medalist, Sharron Davies, also chimed in, calling it “a bit silly” on the social media platform: “It’s a Christmas tree that people put up at Christmas to celebrate Christmas!”
Another user accused the supermarket of political correctness and called for the public to boycott Tesco, while some users started questioning whether Tesco was offended by the Christian holiday.
Tesco clarifies the name change and continues to sell Christmas trees
Tesco told the Daily Mail: “We are at Tesco and have a range of real and artificial Christmas trees in store as part of a wide selection of Christmas products to help our customers celebrate Christmas this year.”
The supermarket giant explained that the term “evergreen tree” is used to make it clear the type of Christmas tree inside the box. Tesco added that it is still selling and advertising “Christmas trees” and hasn’t decided to stop celebrating Christmas.
On the Tesco website, customers can still find other Christmas trees listed as such, along with other essentials under the Christmas tab. Some of the products still branded as “Christmas trees” are sold by Tesco and range from £5.19 to £159.99.
Tesco faced similar backlash in 2021
This isn’t the first time Tesco has faced criticism over its Christmas tree labeling. In 2021, the retailer coped some heat after selling a 7ft-tall plastic “evergreen tree” for £80 without a reference to the Christian holiday.
Tesco’s move follows many other similar stances, including in 2022 when the University of Brighton advised staff not to say “Christmas” and instead call it the “winter closure period”.
In 2023, Christmas markets across the UK, including in County Durham, were rebranded to “winter markets” as a move to be more inclusive.
