Aloha! Pineapples are this year’s new Christmas trees

If you don’t know how to say “Merry Christmas” in Hawaiian, you might want to learn because Christmas just got very tropical.

According to Pinterest, one of the hottest decorating trends this holiday season is tricking out pineapples to look like Christmas trees.

Mele Kalikimaka, everyone.

The crafty set also carved pineapples into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.

The Christmas trend took off last year but promises to skyrocket this season. Pinterest searches for “pineapple Christmas trees” are up more than 3,406 percent from last year, according to the company’s survey of hot Christmas trends.

Pineapples are the new Christmas tree, everyone from Marie Claire magazine to online women’s magazine Bustle and home cooks’ website Delish have declared.

Actually, some people were doing it as far back as, oh, 2015.

“There’s really no limit to how creative you can be with your pineapple tree,” notes Town and Country magazine. “While it’s unlikely that pineapples will soon replace candy canes as the go-to holiday treat, there’s no reason not to try this tropical alternative to a Christmas tree.”

There are so many things to love about a pineapple Tannenbaum, writes Bustle.

For one thing, they’re non-denominational. For another, they’re compact, which means you’ll just need space on a table or counter and not have to rearrange the living room furniture.

And here’s a big advantage: No needles dropping all over the floor.

And, you can eat it. Try wolfing down a Fraser fir. (No, really, don’t do that.)

“How you choose to decorate your holiday pineapple is totally up to you,” Bustle writes. “Hang some bulbs from your pineapple’s ‘hair,’ dress it up with sunglasses and a Santa hat, string your tropical fruit in lights, or even paint your pineapple.”

“The only thing you’ll be missing is that lovely spruce-tree smell .... Consider using essential oils instead. In fact, you can even put a few drops of oil right on your pineapple holiday tree so it smells like the real thing.

“The pineapple holiday tree is so cute and affordable that you’ll have a hard time not falling in love with your little piece of tropical paradise.”

Maybe. But when Marie Claire posted the idea to its Facebook page last week, reactions from the public were decidedly mixed.

“Delicious and decorative!” enthused one woman.

“This is dumbest thing I’ve ever seen lmaoooo,” declared another.

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Aloha! Pineapples are this year’s new Christmas trees."