A few festive easter eggs sound fine to me. I wouldn't put up a 6 foot crucifix, but that is a far cry from colored eggs.

Agreeing with Bill.
A moderate amount of Secular Easter, Secular Christmas and Secular Halloween are fine.
Religious displays limit the appeal.

IF you've got kids decorate, just keep it simple. People who will buy your house will probably have kids too and they need to be able to picture themselves in that house. The decorations will make it feel like a home. Just remember as soon as the holiday is over take them down. Nothing is a bigger turn off to buyers than seeing holiday decorations hanging months after the holiday has passed. It's like putting up a sign that says we are lazy. In a buyers mind expired decorations equates to we do not take care of the stuff we have including the house!

And don't let the pictures be taken with any decorations in place. I am still seeing Christmasy decorations in house photos, in March. It screams, this is an old listing.

I agree with what was said above. A few decorations are fine. Just don't over do it and I agree that they should be taken down immediately after the holiday.

I don't want to start an argument or offend anyone but I will state that I don't think of anything Easter or Christmas related as secular. Easter and Christmas are Christian holidays, and whether you're displaying eggs, a tree or a nativity scene, it's religious.

I'm Jewish and that's how I see it. HOWEVER, if I were to walk into a house and see a cross on the wall, it would not offend me or discourage me from buying the house. Religious items don't bother me. Cracks in the wall (and such) do.

Re: "Easter and Christmas are Christian holidays, and whether you're displaying eggs, a tree or a nativity scene, it's religious" ... it's up to the individual if it is religious or not. I'm not, but still like to decorate and celebrate the holidays. Not sure what easter eggs have to do with Christianity anyway ;-) To the OP, I wouldn't care if decorations were up, as long as they weren't tacky!

From the perspective of the person who is displaying them, they may or may not be religious. From the perspective of someone (like me) who is not Christian, they are, simply because they are representative of a Christian holiday.

Again, I'm not trying to get into an argument or hijack the thread with this. My main point was that from my perspective, Easter eggs or a cross on display are the same: religious symbols, but not offensive at all on display in someone's home. I wouldn't even care if they WERE tacky. I'm mainly just interested in the aspects of the house itself rather than the tastes or religious convictions of the current owners.

I agree with Lowspark. This country guarantees freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM it. Unless, of course, your home is also used as a post office or school. Why aren't we so careful about other things people might find offensive. I guarantee you that there is no human alive who won't go through a day without doing something some body will find offensive.

Ditto about not letting the house be photographed with any seasonal decorations. Yes.....it becomes dated.

"This country guarantees freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM it."

Thomas Jefferson would have disagreed with you on that.

I don't think it is about religion... I think it is about the house being too personalized. As the saying goes, once you list your home for sale, it is no longer "your" home...it is commodity with a lot of stiff competition.

Just as one should pack away their collection of family photos. etc, and the kids should take down their posters, so should people keep holiday decorations out of site at showings.

IMO, best bet is to make them easily removable, so they can be put away with ease.

It's a tough market...every edge counts.

I disagree, logic. Seasonal decorations make the house look fresh and current. NO seasonal decorations shows more like the house has been on the market for months and months.

And if I remember my religious education classes correctly, the egg is a symbol of the resurrection. And thus the Ukrainian Easter eggs.

I am very familiar with Jefferson's stance. It refers to the government adopting a state supported faith, not what you wish to have around you in your own homes.

Would something like that be offensive to somebody? Probably. Some people look for things over which to be offended, if it doesn't agree with their own dogma.

Agreeing with bill, sweeby, lowspark, sue, and logic.

From the outside looking in, anything NOW associated with a Christian holiday is Christian. Let's face it, Hindus do not display Easter eggs. That said, I think few people of any persuasion would be distracted by a few eggs or rabbit decorations on display.

Disagreeing with calliope, who is pulling out that old chestnut of dismissivenes, "offensive." "Offensive" is not the issue. Some items from some religions would be off-putting and distracting to people of other traditions. Many Protestants and other non-Catholics, for example, are very put off by a full crucifix--doesn't mean they are "offended," or don't respect the symbol, they just find it disturbing. So many things, conscious and unconscious, affect the way we feel about something like a house that it makes sense to be cautious, when selling, about items that might cast a less-than-positive feeling.

On Jefferson, I do not believe the pp meant personal expressions of religion within private homes. I believe she was correct, in that Jefferson would disagree--freedom from religion is freedom of religion. I am pretty sure Jefferson would have seen it that way as he was a deist and a unitarian with a lower case "u" but also friend to Joseph Priestly, other upper case Unitarians, and several of the transcendentalists, etc. of the time. He published a Bible in which he deleted the deification of Jesus. As a liberal religious thinker, I believe he would have supported freedom from religion as (sorry) religiously as freedom of religion.

As for the egg, not to hijack too much, but, the egg is not a symbol of the resurrection unless the Church has really stretched the point to justify assimilation of these traditions. It is a symbol of fertility and originates with rites of spring from pagan traditions. The word "Easter" itself is from Eostre and Ostara, the pagan goddess of dawn--shining light--and thus, spring, specifically for obvious reasons, the spring equinox. I find it oddly coincidental to the Latin roots estrus...perhaps there is some linguistic linkage there also, IDK. Christian Easter falls neatly into this tradition, symbolizing as it does renewal and rebirth while coinciding with spring.

The Easter bunny was an injured bird Eostre healed by turning into a rabbit. The creature was so grateful that she laid the world's most beautiful eggs for the goddess.

As to offensivess--we had a showing yesterday and I could not get dd's Rocky Horror Picture Show poster off the wall! Now, I am quite sure that would offend some people! (Going to have to get her to get that thing down....)

graywings: "NO seasonal decorations shows more like the house has been on the market for months and months."

I agree that seasonal decorations can be a plus...in the form of fresh flowers for spring and summer, colorful foliage for fall, and an evergreen arrangement for winter as they are all indeed "seasonal" decor, in that all people experience the different seasons.

Easter eggs and bunnies...not so much. They say "Easter"...not just "spring"...and as such, are indeed "personal".

"NO seasonal decorations shows more like the house has been on the market for months and months."

It's a rare agent that will retake and replace pictures on a seasonal basis. It's probably best to take good pictures without holiday/seasonal decorations. If the original pics were taken in the dead of winter I would get the agent to retake exterior shots once the landscaping starts to green up.

"The Easter bunny was an injured bird Eostre healed by turning into a rabbit. The creature was so grateful that she laid the world's most beautiful eggs for the goddess."

I did not know this! Thank you for sharing that - now the eggs and bunnies make more sense.

I agree with the others in keeping your house fresh and up to date. I am a Christian, and eggs and bunnies do not occur in the New Testament; they are secular. And all the retailers start advertising with them immediately after Feb. 14.(I had originally written out the name of the hol-iday, but it produced a pop up ad, as did the hyphenated word when it was whole.) As far as I am concerned, they are tools to make money, nothing more. And if someone is offended by them (assuming they are tastefully and moderately done), they will also likely be offended by other things that don't matter.

I celebrate Easter. But...I'd find a wreath of eggs on the front door something of a turn-off unless it was very artsy with handpainted Pysanky eggs. For me-not because of religious implications but because it's probably a household with young kids. And not having kids, I have a preconceived idea that house with youngsters may need more work or not be set up as well for an adult lifestyle. A yard full of toys would leave the same impression. I wouldn't pass on the house completely, but I would put it lower on the list of houses to see. And if I found a house I liked higher on the list, I might never get to yours. So...my advice would be either skip the wreath with eggs on the door or have a wreath with flowers instead. Once potential buyers are inside the front door, I think the Easter decorations would have less impact.

P.S. I did have a friend who didn't buy a house in a particular desirable neighborhood because she perceived it as a Jewish neighborhood (in reality it was mixed). Never mind that she was educated with a liberal upper middle class background and actually socialized with some of the residents, she didn't want to live there and bought in a neighborhood that wasn't quite as nice. She was someone who you would never have suspected of such thoughts or behavior but it happened. So many people still do harbor strong biases.