47 Years Later, 10K Eggs Cover Easter Tree

Money may not grow on trees, but Easter eggs apparently do, thanks to one German man. Volker Kraft's apple sapling sported just 18 eggs when he first decorated it for Easter in 1965. The number increased year by year; by last year, the sturdy tree was festooned with 9,800 eggs, artfully decorated with everything from sequins to sea shells. This time, Kraft has reached 10,000—and he says he's stopping there.

Kraft started with plastic eggs decades ago, but later switched to real eggs and enlisted his family's help in blowing out the insides of the eggs and painting them. "You can now see here what develops after 47 years, when the tree grows, the wife blows the eggs and the children start painting," he says. But no more. "There will be no increase because I do not have storage capacity anymore," the 76-year-old retiree says. "I would have to sleep with the eggs otherwise." (More Easter egg stories.)