I started thinking about tinsel after reading the comments on Margene's post. You may remember the good old days when we had real tinsel, the kind with lead in it.
My father was almost a tinsel tyrant. After we decorated the tree with ornaments, he got out the tinsel and we all started carefully placing it on the branches, one strand at a time. That was fine for the first five minutes, but my sister and I quickly tired of one strand at a time and moved to the back of the tree where we could put on clumps of tinsel. After a few minutes, we were even more impatient and tried to get away with the Cardinal Christmas Sin of throwing tinsel at the tree. My father always noticed, reprimanded us, and gave us the annual lecture about how one strand at a time placed carefully and thoughtfully on each branch was the proper was to decorate. By this time my sister and I had often started crumpling the lead-based tinsel into balls to throw at each other.
But tinsel (properly placed!) did make our trees look like this.
The real tinsel was discontinued in 1972. I think my father stockpiled several boxes and we actually took it off the tree and tried to save it for a few years, but the strands broke and looked quite bedraggled. I wonder if I might have been a bit smarter if I hadn't been exposed to so much lead while decorating one strand at a time and my sister throwing lead tinsel balls at me?
Hahaha! I have pictures of our trees with tinsel but by the time I was old enough to decorate we had a fake tree and my mom had stopped using tinsel.
ReplyDeleteYes I remember the days of tinsel! My mom didn't like it on our tree but I remember it fondly on my grandmas.
ReplyDeleteWe, also, tried to do as our mother wanted, but she only redid it if we got carried away. The picture with Raggedy Ann and Andy on the spring loaded horse could have been taken at my house!
ReplyDeleteThat is truly amazing. I've never seen a tree with that much tinsel. I can't even imagine making that happen though.
ReplyDeleteI loved tinsel as a child!!! I thought it was simply magical! (And, really, your trees DO look magical.) A few years ago, I got some of the newer, mylar (I think) tinsel. I had no patience. That look will just have to remain in my memories -- and in other people's photographs!
ReplyDeleteI think your dad and my mom went to the same decorating school! we stopped having a real tree when I was six or seven (my sister was allergic to pine?) and that ended the tinsel. It's funny how many things we did and were exposed to as kids have turned out to be dangerous. Sometimes I think it's simply amazing we grew up at all!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trip down memory lane. Are we sisters? Cause that sounds a lot like our house. Not the Father lecture, but the method of tinseling. LOL
ReplyDeleteTHAT is a lot of tinsel! I can't even imagine how long it must have taken...one strand at a time! We had it too, but it disappeared somewhere along the way. It must have been around 1972. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI always wanted tinsel, but my mom would not allow it - too messy! She was garland all the way... So practical.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad always did this with the tinsel - one strand at a time. We were not allowed to touch it or help out! I know he still has some in the house somewhere. They don't put up a tree anymore - but all those years they did - this old fashioned tinsel was on it!
ReplyDeleteLinda in VA
My mother made me do the one strand at a time thing, too. Sometimes I could get away with 2 or 3 but never clumps. Tinsel always made the tree look finished to me. Too naked without it.
ReplyDeleteOh, goodness. That brings back memories... my mother being the tinsel dictator, though! We had some pretty tinsel-laden trees back in the day.
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