to think these are the tackiest Christmas decorations?

[iheartchristmas92]

but i love them because they remind me of childhood! hanging from every corner of the ceiling and meeting in the middle of the ceiling around the light fitting. i haven't used any since i left home at 18, but i think my mum still uses them. some parts sellotaped together still 😂 they 'smell' like Christmas. also foil tinsel .. any foil decoration really 🙈🙈

what Christmas decorations do you find tackiest, whether you use them or not?

(pic from google)

I think we're getting lametta and the angel hair muddled up.

Lametta is the really thin foil strips that you hang individually on the tree. Angel hair is the stuff that looks like wispy dental floss. I bought a packet of angel hair in the nineties, on sale in Boots, I've used it most years and still have most of the pack left, you just use so little.

I did have lametta but it must have got used up, or I've misplaced it, as I don't recall using it for a while now.

I'm going full retro this year- bought a load of very bright mismatched tinsel from a charity shop- got the foil ones from Wilko (2 for £1) and coloured lights!!

I cannot wait

I am on the hunt for proper retro lights not LED but no luck yet- I want the Noma Pickwick ones

It's not Christmas until one of them has come unstuck at one end and come down on your head!

@evilharpy. Ok I've been searching for that exact decoration. We also had it and I thought it was wonderful. We're doing a nostalgic Christmas this year and I so want one.

We have foil garlands up this year but I'm not keen tbh. DH has put them up in the approved four across the ceiling configuration with hanging ones in the quadrants (the exact word he used too lol) but I don't like it. It's like sitting under a Big Top. I intend to move them to hang more discreetly along the walls.
Tbf I'm way out of my comfort zone with all this. My Christmas is usually quite "tasteful" subjective term I know. I got on board with the silver tinsel tree and the coloured lights but these damn things are too much for me.

I have a slight tinsel phobia - I worked at Boots back in the nineties and had to put all the decs our for sale each year which included tons of tinsel. It made my hands hurt, handling so much of it. And, yes, even in store it had that smell. Plus I had to reprice it every year and some stuff was stored and brought out year after year. There was nowhere to stick the price tag and so it had to be stuck on the fronds with tape, it was such a horrible job. And then, post Christmas, it all went down to the basement again, to the unused area right at the bank we called the black hole, where I used to have to stock count it all and enter it into a book.

It makes my hands itch just thinking about it.

Tacky? Yes, and I love them! Both the foil garlands and the twisted crepe! Memories of childhood, decorating the ceiling with them around the 'big light'! Wonderful!

We had an orange, polystyrene ceiling which was great because between each garland we use drawing pins to place balloons in the spaces between the garlands.

We had an open out big crepe bell and a ball to go in each window.

Our house was always cold in winter, no central heating, and I remember the chocolates on the tree being ice cold and rock hard! lol!

PrincessHoneysuckle I'm 39 too. Husband is 40. A friend who is a couple of years younger came round last night and said they had the same sleigh when she was a child. I think there were a lot of them around in the 80s but I have never ever seen one in a charity shop.

Ahhhh we had these when I was growing up! We also had the FC and sleigh frieze that @evilharpy remembers 😁

We had the foil garlands from each corner to the centre light fitting, with other foil decs in each quarter - we also had the paper bells that were crinkled and you opened out to 180 degrees and then stuck to the wall.

Our tree looked like it was shrouded in the cobweb of some freakishly giant spider as we’d have so much angel hair on it. We also had a fuckton of lametta as well as multicoloured lights with the flower casing, (none of those white ones, oh no!) and a billion baubles, especially those hollowed out ones with weird middles.

Our house was fabulously 70s and you couldn’t walk between rooms without being swatted by dangly foil tack. I loved it!

I bought some of these a couple of years ago and put them up every year. Super tacky but I like it like that

@crochetmonkey74 Amazon have the Noma Pickwick lights. They also have the Canterbury Belles lights.

I was going to get lametta but I read that it's dangerous for cats. My cat chews the damn tree evey year so I didn't want to risk it.

My friend's cat ate a piece of lametta but only part of it came out when the cat did a poo. The rest stayed in and had to be... manually extracted... and nobody was pleased about it, least of all the cat. That was the last year they had lametta on the tree.

They are indeed the tackiest, but they had to fall down and hit you on the head at least twice.

Homemade Christmas crackers from old toilet roll tubes, brightly coloured wrapping paper and stuffed with penny/half penny sweets.

Homemade paper chains.

Parents knew how to keep us quiet

We used to have the foil garlands! I remember the smell most of all.
I have reached a compromise with my children when it comes to Christmas decorations. It has to be red and gold - but they can put as much on the tree as they want and as much on the walls too. House looks lovely, over the top but not migraine inducing!

Damn you @Rockhoppperd I said I wasn't buying any more decorations this year but my DD will love that sleigh...

I also wasn't putting my foil garland things up, but now I really want to...

Oooh. Poor kitty. I made the right call then.

My Christmas mantra is 'more is more'. No coordinated classy look here.

We had the standard theme at home, garlands meeting at the light fittings, bells in the quadrants and balloons in the corners. And all the kitsch glass baubles on the tree. You opened the box every year and at least one had broken.

I have two glass baubles of my own that I have to put right at the top of the tree so they are safe from tiny hands and small pets.

Any attempts at a tasteful tree were kicked into touch by DC's hundreds of home made bells made from cut up egg boxes and sparkly pipe cleaners. I learned my lesson there. Tacky all the way from then on.

They're tacky and crap, and my DP wants nothing more to hang up at Christmas, he loves them. Haven't been able to find any though, thank God...

Oh the pipe cleaners. Yes!

@evilharpy my parents still have that decoration and it’s my favourite. Every year my dad teases me that they aren’t putting it up this year and every year I strop until it’s in its rightful place, on the stairs. They bought it for my first Christmas, apparently and I was 40 this year!
I’ve already said I’m getting it in the will.

I loved these and had my own til my mid 20s. Also going from the corners to the light now I'm really tempted to go find some more, I don't remember the smell so clearly need a top up!

I try to use them! And tinsel. For the same reasons you’ve listed! Childhood nostalgia and the smell!!!

Welcome to the big top 😂

@evilharpy I loved that cardboard sleigh so glad I've seen it again

DH and I had them up until 2017 when we just didn't replace them after one broke. They're easily found in the independent pound shops still. We just didn't buy more because we had we moved to a house where the main light wasn't central so the obligatory placement from corner to light just didn't work. Tacky or not they've always been a big part of Christmas decorating.

I hate tinsel though. Only use it for wrapping round halos for Christmas plays or tying in hair for Christmas jumper day and concerts at school.