Tinsel!

[Lalliella]

I love tinsel on my tree, and I also love the smell of it and how it feels. But most of my friends think it’s tacky. Are there any other tinsel-lovers on here?

I do like tinsel, but don't put it on our tree anymore; I use it draped around pictures & wrapped around the banister instead. Mainly because I have so many tree decorations tinsel doesn't fit on the tree!

Ooh you have just reminded me last year or the year before there was a thread about the really retro 80s tinsel and it made me want to find some! I am going to do it this year. Even better (and more eco-friendly) if it is actually from the 80s... Will be checking out charity shops

I use lametta - it's not quite like the stuff I used to use in America which was quite delicate, but it seems to tie everything together and add sparkle. I don't like the tinsel garlands though, and tossing them on top of pictures seems bizarre.

Lametta… before Greta tells me off for some hideous eco crime…

I love tinsel me. Can't stand these tasteful silver and white trees - they look miserable.

I also want multicolour lights like we had in the 80's!

My tree has tinsel , lametta, flashing multi coloured lights and Harry Potter themed baubles
Sorting hat on the top and floating candle
Or will have when it goes up

Love Christmas tack

I do a tree which has 30 years worth of mismatched decorations. Don't do tinsel but lovely cheerful tree is what I like

I used to love lametta but Dm does "tasteful" trees now - ha ha

I love lametta, it makes the whole tree sparkle

I absolutely love it. I also have coloured lights on my tree (ha!), along with 1950s clip-on birds (thanks, Gran), stuff the children made at toddler group, and a whole host of complete tat.

Trees are supposed to be completely and utterly tasteless.

another lametta fan here....anyone remember when it was lead?

I think tinsel is making a comeback. John Lewis Christmas department has loads of it on sale!

tinsel reminds me of childhood and happiness so the 'tacky' desperado's can sod off.
I think there is a particularly UK centric disease of oneupmanship involving an attempt to shame others for purchasing inferior products. Perhaps it keeps them from facing the reality of their pointless lives, or gives them a sensation of brushing furtively against the top few rungs of the social class ladder.

If you mention any shop bought or popularly branded item on MN, someone will call you tacky, unless it's oozing UMC or reminiscent of 'smog stoves & peasantry', which is now rather fondly categorised as artisanal. (art is anal, ha!)

Im thinking of starting a business called 'smog stoves and peasantry' - I could make a fortune, Harry Enfield style (anyone recall his antique store?).

@musicforsmorks I can assure you that tinsel is resolutely upper middle class.

Matchy-matchy trees are a bit nouveau riche.

We love tinsel in our house, have loads of it. On the tree and off the tree! The DC love hanging it over the clock, the kitchen cupboards, choosing a couple of pieces for their rooms, etc.

For a few years we had "tasteful" gold tinsel on the tree but last year we got a bigger one (previous one was falling apart), and needed new tinsel to fit. I went for rainbow, and I love it. We also chuck lametta over it at the end of decorating, and the tree sparkles even more!

We've got a mix of purple, gold and rainbow decorations, plus random bits and bobs they've made at school/preschool, so our tree is beautiful and eclectic and I wouldn't change it for the world.

all I know is cat's can die if they chew it, or something. or so I heard.
my cat preferred knocking my shockingly tacky glass balls off the tree (plastique) then smashing them into the skirting boards

@musicforsmorks

all I know is cat's can die if they chew it, or something. or so I heard. my cat preferred knocking my shockingly tacky glass balls off the tree (plastique) then smashing them into the skirting boards

Well... I realise I sound like my mother, or even my grandmother, but we had tinsel and dangly bits (which I now realise is "lametta") and a whole host of animals, including several cats. None of them ever suffered death-by-tinsel.

Though one dog-and-cat chase did end up with an 8 foot tree on the floor, and a lot of broken glass, in my childhood.

We also have those concertina-type decorations, if anyone knows what I mean. Very 70s/80s.

Growing up we always had tinsel on the tree.
Then one Christmas about 20 years ago I just couldn't make it work.
Tinsel on trees seemed to have gone out of fashion. And I haven't bothered since.

I have tinsel on the tree. So do my friends and family, so you're not alone!

We have tinsel, pushed into the middle of the tree so the lights reflect on every shiny strand.

We have silver tinsel on the tree and other colours around the pictures, bookcases etc

I hate it but I don't dress the tree, DP does it and as such there's more tinsel than tree.

I'm with smorks - tinsel equals happy childhood Christmas memories. and I couldn't give a monkeys about what anyone else thinks about the tackiness or otherwise of the tree! I have bits of tinsel I've had for 20 years... we do try to limit random-Christmas-plastic-tat as much as possible but I'm not giving up the tinsel yet. It is absolutely never allowed to appear in the house before December though

I love tinsel, particularly rainbow colours, like this from JL..

@Toomuchstuffwillkillme

I'm with smorks - tinsel equals happy childhood Christmas memories. and I couldn't give a monkeys about what anyone else thinks about the tackiness or otherwise of the tree! I have bits of tinsel I've had for 20 years... we do try to limit random-Christmas-plastic-tat as much as possible but I'm not giving up the tinsel yet. It is absolutely never allowed to appear in the house before December though

Oh goodness, yes. I allow Christmas decorations a week before Christmas.