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?

Our tinsel is also 25+ years old and still looks as good as new, despite cat attacks too numerous to count. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without tinsel and a dancing santa/snowman/Christmas tree.

I'm in the tinsel gang!! Although I do have thin tinsel as the thick stuff hides all the baubles! My tree is a multi coloured delight hung with an array of coloured ornaments spanning 4 decades! None of this single coloured theme rubbish fir me...how boring!! My favourites are my 'onions'... vintage 70s lovelies which look like spring onions...the 'onion' but is a silk thread covered little ball. The 'stalk' is fronds of shimmery lame which cascade down when hung by its gold hook ....Hard to describe . Me and DB used to fight over hanging them on the tree as kids. There are 6 ..DM would allocate us 3 each. I have all 6 and they are greeted like old childhood friends when they are liberated from the loft on tree decorating day. OMG...I need to get a life !!!

Does anyone still use the foil type decorations of the 80s? I sometimes wonder if I'm depriving DS of one of the best bits of Christmas. I hate them now but as a child I absolutely loved them, more than the Christmas tree.

My tinsel is also old! And I have a robin I perch on the tree that's about 50 years old, that I remember from when I was little.

I have a Father Christmas bauble that my Grandmother bought me for my first Christmas so it’s now 50 years old. My newest strands of tinsel are 12 years old so I’m not doing any harm to the environment 😉

I love tinsel! It epitomises Christmas for me.

Love a bit of tinsel. The kids picked all of ours so it's like rainbow, and purple... I drape it over shelves and pictures.

If I could get a hold of those concertina foil decorations I would cover the house in them! We live in Germany so it's all tasteful religious stuff here.

No tinsel here but an enthusiastic and OTT lametta decorator.
Love how it makes everything sparkle- tree looks naked without it.

Poundland have the foil ceiling garlands and trees/stars etc. I bought a whole set this year - my childhood Christmases and the local takeaway ALWAYS had them!

@Helenahandkart

I love the smell of tinsel too. Whenever I’ve mentioned it, people look at me like I’m insane and tell me it doesn’t smell of anything.

Yes that smell when you open the box of Christmas decs . However my tinsel box doesn't have the smell that my Mums used to . I loved when I was a child whining to my parents to get the decorations down from the loft , and finally getting to decorate the tree with decades old tinsel and lights . Ahh < brushes tear away >✨

I was thinking that the tinsel smell was a combination of slight damp due to being in the attic, and being stored in a not very well sealed metal Quality Street tin! I am going to test this year as I’ve made a special purchase of the metal tins rather than the plastic ones…

@Anycrispsleft

Love a bit of tinsel. The kids picked all of ours so it's like rainbow, and purple... I drape it over shelves and pictures.

If I could get a hold of those concertina foil decorations I would cover the house in them! We live in Germany so it's all tasteful religious stuff here.

They're the ones I mentioned! I bought ours in Wilko when the DC were small, so about 20 years ago - so maybe they no longer sell them

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

Ah but have you ever had to pull lametta out from a cats arse?
I have….. not the best experience I ever had and not one I want to repeat! 🤢😂
I love lametta but stopped using it after this!

Yes I agree my tinsel doesn’t smell the same as when we were kids, that smell was a smell all of its very own…I miss it!

I love tinsel on the tree!

Nope, can't stand it, to me it's memories of childhood in a very negative way. But I think Christmas is a time for whatever makes you feel special. It's very personal.

I love tinsel, I have loads but admittedly I don’t actually use it much 🤔 It dosnt look right on my main tree, I think it’s the tree itself, it’s too full. I did put it on my grinch/ oddball themed tree last year and I use it to cover the feet of other tress. The rest of the time my DDs run round playing with it and they do put it on their bedroom trees. Sometimes it gets thrown over things or on the mantle.

I had to look up what lametta was, I just thought it was tinsel, just in strands like hair tinsel. Anyway never used the stuff, think it looks weird on trees.

Cheers @hodl just ordered some of the rainbow tinsel! It's fantastic! I'm going back to a tinsel tree this year, can't wait!

@godmum56

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

We have to have lametta on the tree - it’s called ‘icicles’ in this house. Hard to find now, except online, though. Which reminds me, must order some. No tinsel any more, though.

I must be some Mumsnetters' Christmas nightmare - our tree is fake, with flashing multicoloured lights! Actually they can be switched to be pure white, but we like the colours, and it's so much easier to put up and take down than a real tree and separate lights.

I don't have any tinsel, but I've decided now I need some for the bannisters.

When I used to put a Christmas tree up, I used to practically drown it in tinsel. I love it.
My D.I.L now has my tree, all the tinsel, fairy lights and garlands ( bought in the 80s) as she loves it too.

Got a light-up tinsel garland to go round the living room mirror. 😍

No tinsel for me. I also have a colour scheme.

Mumsnet hates me 😂😂

I love it! It’s not Christmas without it. We always have it on our tree, with old fashioned soft filament coloured lights