shredded

tinsel can you ever have too much of the stuff?

is it only right in traditional seasonal colours. . .
is its place just on the tree, perhaps around pictures, or bunched up in a big piles all over the place. . .

is it right to compromise its shredded simplicity with other things - leaves, stars, different coloured strands. . .

did you know that originally tinsel was made from strips of shredded silver? silver tarnishes (and is not cheap), so alternatives were designed. . .
.
my mother had the same xmas decs for as long as I can remember - each year she used to hang strips of silver tinsel from the picture rail in the living room and tie little baubles onto the end, to decorate the mantel piece above the fire; on the tree the tinsel was only allowed to go deep into the centre of the trunk and branches so the otherwise dense green foliage would twinkle with the reflections of the fairy lights; we only had silver tinsel when I was growing up - I don't even know if coloured versions were produced, but perhaps if tinsel was originally made from silver she was a true traditionalist to the core; she also had these probably just post-war decorations for the hall, which were long lengths of spirals made from crinkled silver foil - each year she would take each length out of the xmas decs box, and gradually stretch them out along their central string (which must mean that at the end of the season she must have carefully squashed them together, but I don't remember that) and once hung along the picture rail the spirals would gently twist and twirl. . .
.
yeserday the children and I found the box of decorations that we must have packed up after our last xmas in The Village (they were in storage last year) - so many memories
.
part of Christmas is memories, eh,
and, each year
making new ones

12 comments:

Dave said...

I'm going away for Christmas this year, so I haven't bothered to put up any decorations (other than cards).

Vicus Scurra said...

I am staying at home for Christmas, so I haven't bothered to put up any decorations.

Neither will I be doing ...
(please fill in the list, you know what's on it).

I, Like The View said...

(no, Vicus I don't!)(please fill me in?)(oh come on, you know what I mean. . .)

Dave look forward to reading/seeing all about it. . .

Dave said...

How much can you write about not putting up decorations?

I, Like The View said...

well, I could write till the cows come home about anything, something or indeed nothing. . .

. . .but what I meant - as I'm sure you well know - was that I look forward to your holiday, once you come back from it

Dave said...

Did I say it was a holiday?

Mel said...

The tree was void of tinsel. Simple gold bulbs and sparkley snowflakes it was. Was.
It now holds rednosed reindeer and jingle bells and pretty chocolates with glittering tinsel--and candy canes!

There's a box in the storage room filled with ornaments collected through the years. It's a blending of then and now--they tell stories of a whole lifetime of adventures.

We're making new traditions, himself and I--ones with hippopotamusses and 8 foot penguins......and red bulbs. And blue bulbs. And green bulbs. And white bulbs.
Red, blue, green, white. Red, blue, oops, white...

Where DID I put those extra bulbs?!

Mel said...

k.......

Can I just say there's something REALLY WRONG about pink tinsel?

I, Like The View said...

ok dave I give up trying to get it right

all I was trying to say was that I hope you have a nice time, whatever you do, wherever you go

I won't mention it again

Mel I think you just did

I'm in total agreement - strictly silver and gold for me, with dark green at a pinch (cos it makes pine needles twinkle) and possibly red. . . (and maybe white, cos it looks like snow)

(of course, Mini-Teen has some turquoise blue to make her room look festive) (and, one year, I bought black and purple for The Teen. . .)

yikes

I remember the xmas hippo!!!!

(-:

I, Like The View said...

(sorry, feeling a little delicate this end. . . need lots of TLC. . . and minimal teasing. . .)

(-:

Mel said...

<-- has her hippopotamus out! Iwanna is very, very happy, I might add.

Purple and black tinsel?
Hmmmmmmm......thinkin' I'll keep my eye out for some of that! Not for Christmas, mind you--it'd be GREAT for Halloween!!!!!!

Just sayin'......
It's a mere 324 days away! :-D
NOT that I'm counting....

katherine. said...

that star tinsel is cool...but you are right...pink seems off somehow...