As a follow-up to my 3 Awful Holiday Traditions post – and to prove I am not a Scrooge – here are my favorite holiday traditions:
1. Tinsel.
I’ll admit it. People have their reasons for hating tinsel. Tinsel is messy. It gets tangled in the tree branches and on the carpet. Static cling can cause it to stick to anything and anyone who gets too close to the tree. But even for all its faults, tinsel is the single most amazing Christmas decoration in history. I have loved those mesmerizing silver and gold metallic plastic strips since I was a little kid. A tree just doesn’t seem “finished” without a healthy serving of those sparkly strands. I can’t help myself. Something about tinsel gets into my brain and stimulates my dopamine receptors.
I always knew tinsel was retro. (The tinsel from the 1950s was made from strands of real silver and lead.) But, I was surprised to find out tinsel has actually been around since the 1600s in Germany. My only hope is that tinsel will make a comeback, because it gets harder to find every year. More
