I was hesitant about decorating for Christmas this year for the same reason I didn’t decorate last year. I just moved into a new house in the beginng of November which means that in the last week or so I finally finished unpacking and decorating (for normal daily living) and honestly was feeling a little bit unmotivated to bring in more boxes of stuff to unpack only to have to pack it all back up at the end of the month…
But then I remembered the end of last year and how strange it felt ringing in the New Year in a new house and not having that marker of taking down the Christmas tree and putting everything away and starting fresh…
So I grabbed all of my Chrstmas decor bins and boxes that were still at the old house I shared with Chad, (where he still lives), and set up my tree last week.
This (above) is what the Christmas tree (and this side of the living room) looked like pre-tinsel explosion… and I hate to say it BUT… I may have liked it better like this, but I do generally lean towards a more minimal holiday decor, so it makes sense, but I still had fun stepping out of my decor comfort zone 🙂
(SIDE NOTE: If you’re interested, THIS is my tree… It’s 7.5 ft tall and about 5’wide at the bottom, it’s pretty big although doesn’t look very big in the photos and although I’ve lost a bit of the flocking through the years, it’s held up really well and the lights that came on it still work! I think I bought it in 2014)
I actually kept it bare like this for a few days before deciding what direction I wanted to go with my ornaments and color scheme this year. It wasn’t until I started seeing tinsel tree after tinsel tree on Instagram and Pinterest that I noted this New/Old tinsel trend, and as much as I HATE tinsel, I kind of wanted to try it out and see how I felt about it after all these years of despising it.
You see, I grew up with tinsel. And if you also grew up in the 80s or before, then you probably did too. Were people still using tinsel in the ’90s? I’m not sure because by then, I definitely was NOT. I actually NEVER liked tinsel, but it was just something we ALWAYS put on the tree, as if by habit after decorating, we’d grab CLUMPS of tinsel and basically throw it at the tree. Where it landed is where it stayed and to me, it just ruined the entire look of the tree. It felt messy. It felt tacky. It just felt like an explosion of bad taste… even as a kid I had strong feelings about how a Christmas tree should be decorated, just ask my mom 😂 I hated tinsel so much that I haven’t used it since… so at the beginning of the season when I started seeing the tinsel trend, I said ABSOLUTELY NOT. NO WAY!
And then I saw THIS VIDEO… and started getting curious. Like any past trend that comes back with a BANG, a new and fresh spin is added to modernize and update it a bit, and as I started seeing tinsel dripping endlessly from Christmas tree branches everywhere, clean like streamers, I actually started liking the look.
Because I knew this was the vibe, I began with my DIY silver and white starburst tree topper I made about 10 years ago and have used on and off through the years (when my decor called for it) and then used all of my matching silver and white ornaments as a base or neutral background, if you will 😉
Next I added my DIY mid-century modern house ornaments, hung all of my silver and white DIY vintage balls I hand painted years ago, found a few gems from the ’80s I still love, and then hung all of my frosted icicles at the ends of the branches hoping it would give me the dripping tinsel look without the tinsel… but it did not. I added my icicle ropes for a nostalgic look, but the tree wasn’t there yet.
Since I have all my grandma’s colorful glass Vintage ornaments from the ’50s and even a few from decades earlier, I chose only the silver and green and pink and blue options and placed them thoughtfully around the tree where they would consistently draw the eye without one standing out more than the rest and really add that vintage touch… but it still wasn’t there yet.
THIS is when I decided that it was indeed time for tinsel, so I ran to Rite Aid (the only option up here for Christmas Decor) hoping they’d have some and they did! In fact, they had an entire box of the original “old fashioned tinsel I grew up with and because it was 99cents, I bought 6 boxes of it just to be safe 😆
I started small… grabbing just a few strands at a time and laying them onto the ends of the branches as straight as possible making sure I created a streamlined “straight” vertical look with a dripping effect. I did NOT want to see silver tousled clumps or just random tinsel in random spots so I really stuck to the ends of the branches and made sure all the strands were hanging as straight as possible.
TIP: It helps give it a more streamlined look if one side of the tinsel hangs longer than the other. Instead of laying on the tinsel from the center (as if folded in half where each side is the same length) I pulled one side down longer than the other to create a dripping illusion and then continued adding until I felt it was enough.
I originally enjoyed the look after not seeing it for so long. A little goes a long way, but then it just sort of felt undone… GO BIG OR GO HOME was the motto this year, so I opened another box and then another box and then another… and 3 boxes of tinsel later, I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.
It’s giving vintage 1950s Christmas and though one side of my brain still sees OVERDONE TACKY TRASHY TINSEL TREE, the other sees a new trend taken from a vintage look that makes me smile every day.
Although it’s not entirely hitting today’s streaming tinsel trend, it’s somewhere in between the past and the present and it does bring me more joy than I thought it would. The tinsel reflects the light in a way that makes it shoot sparkles all over the house like a disco ball and glimmer and glitter and shines all day. When the heater kicks on, the vent behind the tree softly blows the tinsel around, making it dance a little and reflect watermarks on the wood floor. Since the light is so magical here and changes all throughout the day, the tree is having a life of its own, really adding a bit of magic to this season that I was not expecting at all. I have to say that I really am loving the effect.
Note the watermarks on the floor above….
Note the sparkles on the wall below…
There are a few small downsides to tinsel, which MUST be mentioned… First and foremost, it gets tracked ALL OVER THE HOUSE and I am constantly picking up random pieces throughout the day. I tried to keep the bottom of the tree pretty clean for presents to go under but until they are filling the spot, the dogs randomly walk or sit under the tree and then walk away with tinsel all over them, which is cute, but also a mess to clean up. And last, but certainly not least, this is going to be a NIGHTMARE to clean up and put away. I’m guessing I’ll just throw the tinsel away, but that seems wasteful… and as much as I can try to pull it all off the faux branches, I’m sure it will be impossible to clean entirely WHICH MEANS tinsel every year from now on forever :/ or until I buy a new Christmas tree.
For this year, I am happy 🙂 Happy to be in this space, happy for all of my blessing in life, happy for my health and happy with my crazy bedazzled over the top Christmas tree… and I hope you are finding happiness too 💖
Happy Christmas Lovecats!
* Find all my Christmas Posts here
* Find all my Holiday DIYS here
