Tinsel. It’s making the annual appearance around now in homes and offices all over the country. We drape rainbows of plastic whiskery rope over anything static. You either love it or hate it. Are you in Team: Yay Tinsel! or in Team: Bah Humbug Tinsel? Two crafting mamas plead the case for and against.
I am firmly in Team: Bah Humbug Tinsel. My kids love tinsel, my husband loves tinsel, so I’ve lost the tinsel debate in our household. Even the plumpest, fluffiest most vibrant in colour tinsel does not impress me. To me, it’s a dust-gathering tacky mess which neither feels Christmassy nor homely.
Another Team: Bah Humbug Tinsel is Connie Hughes, a mum who runs her own craft business from Burgess Hill, Mummy Hughsey Makes Stuff. She says, “When I was a child I was given all the old decorations to decorate my bedroom… all the old, dusty, shedding tinsel and metallic things you hang from the ceiling which were all the rage in the eighties”
“My husband and I enjoy Christmas but dislike having stuff for stuff sake so we like a tree and a few ornaments and lights, Christmas is for the kids, but it doesn’t mean your front room has to look like the pound shop has exploded in it.”
Firmly in Team: Yay Tinsel! is Erika Maye, from Brighton, another crafting mum who offers her creations
at Erika Makes. She makes a very strong case for why she loves it and why it’s essential Christmas decor, “I am proud to be Team: Yay Tinsel! Some degree of Christmas is about it being a complete overpower of the senses, about there being colour and light everywhere. For me, there is warmth in the shine and the shades that makes a difference during the cold of December.
I also think that because it is one of the only things that you ever see up for Christmas that it just sums up Christmas and the festive season in one item. Until you asked the question, it never even crossed my mind that some people might not like it! It’s a flashback to childhood and decorating the tree, it’s the comfort of knowing that a time of goodwill is coming, and after what has been for many people a difficult year, it’s the friendliest piece of tat I have ever had the pleasure to encounter.”
Which is it for you? Tinsel or burn all tinsel?
