Tinsel Kills

When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I helped Mom and Dad decorate the Christmas tree. Mom loaded up antique ornaments. Dad handled the delicate glass bulbs from K-Mart and put the angel on top of the tree because he was 6’ 3.” The kids? We would throw tons and tons of tinsel on the tree. 

Somewhere over the last 40 years, tinsel became less fashionable and harder to find. In fact, some people find tinsel “distracting.” Others found tinsel to fall out of fashion. What’s the real reason?

The word tinsel is from the Middle Ages, meaning a fabric that is interwoven with metallic thread. In the early 17th century tinsel was made from silver, pounded into small strips, and laid on Christmas trees. Silver was very expensive, so only the wealthiest families could do this. Plus, silver was forged using mercury, which can cause all kinds of problems….or death.

In the early 20th century, companies began manufacturing lead tinsel. This apparently was a bad idea and the government discovered eating lead was bad for you and they banned lead tinsel in 1972, when I was five. I’m fairly certain I didn’t eat any lead-based tinsel — not so sure about the dog though. 

Aluminum tinsel increased in popularity (and affordability) in the mid-1900s after German company Eppsteiner Stanniofabrik began producing it and selling it around the world. I’m sure that .0001% of that aluminum tinsel was recycled. The majority of it is still in a box in my mom’s attic in Summerville, South Carolina.

Today, if you find tinsel, it will most likely be made with PVC (aka polyvinyl chloride) plastic. The government is now taking steps to phase out PVC products because many are known to contain phthalates, which were banned in kids’ toys in 2008. 

The big bright light bulbs my folks used to put on the tree would get scorching hot and I’m certain many dried-out trees caught fire because of them. Each year almost 1,000 homes in the US will burn down during the Christmas season. So Americans have been using LED lights more and buying a record number of fake trees (20 million fake trees were purchased last year, doubling the 10 million sold in 2012). The fake Christmas trees are also made with PVC. The LED lights use less energy and can be recycled but less than 9% of Americans actually recycle them. #shame

So I’m beginning to see a pattern. Tinsel kills. Christmas trees kill. Plastic kills. Apparently, most things can kill us. Here’s a bit of advice; don’t eat the tinsel. 

Get a real tree, recycle the old ornaments by using them again, light it up, and load it up with tinsel. Count your blessings, enjoy the spirit of the season, and don’t worry about the 972,637 things that can kill you. Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! (And, if you celebrate Festivus, congrats from the rest of us!)