All that Glitters is Not Gold, But Silver
By Veronica M. Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
My favorite part of the holidays is when we dim the lights at night and let the soft lights of the Christmas tree glow. If there is snow outside, the warmth casts a glittering effect on the crystallized drifts. That’s when I feel perfectly at home in flannels, hugging a cup of hot cocoa. Ahhh.
I remember the first time my oldest child really noticed the Christmas tree. He was about 14 months old. We perched it up on a table so his little hands wouldn’t grab the needles or ornaments. This busy little child sat below the table night after night in perfect stillness, staring up in awe. He even murmured “Wow!” every once in a while. His little smile beamed almost as brightly as the tree.
As our family has grown and we’ve gotten busier and busier, tree decorating has kind of been forgotten. We always have lights and candy canes, but little else. To be honest, we have inherited so many ornaments that we simply don’t know how to use them all, nor do they mesh very well together. Maybe we should be like Martha Stewart with a different Christmas tree in each room. Sure, maybe if we had the time…!
If you’ve ever seen an authentic Victorian Christmas tree, you would notice they used candles and lots and lots of paper ornaments. Firemen today would cringe. What a fire hazard!
There is one ornament that worked very well with candles, and that was/is the infamous tinsel. Originally made of hammered-thin silver, tinsel would reflect the light of the candles. Some sources say tinsel was created around 1610 in Germany for the very wealthy. The only problem was that it got easily tarnished. Craftsmen tried other metals out such as lead and tin, but they were often too heavy and broke when too thin.
Some say tinsel made its first public appearance in England in 1846 in a picture in the Illustrated London News. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stood with their children around a Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, candles, and small beaded ornaments. Because Queen Victoria was so popular, the tree was mimicked in both Britain and America.
In the 1920s, aluminum-based tinsels were developed and very affordable, and the 1950s brought tinsel made out of aluminized paper. Unfortunately this material was a fire hazard with hot tree lights and dry indoor trees. Tinsel today is now made from fire-friendly polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
We have yet to pull out the tinsel for our own tree, but I’m sure all the children would find it fascinating. Well, me too! I could just stare at it and the twinkly-ness forever…
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.