Make the season bright with Reindeer Knoll - a joyful guide to Christmas traditions, history, activities, and songs. Discover the origins of beloved Christmas customs like decorating trees, Santa Claus, and gift-giving. Learn fun holiday activities like baking cookies, building snowmen, and Christmas crafts. Sing along to classic Christmas carols and songs the whole family will love.
The exact origins of tinsel is unclear, but it seems that it was first invented by the Germans around the year 1610. Much more valuable than it is now, it was actually manufactured from thin strips of real silver. The word comes from the French term " estincelle", and was once reserved for the wealthy only. It was made by being hammered into strands that could be hung on branches. This method was flawed. While it made the decoration inaccessible to most people, it also would tarnish easily, especially when it came into contact with open flames. Lead-based tinsel went on to be a popular choice. A German company received a patent on lead tinsel, which was made from dull lead alloy foil and shiny tin. At the time, the product was called Stanniol Lametta, meaning “tiny blade”.
It was successful as it added a quick magic to Christmas decorations, with its sparkle and falling icicle effect. Later is was made using other materials like copper and tin. These metals were also cheaper, and meant that more people could use them, but when World War I started in 1914, metals like copper were needed for the war. Because of this, they couldn't be used for Christmas decorations as much, so a substitute was needed. It was substitured with aluminium, but this caused fire scares. They was switched for lead, but that turned out to be poisonous! So people weren't having much luck picking a metal that would work. Today, tinsel is made from a material called polyvinyl chloride - or PVC for short and is given a special treatment to make it nice and shiny, before it is shaped into bands which can be used on a tinsel machine.