This Year's Very Sparkly Tinsel Christmas Tree

The holidays are always filled with so much fun and excitement – ski trips, Christmas gatherings and a trip or two into the city for a bit of shopping, a fancy dinner and a special holiday show – there’s always so much to look forward to all season long. We’ve wasted no time soaking up every magical minute around here, baking up some of our favourite holiday treats (check out our 2022 baking list here), gathering around a special Christmas puzzle or board game (here’s our current family favourite) and working our way through all of our favourite holiday movies. We’ve tested out a few new holiday baking recipes, made our way through a whole jar of hot chocolate mix (it’s always extra special drinking out of these nostalgic mugs) and bedtimes have been filled with our favourite Christmas books for weeks now (Carson LOVES reading this adorable advent calendar story each night!). But, of all the holiday activities and traditions we take part in around here, decorating the Christmas tree together is everyone’s very favourite! It just wouldn’t be Christmas without all the stories, reminiscing and glitter scattered all across the house that come with decorating the tree.

This year’s tree feels extra special – not only is filled to the brim with sparkling tinsel, but even more, it’s standing in the very same spot my husband’s family tree did as he was growing up. I don’t think it gets more nostalgic than that.

Last year, Carson asked to try hanging some tinsel on our tree after seeing it in one of our Christmas movies. While I loved the idea of the nostalgia and sparkle of a tree draped in tinsel, I have to admit, I was a bit worried about the mess it would make (this will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me of course!). But, I decided to take a leap of faith in the name of Christmas fun and Carson and I draped loads of tinsel all over our tree (check out last year’s nostalgic tree here). Thankfully, my visions of tinsel scattered from one end of the house to the other all season long didn’t come to fruition after all. And, even more, it took me less than an hour to remove every last strand once the holidays had passed (I had nightmares about how hard it would be to clear our tree of it) and tuck it all away to save for another year.

And so, when Carson suggested pulling out the tinsel again this year, I very happily agreed. Having had my fears put to rest last year, I was far less apprehensive about the mess of it all this year and therefore, far more generous with the tinsel – our bag of tinsel, which had stretched around our entire tree last year, covered just the top half of this year’s tree. Ha! But, instead of spreading the tinsel around to stretch it all a bit further, we made the executive decision to order up even more to fill up the bottom half of our tree. In the end, we used triple the amount of tinsel this year, but oh my goodness, was it worth it. It sure does sparkle!

I know it’s hard to see, but behind all that tinsel, we did add a few ornaments – mainly our tried and true collection of mixed metal and mercury glass balls. We also added a few crystal ornaments to the mix this year that sparkle so beautifully, along with this inexpensive set of flameless tree candles.

And finally, we topped it all off with a star and added a cozy knit tree skirt underneath.

I can’t believe the way that tinsel bounces around the light and how full it makes our tree look without much effort at all really. In fact, I’m actually toying around with the idea of a tree with just lights and tinsel next year – it truly brings a really big impact with very little effort.