I go through phases with tree decorations. When I'm in a retro phase, I'll use tinsel, too. This reminds me of a family on the street where I lived, as a kid. They had 8 children, and the tree decorating was quite a "production" for them. Have to say, I've never seen such a perfectly beautiful tinsel display. First of all they always had a HUGE tree in their livingroom (they lived in a big house). They each counted out (no, I'm not kidding) multiple groupings of 8 strands of tinsel, and put those groupings aside, laid flat on a table. (So, well over 100 groups, anyway.)
Then, I think it was 2-3 sets (of 8) for each branch on the tree. This took a long time. But man, what a gorgeous display it was. (P.S.: They had many boxes of tinsel, whereas we had 1 box for our tree at home -- and we just chucked it up, willy nilly, on the branches!

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