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How ugly are your branches.
For most of us, Christmas trees draped liberally in shiny silver tinsel are the stuff of long-ago memories, maybe experienced once a year by thumbing through fading snapshots in an ancestral photo album.
But with Gen Z officially leaning into gaudy holiday nostalgia, those Cousin It-esque, shimmering centerpieces — quietly growing in popularity in recent years — are absolutely, definitely, back in real life.
And, as with every current trend, rehashed or otherwise, the return of the metallic living room menaces has been accompanied by the sound of a raging debate on TikTok.
User Julia Arceri from Texas inadvertently sparked a confrontation by posting a video to the popular social media channel, promising a “mess-free tinsel tree tutorial” which she claimed works “flawlessly.”
She instructed viewers to begin by cutting off most of the band stringing the tinsel together and then cutting the strip into little sections that “look like long fake lashes.”
The pro then demonstrated how she pulled the pieces through individual branches “so it’s nestled securely,” repeating the process until the tree was completely covered.
The Tannenbaum was already wrapped in string lights and decorated with hanging ornaments, but the added layer of sparkling tinsel took over as the star of the show.
Hundreds of people commented on the video, with many complimenting the decorating technique and asking follow-up questions, while others were strongly opposed to the new-old look.
“The worst tree trend yet,” @anon_1123456 commented adding “Yours looks decent though, most of them look like Christmas vomit!”
TikTok user @wtspopinslime222 claimed that the decoration made the tree look “like it’s covered in cobwebs,” while TikToker user @missbellscc suggested the style was outdated writing “Welcome to 1990.”
“Not a fan of it too much,” @dianed842 simply stated.
Others pointed out that the stringy decor would not work well in a house with cats.
Several people also noted, in English and Russian, that the trees reminded them of how holiday trees were decorated during the years of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) when all religious holidays were abolished under the atheist Communist government.
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