Colony South Hotel Newsletter

[L Verge]

(12-21-2016 09:23 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(12-21-2016 04:26 PM)Anita Wrote:  Roger, thanks for this holiday treat. Loved the tinsel story. When I grew up tinsel strands were made of lead and needed to be placed on the tree one strand at a time or they would clump together . Decorating with tinsel was quite a task and an art. Then lead tinsel was banned and replaced with flyaway plastic stands. Now I don't think it's used very often. Flocking has become popular. I prefer the old fashioned tinsel. I'll tell my house spiders to get to work. If my eagle-eyed grandchildren point out cobwebs, I'll tell them the spiders are practicing their decorating skills!

Happy holidays!

Anita, (tin foil) tinsel is still quite commonly used over here (while I have never seen flocking on a private tree)! And re-used, takes ages to get it off the tree in a reusable condition...

The tinsel tale it is nice and very Xmas-y. Actually I've never heard it before, nor of Kris Kringel (whose first name we would spell "Chris" btw.), and I would suspect it was created in the US - is at least not of German origin. (Googling in German doesn't bring it up either.)

Who is Kris Kringel? The one for whom children put shoes out to get them filled is St. Nikolaus, and this happens in the night prior to Dec. 6, St. Nikolaus' Day. But Tantchen (="auntie", "Tante" is the simple aunt) wouldn't have put up and decorated the tree before early Xmas Eve, December 24.

The strongest hint to me that this tale might be of US origin is the corn however that Tantchen fed her chickens. Tinsel was invented in Nürnberg in 1878 (to imitate icicles), but corn was practically unknown in Germany as didn't grow until in the early 1960s a corn hybrid was bred that endured the cold climate. Nevertheless, a nice story (and I'd really like to learn who Kris Kringel is)!

Eva - see if this helps http://english.stackexchange.com/questio...is-kringle OR this https://www.reference.com/holidays-celeb...e37d25ac8#

Also found this brief mention of the Christmas spider tale that credits a number of European nations as having this traditional story

"Legend of the Christmas Spider
Tale
The Legend of the Christmas Spider is an Eastern European folk tale which explains the origin of tinsel on Christmas trees. Wikipedia
Countries: Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia