Tinsel or no tinsel? Christmas tree decorating past and present

Walking into this year's Christmas tree exhibit at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre in Summerside is like walking through a winter wonderland — without the cold. 

There are more than 30 trees decked out the way they would have been through history. 

It's the third year for the Magic of Christmas at Wyatt Heritage Properties: Christmas Trees Though the Ages exhibit. 

Marlene Campbell is the cultural programming co-ordinator for Culture Summerside. 

"We start right at the very beginning with the whole history of the Christmas tree and the God tree and St. Boniface, who used the fir tree to explain the Trinity. And the first tree was actually hung upside down … and then we come all the way through time, right until 2022," she said. 

"Every decade depicts what the fashion was in that time and what was going on in the world. For example, the '30s and '40s tree is very, very simple compared to the 1920s because of course we were in the Depression and then the Second World War. So you you learn kind of the whole timeline of history as you come through the exhibit."

Campbell said people love the nostalgia of looking at Christmas trees they may have had when they were younger.

She says the number of visitors to the exhibit just keeps growing.  

"I think people are enjoying learning why we do the things we do and have no idea why we're doing them, where it all began."

Regardless of how you feel about tinsel, there's plenty of it in this exhibition — as well as information about its history in tree decorating.

"For example, it was first silver, but then it would tarnish and not have the colour. Then they got into lead tinsel and found that was very dangerous," Campbell said.

"And then the white tree in the '70s, oh, the Charlie Brown, how he brings people back from using artificial trees to coming back to real."

Campbell said they add to the exhibit each year. This year's additions include a rainbow tree. 

"I guess it's around the whole idea of acknowledging diversity. And we saw one in the store and we said, 'OK, we have to bring that in and add it to the collection this year' because it is part of what is happening out in the world and that's what the whole exhibit is about, is reflecting what is going on in the world."

Shelley Campbell of Tyne Valley is the creative mastermind who decorates the trees. As for all those lights, balls and other decorations?

"We're very, very conscious about environmental issues. So like we do a lot of second-hand buying, donations, scouting things out," Marlene Campbell said.

The exhibit will continue until Dec. 17. For more information, you can visit Culture Summerside's Facebook page.