When I was young, my Father, who had been a Marine in the Pacific during WWII, always wanted us to buy a lot of tinsel at the ‘after Christmas sales’ every year.
He loved the Christmas tree; and his reasoning was that ‘there might be a war’, and we would not be able to get ‘tinsel’ anymore.
So, all of my life, I’ve bought many packs of ‘tinsel’ or ‘icicles’, on the post-Christmas sales, in his honor.
I don’t know what the stuff was made out of, in his day; but I assume that it was made out of a useful war material, that wasn’t available in war-time; and he had never forgotten that.
(If SHTF, get in touch with me, if you need Christmas Tree Tinsel. :-)
Semper Fi!
-JT
Tinsel was made out of lead until the 1960s I believe, so I can see the connection he was making.