You probably know that tinsel is the shiny, silvery stuff that hangs off Christmas trees, but what is it made of exactly? To answer that, we have to look at the decoration's complicated history.

Tinsel has gone through many manufacturing changes over the years. The decoration originated in Germany, where it was created using strips of real silver. Today, the decoration is far less valuable.

Strewing tinsel around the home has long been a Christmas tradition and one story - that would make Charles Dickens proud - suggests that it all started from an unlikely source ...