Clinquant

Today’s word is clinquant which can be used as either an adjective which means glittering, esp. with tinsel; decked with garish finery or as a noun, which means imitation gold leaf; tinsel; false glitter.

~~~~~

When I recall the holidays of my childhood, I will always remember those special occasions when I was allowed to stay overnight with my maternal grandparents and help them decorate their Christmas tree. Since holiday decorating was generally considered women’s work, my grandfather’s responsibility in this yearly ritual was limited. The tree, always purchased from the local tree farm, was usually a Blue Spruce that would stand no less than seven feet tall. After he insured the tree was securely anchored to a bright red metal watering stand, he would rearrange the furniture to the temporary position each piece had always been moved to in the years before, which would allow the tree to be positioned, worst side nearest the wall, next to the small black and white television in the livingroom. After the tree was in place, I would follow him up to the attic, and carefully help him carry down the stairs all sizes of boxes containing neatly organized, delicate ornaments, most passed down from the previous generation, and one large bag of several green electrical cords that connected randomly arranged bulbs of red, yellow, green, orange and blue lights; all useless items except for a few special weeks each year. Shortly thereafter my grandfather would depart, his duties fulfilled, since the responsibility for transforming this unremarkable evergreen into a spectacularly ornamented and clinquant covered pyramid, with it’s circumference encircled in multiple strands of primary-colored lights, and each of its branches adorned in a continuously indulating veil of thin shimmering ribbons of delicate silver strips of tinsel, was, from that point forward, without formal discussion or question, a task reserved, as if an inalienable right, for only my grandmother and me.

~~~~~