One way to hold tinsel is a handful of thin strips that exist only to throw light back at you. There is almost nothing to them — a little paper, a little foil, no weight in the hand — and yet a doorway hung with them looks like a celebration. Everyone knows the trick and nobody minds it at Christmas. That is the double fact the whole word is built on: it shines, and it is worth nothing. Keep both halves and the second meaning arrives on its own — take the strips off the tree and hang them on a film studio, a job title or a hotel, and you have said that the shine is the only part that is there.
From the word’s history
The word can be traced back through Old French estincelle, a spark, to Latin scintilla, a glimmer or a spark. In Middle English it named cloth woven with gold or silver thread — cloth that flashed like sparks when it moved. The shine has been the constant the whole way down.
這個字可以往回追到古法文 estincelle（火花），再往前是拉丁文 scintilla（一點閃光、一點火花）。中古英文時它指的是織了金銀線的布，一動起來就像有火花在跳。從布到聖誕亮條，變的是材料，沒變的是那個「一閃一閃」。
Wiktionary, "tinsel"
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