The best replacement for tinsel is garland.

The best alternatives to tinsel are rated as following:
★★★★★  garland
★★★★  icicles
★★★★  lights first
★★★  no tinsel
  hair tinsel

Your alternative for tinsel is not listed? Suggest!
Speaking about tinsel, one probably shouldn't forget about white snowflakes.

Other search terms related to tinsel and their ratings are:
★★★★★ white snowflakes
You have in mind a companion for tinsel and it is not yet here? Propose!



Google Trends

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of tinsel in all years. Click on graph for more.
tinsel
garland
icicles