Woman Urges People to Stop Storing Their Christmas Ornaments in Cardboard Boxes After Troublesome Discovery

Christmas is on the way and every home is waiting to be lit up in colorful holiday lights and ornaments. But a woman Em Pease (@empease7) shared her rather unnerving experience when she decided to unpack the stored ornaments from last year. She posted a TikTok video at the beginning of December exhibiting the nightmare of an experience as countless flying ants oozed out of an ornament after she smashed it with a stick. 

“When I got my ornaments out of the storage today, I noticed that a bunch had this weird rattle sound,” the woman said while shaking the little ornamental bulb. She joked that the strange “rattle” sound caught her attention and “as somebody whose interest is constantly peaked by red flags”, the woman was curious about the reason behind the occurrence. So, she whacked the decoration balls with a stick and out came an army of huge black ants. “If you stored ornaments in a cardboard box, give them a good shake outside before decorating inside,” Pease stated in the video’s caption. She posted the original video without the voiceover in a second video to give her viewers a raw glimpse of what went down during her discovery. 

While the decorations are designed to withstand tough winters, they can get moldy or be under the attack of insects when exposed to moisture or warmer temperatures. Hence, it is best to maintain these ornaments and sustainably use them for years. The owner of Christmas Lights Creations, Fred Vannucci suggested that ornaments or blow molds can be gently cleaned using baby wipes or paper towels and prevent damage, per Martha Stewart. Similarly, Carrie Polales Sansing of the Golden Glow of Christmas Past and Blow Mold Nation echoed the significance of maintaining the holiday ornaments.

Cracks can be a pathway for insects to breed inside the hollowed parts of the ornaments, as shown in the TikTok video. Therefore, Sansing suggested one can fix a crack or split with the use of adhesives. "A simple crack can be reinforced from the inside, using a strip of plastic (cut from a milk jug) and applied to the inner surface, like a Band-Aid, using clear drying epoxy for plastic. If there is excess glue on the mold, you can scrape this away with your knife or use a small file," she said. 

The history of Christmas decorations reportedly goes back to a millennia ago. A time when the pagans used Green fir trees even before the first Christmas during Roman times to celebrate the winter season and other festivals, per the Saturday Evening Post. The modern Christmas tree first appeared in the 16th century after Germans followed it as a tradition as a symbol of everlasting life with God. It is reported that the decorations inside a home serve a selfless purpose and are often done for people outside to enjoy. The decorations originated in private homes, to offer comfort to the German immigrants in America while others felt joyful and a sense of peace and hope with the decorations during the holiday season. 

You can follow Em Pease (@empease7) on TikTok for more interesting content.