Use any paper you like (single color metallic, multiple colors, magazine photos, etc.) - or use real gum wrappers, as was popular in the early ’60s... With the traditional gum wrapper chain, you begin with pieces that are 31/2" by 1 1/2" (that’s a stick gum wrapper cut in half lengthwise). You fold both long sides into the middle, then fold this in half down the middle, so that you end up with a skinny, thick piece that’s about 3/8" wide. Now you do the same thing with that: fold the ends into the middle, then fold it in half... ending up with a "link" about 7/8" long. Make a bunch of links... Now you’re going to fit the 2 folded ends, that are like "prongs", into the outer "slots" of another link. This makes a nice zigzaggy garland (or package ribbon!).

You’ll notice, if you make a chain like this of just a few links for practice, that it’s pretty darned heavy... So you might want to fold the original pieces in thirds instead of in quarters (or, if your paper is hefty, even just in half) - meaning that you’d begin with pieces of a different dimension. You want to end up with slots that are twice as long as the prong is wide, so that the links will fit together fairly snugly. (Want to see an example of what a gum wrapper chain looks like? - look at www.gumwrapper.com.)

(A short length of this braid done in a narrower version - perhaps in thin silver paper? - would make neat "icicles" for the tree!)

(See also Jacob's Ladder Chain, Paper Heart Chain, Paper Rickrack)