Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Legend of the Christmas Spider



The Christmas Spider:  A Folk Legend from Germany and the Ukraine.

Once upon a time, long ago, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year.... The day on which the Christ child came to bless the house. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished from their cozy corner in the ceiling to avoid the housewife's busy cleaning. They finally fled to the farthest corner of the attic.

T'was the Christmas eve at last! The tree was decorated and waiting for the children to see it. But the poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for the Christ child's visit. But the oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could peep through the crack in the door to see him. Silently they crept out of their attic, down the stairs, and across the floor to wait in the crack in the threshold. Suddenly, the door opened a wee bit and quickly the spiders scurried into the room. They must see the tree closely, since their eyes weren't accustomed to the brightness of the room... so the crept all over the tree, up and down, over every branch and twig and saw every one of the pretty things. At last they satisfied themselves completely of the Christmas tree beauty.

But alas!! Everywhere they went they had left their webs, and when the little Christ child came to bless the house he was dismayed. He loved the little spiders, for they were God's creatures too, but he knew the mother, who had trimmed the tree for the little children, wouldn't feel the same, so He touched the webs and they all turned to sparkling, shimmering, silver and gold!
Ever since that time, we have hung tinsel on our christmas trees, and according to the legend, it has been a custom to include a spider among the decorations on the tree.




Aunt Alice made this for our tree years ago. Its another unique holiday tradition passed down from Rick's side of the family. She typed up a copy of the story on red paper and then glued together small ornaments with silvery pipe cleaner. Voila, Christmas spider who hides in our tree every year, the one spider allowed to live in the house!

4 comments:

  1. I've never heard this and I love it! I've gotten so soft in my old age that I catch spiders and let them go outside so this makes total sense to me!!!
    Cutest spider ever!
    (I put a comment on my recipe post, but the sugar is powdered sugar! I've no idea why I call it XXX sugar!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh good, good, good! I always use powdered sugar but I've only ever mixed it with milk and vanilla for flavor... corn syrup will give it more staying power! Such a great tip! Thanks Robin!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I LOVE THIS. How sweet... I'm never goint to look at tinsel the same again.

    (Rob: I must not be old enough to have gone soft yet... I kill the little suckers)

    I can't believe I just typed that after such an endearing story...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gitz,

    I can't believe you typed that either !!!! Ha! Ha!

    And how come mine aren't "little" suckers? Yes, the soft thing comes bout 40ish... along with a whole host of things we just won't talk about!

    ReplyDelete

I welcome what you have to say. Thanks for taking the time to grace me with your thoughts and words!

When you get lucky

When you get lucky

Popular Posts

Minnesota.com

Minnesota.com - MN Weather, Map, Businesses and Blogs
Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape