When we think of a Christmas Tree, we typically picture a glorious wrapping of shiny tinsel laid across its branches. Right? I often wonder why we wrap glittery film around a tree.
The answer lies within European folktales. There is Dutch, Ukrainian, German. Many different places all across Europe say mostly the same things. The spider.
The tale of the Christmas spider begins with a widowed mother with her children who don’t have a lot of money for the holidays. The spiders in her home observed her as she cleaned her house to immaculate conditions. They looked on in awe of her dedication to a beautiful home despite having little money and retreated to the corners of her ceiling, silently watching her clean.
The lady was upset because she couldn’t afford grandiose Christmas decorations and lavish ornaments that her children longed for. Her children would see them in town and look on in joy at how beautiful they were.
One spider that watched her dedication to her kids was moved. Because of this, the spider descended from the corner of the ceiling and began spinning intricate webs around her evergreen tree.
Other spiders living in the woman’s house saw what the Christmas spider was doing and joined in to help. The webs were elaborate and beautiful, but a tree full of webs could be a little alarming.
Later that night, Santa arrived to place the widow’s children’s gifts under their webbed tree and recognized the spider’s sentiment. Santa feared the widow and her children would be disappointed at what looked like a mess, so with a little Christmas magic; he snapped his fingers and turned the webs on the Widow’s evergreen tree into beautiful silver strands that sparkled with so much happiness on Christmas morning.
This is the tale of where tinsel comes from. It shows us to find joy in simple moments. Just having silver strands draped on a tree was enough to find so much joy and happiness. It doesn’t need to be lavishly decorated.
People honor this folktale by hiding a spider in their tree. This is a way to give thanks to the spider who so graciously decorated the widow’s tree.
If you would also like to give thanks to the Christmas spider, or Gallery gift shop at rotary gardens has Christmas Spider ornaments on sale now!