Yule Traditions & Legends: The Story of Tinsel

There are many miracles of Christmas. From Germany comes the folk tale of the Christmas Spider ~ a miracle that took place due to the simple house keeping chores associated with the season.

As the story was told, a family living in a small home worked together one Christmas Eve day to clean the house. They cleaned it from top to bottom. All the spiders living in the various parts of the house escaped to the attic as the cleaning took place. Later that evening, after all had gone to bed, they were delighted to see that at least one place in the home remained that would be suitable for a spider -- the Christmas tree!

Having nowhere else to go to spin their webs, they dashed up the trunk of the tree and leaped from branch to branch, spinning their webs and making for them selves a new place in which to live. When Santa Claus arrived he encountered the web-covered tree and somewhat of a difficult dilemma: did he keep the tree wrapped in spider webs and disappoint the family? Or should he remove the webs and destroy the spiders' new home (and ruin their Christmas in the process)?

Santa fixed everything. He turned the spider webs into shimmering silver strands of tinsel that turned the tree into a brilliant decoration. His action thrilled the family - and saved the spiders. That is why today many people decorate their tree with tinsel -- in honor of the Christmas Spider.