The Legend of the Christmas Spider

This is by far one of my favorite Christmas Stories
I thought I would share, I make a point to read this on one of the five days before Christmas in my house, leading up to the last which is the Story of Christmas on Christmas Eve. We always have a Nativity displayed no matter how far our minds stray during the Holiday Season.
We always remember the Reason For The Season...

This is not my photo but one I collected when we started making these as gifting items, sharing this story with other people, Lots have never heard this legend.

The Legend Of The Christmas Spider
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.

(German Austrian FolkLore, A wonderful read at CHristmastime, I completely reccommend a copy of this book, some are simple and childlike others have elaborate illustrations)

I remember hanging tinsel as a child and having to remove and save what we could each year.
I also remember with the addition of a cat to our household, we had to stop using the silver tinsel because the crazy cat would eat it in globs from the tree and get ill...

Anyway I hope you like this story I wish I could have found some actual pics from my childhood years to add to the post but I will keep looking