In both Ukrainian and German lore, the tale of the Christmas spider explains the origin of tinsel. The story tells of a poor widow who couldn't buy fancy gifts for her children or decorations for their tree. One Christmas Eve, she decorated a tree as best she could with fruits and nuts. After she went to sleep, spiders came out and crawled over the tree, leaving their webs behind. When Father Christmas visited the house, he saw the web-covered tree and decided to turn the webs to silver. In the morning when the family awoke, the tree was sparkling and beautiful. To this day, many families decorate their trees with tinsel, often including a small silver spider and web, to commemorate this miracle.
On our tinsel tree, a single spider sits in its web amid German-inspired glass-and-tinsel ornaments: icicles we made from vintage garland beads, and butterflies with glass bodies and shimmering tinsel-wire wings.
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Tabletop Trees Centerpiece has given a very coordinate look for a decorations at Christmas party. This is a very nice Centerpiece. Loved this Idea!!!
I, too, am of Ukrainian ancestry and have never heard of the spider web being used to decorate a tree, however: never mind the grousing!! It is beautiful, so some suggestions for making the web? Can't find a pretty web just anywhere you know.
The same applies to Ukrainian folklore - never heard of Father Christmas (there used to be Grandfather Frost) or spiders (?!) on Christmas trees. Nobody ever put a spider web or a spider on a Christmas tree, nobody ever heard of it. I'm a big fan of Martha, but I'm disappointed about misleadings.
The tree looks elegant thought.
Maybe this is a Ukrainian celebration but not a German one. First, we celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve - no night where "Father Christmas" - who is Father Christmas? we only have Santa Claus could come and turn spider webs to silver. I never ever heart from spiders in a Christmas tree... and I am from Germany.