The Legend of the Spider and the Christmas Tree

Country: Mostly Ukraine, but also Germany and Poland
When: Christmas period

The tale originates with a poor woman and her children who lived in a small hut at the edge of a forest. One day a pine cone fell on the earth floor of the hut, where in the hope that it would grow, and knowing that their poverty would not allow them to have a Christmas tree, they cared and nurtured the pine cone until it grew into a tree by the time Christmas arrived. Despite having a tree however, on the eve of Christmas, the children still cried as there was no money to decorate the tree they had spent so long nurturing into growth. As they fell asleep on Christmas Eve, the spiders in the hut had heard the children’s tears, and decided to decorate the tree with their webs, which to the delight of the woman and her children, sparkled with gold and silver light from the rising sun, when they awoke. 

The legend is continued to this day, where finding a cobweb on a Christmas tree is considered good luck, and also claimed to be the origin of tinsel. In the Ukraine, children create Spider Christmas tree ornaments made from paper and wire called ‘pavuchky’ (little spiders). 
 
Image is orginal Inspired by the Christmas mythology and comes on a wooden slice and hung with ribbon, the text of the myth as above is also displayed on the back of the ornament.