The Legend of the Christmas Spider and How to Make It

Posted on 16. Nov, 2008 by bestxmasgifts in Christmas

You may wonder why we put tinsel on the Christmas tree each year, and legend says that it may be due in part to spiders. Yes, you read that right: spiders might be responsible for the little slivers of silver and gold we hang from the tree’s branches. The legend says that a woman cleaned her home for the holidays and was sure to get rid of as many spiders as possible. The remaining spiders hid up in the attic, but really wanted to be there when the home was to be blessed by the Christ child. The spiders decided to sneak into the main room at night and get closer to the Christmas tree.

That night, the spiders climbed all over the Christmas tree and checked out the ornaments and all of the beautiful branches. They were delighted at its beauty, and left spider webs everywhere they went. The next day the Christ child was worried the woman would be disappointed over the spider webs, so he reached out and touched all of the spider webs. When he did this, they suddenly turned into beautiful strands of silver and gold, and this is the legend of how tinsel first begun.

If you’d like to make your own Christmas spider ornaments, it’s a very fun and simple process. You will need crystals of several different sizes (you can choose the color), a glue gun, metallic thread, and 26-gauge wire. First, glue the two largest beads together hole to hole with the glue gun. This is basically the body and head of the spider. Cut four wires and string the smaller beads along them to make the legs. Bend the end of the wire so the beads do not fall off.

Once you’ve added the beads to all four of the wires, twist them together to create the legs. Then, hot glue them to the bottom of the larger beads so that it takes the shape and form of a spider. Next, using about ten inches of the metallic thread, place it through the two holes in the biggest beads (the body), and you’re ready to go! You now have a beautiful crystal bead spider ornament, just like the legend of the Christmas spider. Make as many as you want and decorate your tree with them this year.

Tags: christmas spider, make xmas spider