TELL ME A STORY
Spiders and Santa put sparkle on the home Christmas tree
"The Christmas Spiders" is a German legend brought to America.
Adapted by Amy Friedman
Many years ago, so long ago that nobody quite remembers exactly when it was, there stood in the middle of a thick forest in Germany a big, beautiful stone house.
A family lived in the house, and everyone who visited fell in love with the place. Visitors included the children's friends, friends of the mother and father — and dozens and dozens of spiders who, during the chilly wintertime, made their home inside the big stone house, where they often warmed themselves by the fire.
One year everyone in the house was preparing for their annual Christmas celebration. Mother baked gingerbread in the oven and roasted a huge turkey in the great wood stove.
Father busied himself shoveling snow from the walking paths so everyone could reach the house come Christmas Day, and the children decorated the great fir tree with shimmering Christmas balls, shining stars, candles and pine cones.
Late in the day, Mother shooed the family upstairs. "Everyone leave me now," she said, "and I will finish cleaning the house." And while the others climbed upstairs to go to bed, Mother pulled out her biggest broom.
When the spiders that had gathered near the hearth saw Mother wielding her big broom, they scurried away to hide. The spiders were not fond of that mighty broom. They feared if they were not careful, Mother would whisk them away with the dirt and the dust.
And so, while Mother swept the floor and brushed down the ceiling, the draperies, the tables and the chairs until not a speck of dust was left on them, the spiders shivered with fear.
They hid in the cracks between the floorboards, hung upside down from the ceiling, and crouched as flat as they could in corners and crevices, or wherever they could find a safe spot.
"Stay hidden until she's through," the older spiders cautioned the youngsters, who had never known the scratchy, scary, powerful push of a broom.
Mother swept until very late, and finally, when she thought everything was as clean as could possibly be, she put away the broom. The spiders did not move, though, as Mother climbed the stairs, dressed in her flannel nightgown and climbed into bed. Still the spiders waited.
They wanted to make sure she was asleep, for they feared that if she saw even one of them, she would go after the broom again.
At last the spiders heard Mother let out a long, deep sigh, saw her close her eyes, and then go fast asleep.
"We're free," the spiders whispered, and they crawled out of their hiding spots — out of those corners and crevices and floorboards. They breathed deep sighs of relief, and because so many spiders were in that house, when they breathed a little breeze swept through the house and the fir cones shivered.
Now the spiders, weary of their long, dull day, looked up at the Christmas tree. "It's beautiful!" they cried, and one by one they scurried up the trunk and dashed along the branches, admiring the gleaming ornaments, the fragrant cones, the shimmering stars and candles, and the beautiful angel. All along the branches they raced, and as they did, they left in their tracks long, winding, sticky spiderwebs.
"Look, look, look!" they cried. They could not get enough of the sight and the smell of this marvelous Christmas tree. They carefully inspected every last inch of it, and when they were finished there, they looked up at the mantelpiece, and noticing the Christmas stockings hanging over the hearth, they decided they must see these as well.
After several hours, the spiders grew weary from their joyful investigation. Soon they too closed their eyes and fell fast asleep.
Before long, Santa arrived at the house, and as he reached to place his gifts beneath the tree and in the stockings, he noticed the sight. In their haste and happiness, the spiders had left the whole tree covered with sticky, dull, gray spiderwebs.
Santa was quite surprised, and at first he wondered what on earth Mother had been thinking this year, but when he inspected more closely, he saw the sleeping spiders with smiles upon their faces. He guessed what had happened.
As far as Santa was concerned, the spiders were also members of this happy holiday household, and everyone was supposed to enjoy Christmas. He was glad they had had fun on the tree and the mantel.
Still, he worried about Mother's reaction, and so, with a single act of magic, Santa transformed all those sticky gray spiderwebs into gleaming, sparkling streams that laced around every branch of the beautiful tree and wound around the hearth.
For a moment, all the candles on the tree and mantel glowed with a special radiance. Then the light faded and Santa was gone.
In the morning, when the household awoke, everyone — even the spiders — gasped at the gorgeous sight, for now the tree itself sparkled.
And ever since that day, people have decorated their trees with silvery tinsel in memory of the Christmas spiderwebs.
