Best Christmas Tree Decorations

The addition of tinsel as a decoration was brought about by the legend of the Christmas Spider…

The day before Christmas the mother of a family made a huge effort to get her home clean so it could be decorated and made ready to be blessed by the Christ child on Christmas. The spiders fled before the vigorous onslaught of the broom. They scurried away to hide up in the furthest reaches of the attic.

The house was cleaned and decorated with great care. A Christmas tree was brought in and adorned with ornaments and decorations. That night, when the family had gone to bed, the spiders returned to the main rooms of house to see what the flurry of activity had been all about. They were delighted by the beauty of the home. The Christmas tree was the center of attention, however, and the spiders ran to the tree and danced throughout its branches so they could admire each and every one of the ornaments. Of course, to do this, the spiders had to spin their webs, so the tree was soon wrapped with strands of dull gray spider silk.

In the morning, the Christ child came to bless the house. The tree was beautiful to him, for after all, the spiders were among God’s creatures, but he knew the mother, who had worked so hard to clean the house, was not likely to view the webs the same way. The Christ child touched the spider webs and they began to glisten and glimmer and turn to sparkling garlands of gold and silver.

In the morning, the entire family gathered about the Christmas tree and exclaimed that it had never looked so lovely! Only the mother knew that the sparkling strands were a true Christmas miracle and not some last-minute decoration. Since that time, it has been tradition to bedeck the tree with garlands and tinsel. While the mother still chases the spiders away for cleaning on Christmas Eve, she remembers and honors the Christmas miracle by hanging a spider ornament among the branches of the tree.

CAUTION

Tinsel is a beautiful addition to any christmas tree but please be cautious about using it if you have dogs, cats or children in the house that are prone to eating foreign objects.  Cats in particular are known for chewing and then ingesting the longs strands which can easily become twisted up in the intestinal tract and cause blockages that will require surgery to repair.

Here are the best places online to shop for your tinsel…

*Bronner’s -  beautiful silver, gold or iridescent angel hair tinsel strands for a very reasonable price.  Bronner’s is a high quality site with high standards of customer service.

*Blumchen & Company – this is for the serious tinsel decorator… authentic, old-time metal icicles, made in germany out of real pewter!  And at a very surprising price!

*1000Bulbs – your traditional, store bought, very inexpensive icicles.  So cheap, in fact, you might want to pick up a few bulbs while you’re there.

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