Alphabet Advent – S is for…

Spider

 

My mom makes Christmas stockings for everyone who joins our family. The Christmas before my niece was born, several of us gathered together to participate. I don’t have much patience for most crafts, so I left the beading to my mom and sisters. I was asked to sort through beads and sequins to help speed along the process. I found all the spider sequins and explained that we needed to add Christmas spiders to the stocking. I was amused. Andrea was not.

The next Christmas, I received a package from Andrea. Inside was a Christmas spider with the following story:

A long time ago in Germany, a mother was busily cleaning for Christmas. The spiders fled to the attic to escape the broom. When the house became quiet the spiders slowly crept downstairs for a peek. 

Oh what a beautiful Christmas tree! 

In their excitement they scurried up the trunk and out along each branch. They were filled with happiness as they climbed all over the glittering tree. As they climbed, the tree became completely shrouded in their dusty grey spider webs.  

When St. Nicholas came with the gifts for the children and saw the tree covered with spider webs, he smiled because saw how happy the spiders were, but he knew how heartbroken the mother would be if she saw the tree covered with the dusty webs.

So he turned the webs to silver and gold. The tree sparkled and shimmered and was even more beautiful than before. 

That's why we have tinsel on our tree and every tree should have a Christmas spider in it's branches! 

Author Unknown

For a great tutorial on how to make your own Christmas Spider, please check out Tanya’s tutorial:

DIY Beaded Christmas Spider

She also has a beautiful post where she shares her 2011 collection:

DIY Christmas Spider Inspiration