On The Seventh Day Of Creepmas, My True Love Gave To Me...

... the folklore about how tinsel came to be!

(Source)

My mom used to tell me this story when I was younger. It was one of my favorite holiday stories. She had heard it from her uncle who traveled around the world, especially in Europe.

Once, there was a poor mother who had a couple of children. She wanted very much for her children to have presents, but she couldn't afford anything at the time. Wanting to try to make her children happy, she put her children to bed after supper, then sneaked out of the house as quietly as possible not to wake them. She searched for a tree to cut down by candlelight. 

In the forest, some spiders saw what the woman was doing. In curiosity, they followed her home as she was dragging the huge tree to her house. After putting up the tree, she busied herself by baking cookies, and then putting up fruits, nuts, and the cookies she baked on the tree. After that, she cleaned every nook and cranny of her house. Being exhausted, she stumbled up the stairs to her bed. She felt as if she hadn't done the best job for her children. She wept as she fell asleep. 

The spiders, feeling bad for the poor mother, called their friends that hid around the house and out in the woods nearby. Away they weaved their webs, to the very top, all around the tree in the most prettiest patterns. Satisfied, all the spiders then slipped away from the house.

Father Christmas watched from the shadows the whole time, and saw this act of kindness for the poor woman and her children. He decided to take the look of the webs up a notch, and turned the webs into gold and silver.

The next morning, the family awoke and came downstairs. The mother was still brokenhearted as she walked down the stairs since she didn't want to disappoint her kids. Everyone's eyes grew wide in amazement as they saw the tree. It was a very merry Christmas indeed, and they were thankful of this miracle.

It is a tradition to put tinsel and a spider on your tree in remembrance and tribute to the kind spiders.

Keep that in mind when you decorate your Creepmas tree. ^w^