VI · Legends
The legend of the Christmas spider
A tale people tellHow to read this bookReads aloud in 6 minutesRead it to a childAdded to the book
The legend of the Christmas spider is a Christmas tale from Ukraine. A poor family had nothing to hang on their tree, and in the night a spider spun its web over every branch, so that in the morning sun the whole tree glittered. It is the story behind the little spider ornaments that Ukrainian families hang on their trees.
At a glance
- Told in: Ukraine
- What happens: a spider decorates a poor family’s Christmas tree with its web
- The ornaments: pavuchky, little spiders
- What it is: a folk tale, with many versions
The tale
In Ukraine people tell of a poor family with nothing to hang on their Christmas tree. While they slept, a spider spun its web over every branch, and when the morning sun touched it, the whole tree glittered.
In some tellings the family’s little tree held only a few nuts and fruits, and by Christmas morning the webs had turned to silver and gold. The story has many versions. Some tellers end it by saying that this is why we hang tinsel on the tree.
Another telling takes us back to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. Spiders wove a curtain of web across the cave where they hid, and Herod’s soldiers, seeing the unbroken web, walked on by.
Where does this story come from?
No one knows who first told the tale. Orysia Paszczak Tracz, writing in The Ukrainian Weekly in 2006, thinks it probably came from Germany, along with the Christmas tree. If so, it found a good home: in Ukrainian folk belief the spider had long been a creature to respect.
Spiders were in Ukrainian Christmas songs long before Christmas trees. One old carol imagines the very beginning of the world, before sky or earth, when a single spiderweb floated on the sea, and on it sat the sun, the moon and the rain.
That much is the story. Here is what the record shows.
True storyThe tree itself is a newcomer in Ukraine. It arrived from Western Europe in the 1800s and stood beside the older didukh, a sheaf of grain set in the place of honor on Christmas Eve.
The spider ornaments
True storyThe spider ornament is a traditional Ukrainian Christmas tree decoration, and the Ukrainian Museum in New York teaches children and grown-ups to make one. Ukrainians call the ornaments pavuchky, little spiders, and make them from paper or wire, with webs to match. Since Christmas trees reached Ukraine only in the 1800s, the little spiders that hang on them can be no older than that.
Ukrainian homes have another kind of pavuchky too: shapes woven from straw, which need not look like spiders at all, hung from the ceiling near the ceremonial corner of the home as charms against evil spirits. In Ukrainian, even a chandelier is called a pavuk, which is the word for spider. In Ukrainian tradition, a curator at the Ukrainian Museum in New York explains, a spider is a sign of good luck.
Writers have retold the tale for children. Silver Threads, a children’s book set in Canada just before and during the First World War, weaves it into the story of an immigrant family.
Read it to a child
Reads aloud in a minute
Once there was a poor family who had a Christmas tree, but nothing to hang on it. That night, while everyone slept, a little spider climbed up the tree. It spun and spun, from branch to branch, until the whole tree was covered with its web. In the morning, the sun came up and shone on the web, and the whole tree sparkled.
Quick answers
What is the legend of the Christmas spider?
A Ukrainian Christmas tale. A poor family has nothing to hang on their tree; in the night a spider covers it with its web, and in the morning sun the whole tree glitters.
Why do people put spiders on Christmas trees?
It is a Ukrainian custom, and the ornaments recall the tale of the spider who decorated a poor family’s tree.
What are pavuchky?
Pavuchky, little spiders: Ukrainian ornaments of paper or wire, with webs to match.
Is the Christmas spider story true?
It is a folk tale, and it is told as one. The spider ornaments, though, are a real Ukrainian custom.
More: the Christmas tree, Christmas legends and folk tales, tinsel and Christmas in Ukraine.
Where our facts come from
- Orysia Paszczak Tracz, "A spider for Christmas?" (column "The Things We Do…"), The Ukrainian Weekly, December 31, 2006, No. 53 (Internet Archive copy), Paragraph 2 ("a standard Ukrainian Christmas story. It comes in many versions… a poor family has nothing with which to decorate their yalynka… a spider overnight spins its web all over the tree, making the spiderweb sparkle and glitter in the morning sunlight"; last sentence: "This explains the tradition of tinsel on the Christmas tree"); paragraph 3 (the Holy Family in a cave on the flight to Egypt; spiders cover the entrance; Herod's soldiers pass by); paragraph 4 (the tree arrived in Ukraine from Germany in the 19th century, beside the didukh); the paragraph beginning "While the story" (the story "probably arrived from Germany along with the Christmas tree"; the spider "well-established" as a symbol in Ukraine); the paragraph beginning "Yevhen Onatskyi gives examples" (the carol of the spiderweb on the sea at the beginning of the world); the paragraph beginning "The spider and spiderweb motifs" (straw pavuchky hung near the pokuttia as talismans; a chandelier is a pavuk); paragraph 6 (pavuchky, "little spiders", of paper or wire); paragraphs 8–9 (Silver Threads, 1996; Spider's Gift, 2007)
- Chrissy Callahan, "Here's why people put spider ornaments on their Christmas trees", TODAY, December 20, 2017 (updated December 21, 2018), quoting Lubow Wolynetz, folk art curator at the Ukrainian Museum, New York, Paragraph 5 (the tale as told: a few nuts and fruits; webs turned to silver and gold by Christmas morning); paragraph 8 (spiders as good-luck creatures in Ukrainian tradition, the curator quoted)
- The Ukrainian Museum (New York), "Christmas Tree Ornament Workshop: The Ukrainian Christmas Legend of the Spider", Workshop description, paragraph 1 ("make a magical-looking traditional Ukrainian Christmas tree 'spider' ornament, and learn about the Ukrainian legend behind this tradition")
- Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies), "Christmas", Paragraph on the festival ("The Christmas tree, which was adopted from Western Europe, is today an element of the New Year celebrations in Ukraine"); the Christmas Eve paragraph (the sheaf of grain, the didukh, placed in the place of honor, under the icons)