Christmas spider

In East Europe it's believed to be lucky to see a spider on a Christmas tree. There are many people who decorate their Christmas trees with tinsel and glitter, also "angel hair" and shiny baubles in the shape of cobwebs and glittering spiders. The reason ornamental spiders are placed on trees comes from a belief that spiders bring good luck, and especially during Yule season on Christmas trees. 

There is an old story from either the Ukraine or Germany, about the origins of the Christmas spider tradition. No one knows who the author was except that it's been passed down as an oral folktale and told to children. While most people fear spiders during Halloween, spiders have a magical meaning at Yule. 

The story begins about a poor widow who lives with her children in a small house. A pinecone fell to the abode floor of the hut, and there it planted itself, growing to become a tree. The widow and children loved the tree and they cared for it. During Christmas, the widow felt sad because she was too poor to give her children a nice Christmas. They couldn't afford decorations to put on their tree. Meanwhile some spiders living in shadowy corners of the house observed the tree and wanted to visit it. So while the widow and her children were sleeping, the spiders crawled around the tree and covered it in cobwebs.

Then in the morning, after the widow had woken up, she opened the window to let in sunlight. She and her children were amazed to see their tree was sparkling in gold and silver. Another version goes that was during the night while widow and children were asleep, Santa visited the house and saw the tree was covered in cobwebs. He appreciated the work done by the spiders so he gave it some magic by transforming the webs into tinsel. This tree was beautiful and the widow was able to live well and provided better for her children afterwards.  

She Wolf Night