It was that time of the year when people are starting to decorate their homes for Christmas. There were Christmas trees for sale on just about every vacant lot in the city. Holiday shopping was getting in high gear. You could feel the excitement as people counted down the days to Christmas. So, it was only natural that the minister and I started talking about Christmas. I asked Dr. Burgos if the commercialism bothered him. “Sometimes,” I said, “the real reason for Christmas seems to get lost in the excitement of tree decorating and all the gift giving and getting.”
Dr. Cornelius Burgos’s face seem to light up at the question and he said, “Not at all, my friend. I consider it wonderful. Trees and particularly evergreens have been a symbol of growth, death, and rebirth throughout the ages. They represent the joy of life God has endowed us with. And Christmas is a celebration of gift giving. After all, Christ was a gift—the greatest gift of all. I’m sure you remember the words–For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”
Dr. Burgos continued. “Throughout the ages Christmas has been about giving. To help the children of our Church understand that we give Christmas gifts and decorate our Christmas trees to celebrate the birth of Christ, I tell them the Ukraine story of the Christmas Spiders. Would you like to hear it?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Well, there are variations, but the one I was taught in my village goes like this”:
Once upon a time, a poor mother lived with her children in a small home. Outside their house was a tall pine tree from which a pinecone dropped and started to grow from the soil. The children had heard stories of people decorating trees to honor Christ on his birthday. So, they tended to it, ensuring that it would continue to grow and be strong until it became tall enough to be a Christmas tree to take inside their home.
On Christmas Eve, the tree was up, and the mother got busy cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year—the day of the year on which the Chris’st child was born. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished to a corner in the ceiling to avoid the housewife’s cleaning. Unfortunately, the family was poor and even though they had their Christmas tree, they had no gifts to go under it. Nor could they afford ornaments to decorate it in celebration of Christ’s birthday. The spiders, another of God’s beloved creatures, heard the sobs of the children as they went to bed and decided they would not leave the tree bare. So, the spiders created beautiful webs on the Christmas tree as their gift, decorating it with elegant and beautiful silky patterns.
When the children woke up early on Christmas morning and saw their beautiful tree, they were jumping with excitement. God was pleased, and as the rays of the sun shone on the tree his blessing for what the children and spiders had done in his Son’s name, turned the webs into glittering silver and gold making the Christmas tree dazzle and sparkle with a magical twinkle. Thus, the blessed family never suffered from want again. And, to this day, gold and silver colored tinsel decorates Christmas trees all over the world, and we exchange gifts to celebrate the birthday of Christ.