A Ukrainian Christmas

I went out with some friends last night for a Christmas dinner and a get together. It was much too long since I've last seen them all and they all have new things going on in their lives as I do. One of the girls made this ornament for each of us (which means that she is probably more of a Martha than I am), it is very beautiful and I hung it on my tree when I got home (at the top so the cats can't reach it). Along with the ornament she included a paragraph on how it is associated with Christmas time. I will share it with you too.

A Ukrainian Christmas Tree has a Spider on it for good luck.
The tradition of spiders and webs on the tree is based upon the following legend:

There once was a widow, who lived in a small hut. She was very poor. One day a pinecone dropped on the floor and it took root. Her children were excited that they would have a tree for Christmas. All summer long they made plans on how they would decorate the tree. They were very poor, so poor that they didn't have anything to decorate the tree with. Despite their hard times, the children and the widow were always helpful to others in the village. The widow went to bed on Christmas Eve knowing that the tree would not be decorated. Early on Christmas morning, the woman was awakened by her children. "Mother, mother wake up and see the tree it is beautiful!" The mother arose and saw that during the night a spider had spun a web around the tree. The youngest child opened the window to the first light of Christmas Day. As the shafts of the sun crept along the floor, it touched one of the threads of the spider web and instantly the web was changed into gold and silver. And from that day forward the widow never wanted for anything.