December 7 (part 1)

The Legend of the Spiders

Many, many Christmas Eves ago, in a certain house in a little town in Germany, it was customary for all the house animals to gather after the family was in bed and view the Christmas tree (which was, of course, decorated from top to bottom with beautiful sparkling lights and glistening glass balls).
And so, when the last footstep had sounded on the upstairs floor, and deep, sleepy snores filled the bedrooms, the creatures gathered around the twinkling tree. the yellow canary chirped and warbled in wonder, flitting brightly from branch to branch. The aloof tabby at first lounged about licking its paws, but was soon prowling intently beneath the glimmering tree, eyes round and shining with obvious delight. The family dog gazed contentedly at the happy sight, and even the shy, little mice scuttled in for a merry peek.
In this manner, all the creatures of the house appeared. All except the small gray spiders. And where were they? Well, the house mother (a neat and tidy woman) had no use for spiders. She was continually going around with a big broom, sweeping things up, so the spiders had to run off double quick. It was only in the most remote nooks and crannies of the house that the spiders were even close to being safe.
But the spiders longed to see the marvelous tree, the beautiful tree all bright and shining. So they complained to the Christmas Fairy (who loves all creatures, even the homeliest and most humble) and the Christmas Fairy let them in to see the tree when everyone else was gone.
What a time they had! They all came...creepy, creepy, creepy...from the attic and the cellar, from the walls and along the hall, and into the beautiful room. Dainty little mama spiders and big proud papa spiders and teensy weensy baby spiders and respected old grandpa spiders all came and looked. Such a marvelous sight! And then, they began to climb, branch to branch, needle to needle, ball to ball. To the very tip top star and down again they went, creepy, crawly, in and out, right up close to every pretty little thing they could see.
Finally, they were done. Slowly, silently, contentedly, they crept down and disappeared and vanished - just like that! But the tree - it was now covered with cobwebs - dull, gray cobwebs from top to bottom! Not a twig had the little spiders missed.
Now the Christmas Fairy knew well how the house mother disliked cobwebs, and she knew how much the children would be disappointed to find their tree, so carefully decorated, covered with dull webs. And she loved them all too. So she leaned and touched the webs and in a brief moment they all turned to shimmering silver, like glimmering icicles. Never, in all time, had there been such a tree, and it was hard to say who had been more excited to see it, all the little spiders or the children when they awoke on Christmas morning!