The Yule Spiders

The Yule Spiders
By Christine Moonflower

Long, long ago on the eve of the Winter Solstice , a night full of frightful darkness, chilling cold, softly falling snow and howling winds, a young mother was awake when all in her house was resting; preparing for Yule. She had meager funds and knew she wanted to provide a grand feast and celebration for her family. She baked batches of cookies and hung them on the tree; the gingerbreads jelly bean eyes, glittered and sparkled in the light of the candles. She gathered sweet and juicy fruits, apples, oranges, plums and pears and hung them along with nuts on every bough. The tree was decorated with bows and bulbs of every color. She hung little homemade toys on the tree; there was a drum, a silver train, a red ball, a pair of skies, a set of jacks, a deck of cards, and many dolls. She wrapped clothes that she had woven in bright paper and placed them under the tree. She hung wreathes and garlands. She swept and scrubbed the floors and washed every window. She cleaned up every cobweb and dust bunny and chased every single curious spider away. Everything was almost perfect yet she desired to do more. After the long and hard year her family had experienced she wanted this to be the most perfect Yule ever! She had seen how good her husband and children had been, doing things without her even having to ask them and she knew they too spent time late and night adding glitter and glue and making gifts for her and for the whole family. She was proud and just a little sad and finally said to herself “this will have to do,” and went to bed.

All the spiders that had scurried out of the way now emerged from their hiding places and saw the twinkling lights, and smelled the aromas of food, they were very curious and inched closer to the tree then excited they ran. They marveled at its beauty and climbed on its branches to get a closer look. One spider looked into a glass bulb and saw his distorted reflection and it startled him, he jumped nearly as high as the tree itself! The other spiders almost fell off their branches laughing. One spider snuck just the slightest nibble of a cookie before deciding that they tasted nowhere near as good as flies! One spider snuck over to the presents and tried to lift the great bow around it to sneak a peak of what was inside!

The spiders climbed and climbed, running up the trunk and darting and jumping between branches. When they finally tired and were satisfied that they had seen everything, they jumped of f of the branches and scurried to the attic. But when they got a few steps away from the tree they saw what they had done. The perfect and pristine tree was almost entirely covered in cobwebs! Every branch and ornament, every toys and treat was covered. The spiders felt so sad, so guilty, they didn’t mean for this to happen! So they set upon the task of cleaning up, but to no avail, whenever they cleaned up one strand of web they would just make another. Defeated and exhausted they headed to bed shaking their heads and saying, “this will have to do.”

Later on that night when everyone was fast asleep the full and bright Moon parted the snow filled clouds, and peaked behind their warm blanket; she looked into all the houses around her and blessed each resting face with her light. But she found one small spider still awake, she asked him why. The spider explained, “I could not sleep, I did not mean to ruin the Mothers tree, I just wanted to see all the pretty things and be part of the celebration.” The Moon asked him to lead her to the tree. There she saw the web covered tree, and laughed. The small spider said, “The Mother has always been so kind to us, never harming us, never squishing us, or chasing us outside, I wish I could do something to help her.” The Moon was touched. She winked at the young spider and shined the full light of her face onto the tree. Each thread of web changed and was now transformed into pure spun silver that sparkled and glittered in her light. The small spider was amazed; the Moon just smiled and told him not to worry and to go to bed.

That morning when the family awoke they were shocked and let out gasps of joy and amazement; this woke up the spiders who scurried downstairs expecting the worst. Instead they stopped in their tracks admiring the beauty. “What happened?” One spider asked. The small spider explained, “this is the Moon’s doing ,” and smiled. The spiders soon joined in the family’s celebration, they climbed upon the branches and examined its silver threads and watched the family open presents, eat breakfast, sing and enjoy the new sunlight shining brightly through the window, which made the silver threads truly sparkle.

The spiders and the family gave thanks to the new born Sun, to the Mother Goddess, the Moon, to Grandmother Spider and all of her family and to each other’s thoughtful and hard working hands, and warm hearts. They knew they were truly blessed and knew that the magick of the season was the joy of family and friends and of simple acts of kindness and compassion. Blessed Be!