The legend of the Christingle

A long time ago, children were asked to take a gift to put beside the crib in church, but a poor family had no money for gifts. So they decided to make their own. They found an orange, though it was over-ripe. So they scooped out the bad bits at the top and inserted a candle to turn the orange into a lantern. To decorate it, a girl wrapped her hair ribbon around the middle. To keep the ribbon in place, they put in four small sticks, on the ends of which they put raisins.

They were worried that their home-made lantern would look stupid alongside the expensive gifts from other children, but the priest praised them, and said how special the orange was because:

• The orange is round like the world.
• The candle gives light in the dark like the love of God and the light of Jesus.
• The red ribbon goes all around the ‘world’ and is a symbol of the blood Jesus shed when he died for us.
• The four sticks represent North, South, East and West and also stand for the four seasons.
• The raisins (nowadays more likely sweets) represent the fruits of the earth.