Stories from The Story Tree Company

The Fairy at the Top of the Christmas Tree

From Morgan

Have you ever wondered why we decorate a tree at Christmas? Why we wind silver tinsel around the tree and put a fairy on the top? Or why we hang stars and flashing lights on the tree’s branches?

Well, long, long ago, the land which we call Europe had many great forests. It is said…that within these great forests lived the fairies or the fair ones. While it is true that the faeries had pale skin from living in the dullness of the forests, this is not how they got their name. They were called fairies because they were fair of heart, fair of mind and fair of spirit, and so the Faerie had been rewarded by the Gods and Goddesses with the gift of the knowledge of magic.

The Faerie, like many creatures who possessed the knowledge of magic, had a special fondness for children. Every mid-winter’s eve, the Queen of the Faerie invited all the children of all clans and tribes to visit her faedom deep in heart of the forest.

Since only the children were invited and the forest can be a scary and dangerous place for children who don’t know it well, the Queen of the forest bade the spiders to weave a web from the edge of the forest right into the centre where she sat at her throne.

Then at sunset as the children gathered at the edge of the forest, the Queen waved her magic wand, turning the spider’s web to silver threads that glittered under star and moonlight, guiding the children through the darkness of the forest in towards her throne. As the children made their way through the forest, the flickering torches carried by the older children could be seen by their parents as they waited outside. Children often took gifts which they made for the Faerie, though it wasn’t necessary to have one.
As they reached the Queens throne, the children would approach her in single file. One at a time and with a whisper in her ear they would ask for a gift which ONLY THE FAERIE could bring. Then with a kiss on the cheek from the Queen of The Faerie, each child would follow the silver threads back to the edge of the forest where their parents waited for them. The children knew they were not to speak of what they saw or tell what wish they had made for, if they did, they knew their wish would not come true.

Today the Faerie, like the forests are few; and the children of human tribes are many. Most children no longer have the opportunity to visit the faerie in their forests, but those of us who still believe in the faerie provide a small forest in which they might dwell on mid-winter’s Eve (mid-summer here in OZ).

We bring our little forest into our homes and decorate the forest or tree with symbols of a time long past.
A silver thread is wound from the bottom edge of the tree through its branches to the top center of the tree- symbolizing the silver spider webs. Silver stars are hung; flashing electric lights replace the flickering torches. Little statues of elfin and faerie are placed on the tree with a Queen of the Faerie on top, protecting her faedom. On mid-winters morn, children awake to find presents at the bottom of the tree representing the gifts of the faerie.

Don’t forget to put some food and drink out for the Faerie who dwell in your little forest (tree). Have you been ‘fair’ or good all year?