A Christian legend given for the origins of tinsel is that a poor widow was determined to have a memorable Christmas for her family that all she possessed was a tree. She spent many hours decorating it and finally fell asleep. Later in the night spiders wove webs all over the tree's branches. As a reward for the widow's unselfishness, the Christ-child changed the spider webs into shining silver threads.

Another legend was that as a child Jesus Christ once decorated a tree. He was assisted by angels whose hair was caught on the branches as they departed, it turned into tinsel.