Thought for the Week

A Christingle Homily

40 years ago this year, the Christingle was brought to England by John Pensom of the Children’s Society. Nobody really knows exactly how Christingles first started, but the first record of their use is on Christmas Eve 1747 in Germany, at a service of the Moravian Church.

It probably started with a Priest who wrapped a red ribbon round a candle to give to each of the children at his church, to remind them of the love of God at Christmas time.

One story is that at in those days, children were asked to bring gifts to Church to put beside the Crib, just as the wise men brought gifts for the Baby Jesus. One family was very poor, but they wanted to give something too. “I know,” said the youngest girl, “let’s give Baby Jesus the orange”. They had been saving an orange for Christmas. At that time in Germany, oranges were rare and precious, and this one had been a present from an uncle who was a sailor and had brought it for the children from a far off country. Because it was so precious, they had put it carefully away, so that each of the children could have a segment at Christmastime. But their house was a bit damp, and the orange had now become a bit mouldy on the top. How could they possibly present a mouldy orange to the baby Jesus?

Then the father had an idea. He took a sharp knife, and hollowed out the mouldy bit, and pushed a candle stump in instead. One of the girls took a red ribbon from her hair, and tied it round the middle of the orange. Perhaps she remembered the candles with the ribbons that the priest had given them the previous year.

Fortunately, they had got to church early, because when they tried to put their orange beside the crib, they found that it wouldn’t stand up – it kept falling over. So they found four pine needles, and used them to prop it up, with the ends of the pine needles stuck into the orange. To keep them going through the long service, and the cold walk back home, they had a few raisins, and so to make it look as if the pine needles were part of the gift, they stuck a raisin on each pine needle.

Other people at church could afford to give much more, and some of them sniggered when they saw the orange. But when it came to the sermon, the priest took the orange, and held it up. Look he said, here is the story of Christmas. The orange represents the world, because God so loved the world that He gave his only Son to be our Saviour. And the red ribbon represents the blood of Christ which was shed for each and every one of us. The four pine needles represent the four corners of the world – it doesn’t matter where you come from, or whether you are rich or poor, and here he smiled at the family who had brought the orange, because God loves us all just the same. The raisins represent the gifts of God in creation. Finally, on the top, we have the candle, reminding us that Jesus is the Light of the World, shining to the Glory of God the Father.

So the family’s orange had become not just a sermon, but a Christingle, and the gift they gave to Baby Jesus, has been a gift for all of us ever since.

By the time Christingles were introduced to England, over two hundred years later, Aluminium foil had been invented, and so a square of aluminium foil is usually placed on the top of the orange, and pushed into the hole to keep give the candle a better base. But of course, the aluminium foil does what we are all supposed to do – it reflects the light of Christ. So the last little bit to, be added to the Christingle is you, and that’s really important, because God loves You!

Father Charles Howard, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude

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