A little brown bird shared Bethlehem's stable with the holy family. One night as the family lay sleeping, she noticed their fire was going out. So she flew down from the rafters and fanned the fire with her wings throughout the night in order to keep the baby Jesus warm. In the morning, she was rewarded with a red breast as a symbol of her love for the newborn king.
When she came to the manger to worship the baby Jesus, a little shepherdess began to cry because she had no gift for the king. As each tear fell to the ground a beautiful white rose sprang from it. Delighted, the shepherdess gathered the roses into a bouquet and presented them to the baby. When Jesus touched the roses, a beautiful pink tinge appeared on the petals.
A young orphan boy was living with the shepherds when the herald angels appeared announcing the glad tidings of Christ's birth. On the way to Bethlehem, the child wove a crown of holly branches for the newborn king. But when he lay it before Jesus, the crown looked so unworthy that the little shepherd became ashamed of his gift and began to cry. Then the Christ Child reached out, touched the crown, caused its leaves to sparkle shiny and green, and turned the orphan's tears into scarlet berries.
A lamb named BaBa lived in the stable at Bethlehem. One night as the holy family slept, BaBa crept up to the manger to watch the baby sleep. While she watched, BaBa noticed how thin the infant's blanket was and that he was shivering from the cold. Filled with love for the child, BaBa warmed him with her own body throughout the night. When Jesus touched her rough, shaggy coat, it was transformed into a beautiful soft wool coat.
After hiding in Egypt for some years, Joseph decided to move his family back to Nazareth. During the night they camped along the side of the road. One night while they slept, their donkey heard the soldiers' horses coming from afar. Afraid that the soldiers were coming to kill Jesus, the donkey neighed to wake Joseph. He neighed and neighed, again and again, but his voice was just too soft to wake the sleepers. Finally, as the soldiers approached, the donkey prayed for a loud voice to wake the family. When he neighed again, he was rewarded with the loud bray such as donkeys have had ever since.
When Jesus was born, the rosemary was just a plain green plant without fragrance or blossom. One day as the holy family traveled to Egypt, Mary stopped to wash some of the baby's clothes in a stream. Looking about for something to hang the little garments on to dry, Mary chose the rosemary bush and hung Jesus' clothes upon it. As Mary gathered the dry clothes together, she blessed the rosemary with blue flowers to match the color of her own cloak and a spicy fragrance as a remembrance of Christ's garments.
In order to visit the newborn king, the three wise men traveled with a caravan across many miles of desert. Traveling as quickly as they could, to reach the baby before the star departed, they neglected to carry enough water for both man and beast. The wise men asked the camels to travel without water until the end of their journey so they might reach the baby in time. The camels were agreeable and raced across the desert without rest or water. When they finally reached the stable, the camels worshipped the baby and thanked God for giving them the strength for their waterless journey. Drinking their fill from the stable's trough, the camels were rewarded with humps to keep them from thirsting in the desert.
The shepherds gathered quite a throng in Bethlehem as they journeyed to meet the newborn king. A little blind boy sat along the side of the town's road and, hearing rumors of the angel's announcement, he begged the traveler's to lead him to the Christ child. No one would take the time. After the crowd passed and the streets grew silent, the boy heard the faint tinkling of a cow's bell in the distance. He thought to himself, "Perhaps that cow is in the very stable where Christ lies," and followed the bell to the stable. There, the cow led the boy to the infant Jesus.
The legend is told of a grandmotherly old woman (la Bafana in Italy) (Babushka in Russia) who refused to go out into the cold night with the shepherds to visit the baby Jesus. In the morning, she prepared a basket of gifts for the child and visited the stable only to find it empty. Since that day, she has traveled the world, peering into each child's face seeking to find the Christ. At Christmas time she leaves gifts for every child always hoping one of them will be the Christ.
In one village in Mexico it was customary for each person to place a gift on the altar of the church for the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. One Christmas an angel told a small child to take some dried up weeds he'd found along the road to the church for the baby. When the child placed the weeds on the altar, they turned into the first poinsettia. Since then the flower has been called "The Flower of the Holy Night" or "Flor de la Noche Buena".
One night as the holy family was fleeing to Egypt, Joseph heard the soldiers riding behind them. Since there were no rocks or caves to hide in, the family hid beneath the branches of a holly bush. Normally, the bush would not have offered much shelter since it had lost all its leaves in the fall. But that night the holly miraculously pushed forth its leaves and grew sharp thorns to hide the family. Since then the holly has borne leaves all year long.
Another legends states that the holly used to have white berries. But when the crown of thorns was woven of holly branches and placed on Christ's head, the blood which trickled onto the crown turned the berries red.
A little street boy in Bethlehem had no gift for the newborn king so he juggled for the baby and made him laugh. That is why we hang balls on the Christmas tree - to remember the laughter of God.
One Christmas Eve when the Christ child came to bless the Christmas trees, he noticed that the tree in one home was covered with cobwebs, drawn by curious spiders. When he blessed the tree, Jesus turned the cobwebs into beautiful strands of gold and silver garland.
Several legends claim the fir is one of the trees from the garden of Eden. One says the fir is the Tree of Life whose leaves shrank into tiny needles when Eve plucked the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life did not bloom again until the night Christ was born.
Another legend claims that Adam carried a twig of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil with him from the garden. This twig later became the fir which was used for the Christmas tree and the Holy Cross.
Comments© 1996 by Suzetta Tucker
To cite this page:
Tucker, Suzetta. "ChristStory Christmas Legends." ChristStory
Christian Bestiary. 1996. http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/xlegend.htm
().