Christingle

thumb|upright=1.2|Christingles prepared for a Christmas Eve service A Christingle is a symbolic object used in the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany services of many Christian denominations. It symbolises the birth of Christ, the Light of the World. A modern Christingle is made from a candle in an orange (representing the light and the world respectively) which is typically decorated with a red ribbon and sweets or dried fruit. It has been a feature in Moravian churches across the United Kingdom since before the World Wars. As members of Moravian churches moved away from their home congregations, they took the custom of Christingles with them and introduced it to other denominations. In the 1960s John Pensom adopted it as a fundraising tool for the Children's Society of the Church of England.

==History== The history of the Christingle can be traced back to Moravian Bishop Johannes de Watteville, who started the tradition in Germany in 1747 as "an attempt to get children to think about Jesus". At that time it was just a red ribbon wrapped around a candle; it is unclear how an orange came to be incorporated into the Christingle.