The first Christingle service was held in Marienborn in Moravia in 1747, when the pastor, John de Wattville, wanting to find a new way of telling the Christmas story to children, gave each child a lighted candle tied with a red ribbon. He asked them to relight them at home and place them in their windows to show the Light of Christ to passers by. The tradition was kept alive by the Moravian church and in the United Kingdom was adopted by the Children's Society in the 1950s as a way of raising awareness of their work.

Many churches and schools now hold  Christingle services any time from Advent to the end of the Epiphany season. Each child is helped to take an orange (representing the World) and insert four cocktail sticks into it (representing the four seasons). Fruit, nuts and sweets can then be attached to the cocktail sticks to represent the fruits of the Earth. A red ribbon is then tied around the centre of the orange as a reminder that Christ died for us all. Finally, a small lighted candle is placed on top to symbolise Jesus Christ, Light of the World

Many thanks to The Reverend Jenny Lister for this contribution.

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