What's a Christingle?

A Christingle is an orange with a lit candle on top, a red ribbon round its middle and four small sticks of sweets and dried fruit pushed into its sides. Every child, and every grown-up who wants one, holds a Christingle at the service. When the lights go down and the candles are lit, the church fills with hundreds of small flames.

It is the simplest picture of Christmas we know, and the service children remember all year.

• The orange is the world.
• The red ribbon is God's love wrapped around the world. For many it also stands for the blood of Jesus.
• The four sticks point to the four corners of the earth and the four seasons: everywhere, all year round.
• The sweets and dried fruit are the good things God gives us, the fruits of the earth.
• The candle is Jesus, the light of the world. "I am the light of the world," he said. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

Hold the orange, and you are holding the story: God's love wrapped round the whole world, and his light at the centre of it.

The Christingle began on 20 December 1747 in the castle at Marienborn, near Frankfurt. A Moravian bishop, Johannes de Watteville, wanted the children at the Christmas service to think about what Jesus had done for them, so he gave each of them a lit candle tied with a red ribbon. The Moravian Church carried the custom around the world, and somewhere along the way the orange appeared beneath the candle.

It arrived in the Church of England in 1968, when John Pensom of The Children's Society held a Christingle service in Lincoln Cathedral to raise money for the charity's work with children. He expected about 300 people and 1,500 came. Thousands of churches now hold a Christingle service each Advent and Christmas, and many still take a collection for The Children's Society.

Nobody is sure where the word comes from. It may be from the German Christkindl, the Christ child, or simply "Christ light".

Our Christingle services usually last about an hour and are built for families: songs everyone can sing, the Christmas story told simply, and the Christingles themselves. Children hold their Christingle with a grown-up beside them, and an adult lights the candle. Then the lights go down.

Christingle services are among the fullest of the year, so arrive in good time for a seat. You do not need to bring anything.

This year there are three:

• Christingle at South Leigh, Sunday 20 December, 4pm, St James' Church
• Christingle at Cogges, Thursday 24 December, 3pm, St Mary's Church
• Christingle at Cogges, Thursday 24 December, 5pm, St Mary's Church