Word.ws English Dictionary

Christingle

Syllables: Christ·in·gle/ˈkɹɪstɪŋɡ(ə)l/

Christingle noun: a small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.

christingle: a small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical...
Image: Timmywimmy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Christingle (plural Christingles)

  1. A small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.
    • I lit the three Christingles, / I lit them one by one, / On the merry, merry Christmas Eve, / When all the work was done. / I lit the three Christingles, / And they burned with a joyous ray, / But the faces that bent above them / Were fuller of light than they.1869 January 23, “Christingles”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume VII, number 160, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., successors to...
    • A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon around it. A small candle is set in the top. Four sticks, usually cocktail sticks, are placed in the orange. Pieces of fruit or small sweets are placed on the sticks. A Christingle is full of symbolism. The orange represents the world. The red ribbon is...2002, Gordon Geddes, Jane Griffiths, “The Christmas Cycle of Festivals”, in Christian Belief and Practice: The Roman Catholic Tradition (GCSE Religious Studies for AQA), Oxford: Heinemann Educational...
  2. A church service for children incorporating Christingles, usually held during Advent.
    • The Christingle service always attracts lots of people so the giving out of the oranges has to be limited little children; otherwise, some big children (i.e., teenagers) have been known to try their luck and line up for an orange too! I always used to take my two daughters, Victoria and Alexandra...2016, Victoria Williams, quoting Rosemary Williams, “Christingle, United Kingdom”, in Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby Showers to Funerals, volumes 1 (Birth and Childhood), Santa...

Examples of Christingle in a sentence

  • A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon around it.2002, Gordon Geddes, Jane Griffiths, “The Christmas Cycle of Festivals”, in Christian Belief and Practice: The Roman Catholic Tradition...
  • The Christingle service has its origins in the Moravian Church and dates back to 20th December 1747 in Mairenborn, Germany.2015 November 25, Rachel Stevenson, “268 Years of Christingle”, in The Children's Society, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015:
  • I always used to take my two daughters, Victoria and Alexandra, to the Christingle.2016, Victoria Williams, quoting Rosemary Williams, “Christingle, United Kingdom”, in Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby...

Forms of Christingle

pluralChristingles

Origin of Christingle

Uncertain; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, possibly from dialectal German Christkindl, Christkindle (“the Christ child, believed to deliver presents to children on Christmas Eve; the presents so brought”), from Christ (“Christ”) + Kindl, Kindle (dialectal diminutive of Kind (“child”)). The -ingle portion of the word may be a corruption of Kris Kringle (“Santa Claus”) (also derived from German Christkindl, Christ Kinde) among the German community in the United States.

Questions about Christingle

What does Christingle mean?
Christingle means a small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.
How do you use Christingle in a sentence?
A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon around it.
What part of speech is Christingle?
Christingle is a noun.
How do you pronounce Christingle?
Christingle is pronounced /ˈkɹɪstɪŋɡ(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of Christingle?
The plural of Christingle is Christingles.

Words near Christingle in the dictionary

  1. Christina
  2. Christina piercing
  3. Christina piercings
  4. Christine
  5. Christing
  6. Christingle
  7. Christingles
  8. Christison
  9. Christisons
  10. christite
  11. Christkike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Christingle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Christingle.wav.

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