- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 2
-
Sparkle (0)
My dear friend Mark handed me a small, elegantly wrapped box. "I know Christmas traditions are important to you," he said. "That is why I am giving you a German Christmas Pickle."
"A what?" I asked, trying not to seem surprised. Surely I had misheard. Mark is from Kansas, and his family was originally from Germany. A German Christmas ......what? Nickle, maybe? Nutpick?
"Pickle," he replied. "These are hung last on the Christmas tree in Germany, and hidden deep in the boughs. On Christmas morning, the child who finds where the pickle is hanging gets a special blessing for the year, and gets to open the first Christmas gift."
I carefully unwrapped the package to find a lovely green glass pickle (in so much as a pickle can be lovely.) I dutifully placed it on my tree, and have done so for successive years.
When anyone asks, "Is that a ......pickle?" I explain The Custom of the German Christmas Pickle.
I'm sure I looked like I was among the global cognoscenti of Things Christmas.
"Oh," people would say.
"Yes," I would reply. "It was a gift."
This year I mentioned it to my friend Chris, who is actually from Germany. I explained that I have not found my German Christmas Pickle since moving here. She was very quiet on her end of the phone until she finally asked,"Did you say Christmas PICKLE?"
I said "Yes, it's German. Didn't you have a Christmas Pickle in Germany?"
"To eat?" she asked.
"No, on the tree!" I said.
"Maybe it's Polish," she said.
"I am Polish," I answered. "We have no Polish Christmas Pickles."
We then wondered, since the borders changed so often in Eastern Europe if perhaps it was Hungarian, or Austrian, and just wrongly attributed. Or perhaps it was a more regional custom.
She called her sister in Heidelberg. "Nein," said her sister. No such thing as a German Christmas Pickles.
I hit the net. OK, here was a store that sold them. And here is their description:
Inge Legendary German Christmas Pickle Ornaments.
4.25 inch glass Christmas pickle ornaments. A German Christmas pickle ornament used as a decoration on the Christmas tree seems odd at first, but the German Christmas pickle ornaments are an old German Christmas ornament tree tradition. Christmas German glass pickle ornaments are known world wide for their beauty and Christmas German ornament traditions. Christmas in Germany would not be complete without this unique German pickle ornament's history.The German Christmas Pickle Ornaments Story.
The German glass pickle ornaments are considered a special Christmas in Germany decoration by many families where the Christmas tree was decorated on Christmas eve.The glass Christmas pickle ornament is always the last glass ornament to be hung on the Christmas tree. The parents hide the glass pickle ornament in the Christmas tree among the other German glass ornaments. When the children were allowed to view the
Christmas tree they would begin gleefully searching for the German glass pickle ornament. The children knew that whoever found the glass pickle ornament first would receive an extra little gift and would be the one to begin the unwrapping of the Christmas gifts.
Then this store had them as well -- The Catholic Supply store -- and they called them an "Old World German Tradition."
Mahalo's search engine says:
* While no one is sure, there are many different stories that claim to be the origin of the German Christmas pickle.
* One story cites a (Civil War) prisoner-of-war asking for a pickle after his was at death's door due to starvation. A guard took pity on him, giving him a pickle which supposedly renewed his strength and gave him the will to continue living. After his release, it is said that he began the tradition of hiding a pickle in the Christmas tree.
The problem there, is that the Civil War ended in 1865, but, according to German.about.com glass ornaments on Christmas trees did not gain popularity in America until Woolworth's started importing them from -- guess where -- Germany -- in 1880, a long time after the war ended.
A variety of sites debunk this legend, although some claim that the custom is observed only in the small German town of Höxter. The problem is, no one from Höxter has ever said they know of such a custom. In fact, no Germans have come forward to say that this custom originated in Germany.
Some stories of The German Christmas Pickle have the children
