My Family's Incredible Holiday Tradition of hiding & finding the Christmas Pickle

My Incredible Holiday Tradition of hiding & finding the Christmas Pickle

The Christmas pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present. While the Christmas pickle is often claimed to be a German custom, it is fairly unknown in Germany but widely spread across the USA. 

It is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim. And its story would not be the first tradition of Christmas born of a total fabrication. It is the little-known tradition of the Christmas pickle.

 My family has participated in this tradition since I was a child;  my grandparents who are of German descent always left the last ornament which was the prized pickle alongside the plate of milk & cookies for Santa.  So that Santa would hang the last ornament ( the ever loved glass pickle).  The next morning after the stockings & presents were all open, (which in our home takes till after noon; I will explain that tradition in another post) my cousins and I would gather round the tree and eagerly play 'Find the pickle', sort of like I spy, as the rules were no touching we just had to use our eyes and the first one to find the pickle got the extra present which was always a silly gift. 

Today I have carried that tradition down to my family and my children in turn have carried it down to my grands.  I must add that my adult kids really got into this tradition so much that now we have two pickles for the tree, one for the adults to find and one for the little ones. I must say I helped spread this tradition; as the very first Christmas each of my adult children celebrated as newlyweds, mom gave them a gift of there very own pickle for there very first tree.  And with our rather large family we still wait until everyone is gathered together and sometime late christmas afternoon our family plays 'Find the Christmas Pickle"; you should see the competiveness among my grown adults and there wives as they play I spy the pickle.  For the last few yeaars the adults present has been entertainment related, like last year I put two movie tickets & a bag of Micrwave popcorn in an old Movie Tin.  My adult children have added there own element that when they have friends over for the holidays, their friends get to find the pickle hidden in their tree and win the illusive extra present.

saure Gurke, Weihnachtsgurke

 Here's the pickle "legend" ( attached to the Glass Pickle Ornament)

 "A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year." This Christmas pickle story, with a few minor variations, can be found all over the Web and in print inside the ornament package. It says that Germans hang a pickle-shaped glass ornament on the Christmas tree hidden away so it's difficult to find. The first child to find it on Christmas morning gets a special treat or an extra present.

The Lauscha Connection

There may be, however, a somewhat tenuous German connection to the glass pickle ornament.  Glass Christmas ornaments were being produced in Germany. As early as 1597, the small town of Lauscha, now in the German state of Thuringia (Thüringen), was known for its glass-blowing (Glasbläserei). The small industry of glass-blowers produced drinking glasses and glass containers. In 1847 a few of the Lauscha craftsmen began producing glass ornaments (Glasschmuck) in the shape of fruits and nuts. These Glaskugeln were made in a unique hand-blown process combined with molds (formgeblasener Christbaumschmuck). Soon these unique Christmas ornaments were being exported to other parts of Europe, as well as England and the U.S.

Background legend/story

 A descendent of a soldier who fought in the American Civil War, John Lower (Hans Lauer?), born in Bavaria in 1842, wrote to tell about a family story that had to do with a Christmas pickle. According to family lore, "John Lower was captured and sent to prison in Andersonville, Georgia. ...In poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for John Lower. According to family legend, John said that the pickle-by the grace of God-gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. Once he was reunited with his family he began a tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree. The first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune."

 Another legend surrounding the infamous pickle

The other legend, perpetuated in Berrien Springs, MI, is a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the innkeeper, a mean and evil man, stuffed the boys into a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, became aware of the boys' plight, tapped the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys were magically freed.

Today Berrien Springs calls itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. They celebrate with an annual Christmas Pickle Festival held during the early part of December. A parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister who passes out fresh pickles along the parade route, is the featured event. You may even purchase the German glass pickle ornaments at the town's museum. Several years back we were witness to this wonderful event.

No wonder people in this southwestern Michigan village relish the Christmas Pickle Parade. 

Where else can you sample crosscut sweets, sweet pickles, kosher dill spears, original spears, hamburger dills, genuine dills and piping hot, batter-dipped fried pickles? Not to mention the festival's specialty, chocolate-covered gherkins. 

The parade  featured organizers tossing free pickles into the crowd, Santa in a llama-drawn cart, a Grand Dillmeister and a Pickle Prince and Princess.