"It is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim. It is the little-known tradition of the Christmas pickle.
The Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped ornament that is the last one hung on the
tree on Christmas Eve. The first child to find the Christmas pickle gets an extra gift from Saint Nicholas. Or so
the so-called legend goes.
There are two other versions of the origins of the Christmas pickle. One
is a family story of a Bavarian-born ancestor who fought in the
American Civil War. A prisoner 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 him. The pickle by the grace of God gave him the
mental and physical strength to live on.
The other, 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.
Rumor and speculation place the origin of this tradition in Germany.
However few in modern-day Germany recognize or have even heard of the
Christmas pickle. Some in West Germany blame generations of East Germans
who may have had nothing more than pickles to decorate their Christmas
trees with after World War II. But even families and historians in East
Germany shrug at the mention of the Christmas pickle tradition.
Regardless of where it came from, the Christmas tradition survives.
Ornament manufacturers continue to make the specialty decoration and
enjoy perpetuating the myth of its legendary origins -- false though
they may be."
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| My little Christmas pickle hiding in the tree.... it's not easy to find! |
1 comment:
Thanks to you I have a pickle in my tree too...and it's so well hidden that i can't find it any more LOL
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