Never hidden a pickle on my Christmas tree

Ever hid a pickle on your Christmas tree?

Neither have I.

It’s pretty strange that the guy whose family keeps the Christmas eve gift tradition alive wouldn’t know anything about this holiday tradition, but I don’t remember hearing about it, let alone know someone held with the tradition of the Christmas pickle.

The tradition, if you will, calls for a pickle-shaped ornament to be hidden on the Christmas tree. The child who spies the pickle among the tree’s branches first receives the first present, a special present especially for the pickle-finder.

I guess it’s been “a thing” for at least a century. Some stories held that it was an old German tradition but a survey taken by a U.S. newspaper a few years ago found that not many Germans were even aware of the tradition. So maybe it’s just a made-up U.S. tradition.

The earliest folks took notice of a pickle on their Christmas tree in America was in the 1880s when the Woolworth Company started selling ornaments imported from Germany in the shapes of various fruits and vegetables. The story about the Christmas pickle probably started about that time.

Other possible roots for the green vegetable legend are one where a dying Civil War soldier of German descent survived in a prison by bumming a last pickle off the guard, fortifying him enough to survive. There was also a legend whereby two young boys were murdered by an evil storekeeper, and their bodies stuffed in a pickle barrel. They were brought back to life when Saint Nicholas stopped by for a pickle.

Then, the tradition got deeper American roots in the 20th Century as the company Old World Christmas Ornaments commercialized the idea. They sold hand-blown glass pickle ornaments and the company founder Tim Merck wrote down his own version of the story.

While Merck actually imported his ornaments from Germany, it is not known if the version he published for company purposes was one he heard told in Germany or if it was completely his own concoction.

Apparently by the 1990s the Christmas pickle tradition was so well known that one town was holding their own Christmas pickle festival every December. One of the big pickles behind the festival was Dick Schinkel (no I’m not making this up its true; I read it on the Internet). Schinkel said the Christmas pickle idea had been swiped from Old World Christmas ornaments.

Barrien Springs, Mich., became so famous for its pickle festival that the Pickle Packers International dubbed the town the Christmas pickle capital of the world, another missed opportunity for Germany.

No matter where the tradition began I hope that you have a Christmas pickle on your tree this year and you’re the first to spot the cucumber.

I hope you relish this Christmas story and have a Merry Christmas in your household.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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