The mysterious origin story of this unlikely Christmas tree ornament.
The first person who finds the pickle gets the first gift, and bragging rights until next Christmas.
Read on for the mysterious origin story of the unlikely Christmas tree ornament.
Credit: picture alliance / Getty Images
What is the Christmas Pickle Tradition?
Every year, an ornament shaped like a pickle is the last to be hung on the tree.
Where Did the Christmas Pickle Tradition Originate?
Most people are under the impression that ye olde Christmas Pickle is a German tradition.
Its name alone seems like a pretty dead giveaway, doesn’t it?
Well, according toThe New York Times, the Weihnachtsgurke is all but unknown in Germany.
A German polling agency found that 91% of people had never even heard of it.Huh.
So, is the Christmas Pickle German or not?
Nobody seems to really know.
The tradition is most popular in the MidwestMichigan in particularwhere there are a lot of German immigrants.
Is that how it came to be viewed as a German export?
Nobody can be certain.
What is the Meaning of the Christmas Pickle?
However, there are a few legends of how the Christmas pickle came to be.
Starving, he begged a guard to give him one last pickle before he died.
The pity pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on.
That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, found the boys, and freed them.
In the 1840s, German glassblowers were churning out ornaments shaped like fruits, nuts, and possibly pickles.
By the 1880s, F. W. Woolworth Company was importing them and telling their German origin story.
Does your family practice the Christmas Pickle tradition?
Which origin story do you choose to believe?
