I honestly didn't know about the Christmas Pickle until we moved here, and I'm a big fan of Christmas.In what may be a regional phenomenon, it seems like a lot of folks from the USA know about the pickle ornament, know its significance and possibly even the legend behind it. For those who are not aware, the pickle ornament (or sometimes even a real pickle) is hung last, in a remote location on your Christmas tree, and after the children have gone to bed. Come Christmas morning, the lucky youngster who first spots the pickle gets an extra present. There are several origin stories out there, the most popular being that a man of German extraction (usually identified as Bavarian) fighting in the American Civil War was starving in prison on/around Christmastime. A sympathetic guard scrounged up a pickle for the soldier, and it gave him the strength to persevere. The story continues that later, the soldier wrote back home and told this story to his family, who celebrated his recovery by hanging pickles on their Christmas tree, and thus began a cherished German tradition.
As tends to be the case with a lot of cool tales of this ilk, it also appears to be complete hogwash. There is no such thing as a German Christmas Pickle, and everybody I've asked either has no idea what I'm talking about, or rolls their eyes, tries to set the record straight and calls it an American thing. As we can see here and here (among many other places), it simply does not hold water, and the facts really don't support it-- for a start, German gift giving traditionally (certainly during the time of the Civil War) took place on December 6, the day of St. Nikolaus, and even today Germans open their gifts on Christmas Eve.
However-- and this may be where things get mashed up-- Germany has a fine and long tradition of glass blowing, and German Christmas ornaments are still considered to be the best. German ornament companies may or may not have had something to do with fostering this legend, but it's safe to say that they are doing banner business by keeping it going. So when Yankees go to noted German Christmas stores like the famous Kathe Wohlfahrt and ask them about the pickle... the store clerks certainly and wisely won't disabuse you of the notion that it's, ahem, an Old German Tradition. As for us, we first heard of this curious custom when we arrived here, so we will forever associate Christmas pickles ("Weihnachtsgurke") with Germany, and one will be hanging from our tree from here on in. Sort of our own German tradition, actually.
1 comment:
Ha! 'Tis the season for such a topic. I guess it could have been worse. The high-end department store in Munich, along with pickles, offers an array of glass foodstuffs as ornaments including... a hamburger and a chicken leg.
We Americans are such fools for marketing and a good story.
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