The Christmas Pickle - a cherished German tradition
On Saturday, we had the yearly family cookie back-off. It is mostly about decorating cookies in all colors of the rainbow and is a tradition from back when my nieces and nephews were little. We still hold on to it because it is a nice get-together before the stressful Christmas days. Everyone brings some dough, we are usually responsible for gingerbread dough, and my sisters-in-law make sugar cookie dough and dough for rosettes. We mixed up the rosettes this year and instead of dipping them into a sugar/cinnamon mix, we had a sugar glaze which was actually much better and a lot easier to eat.
The Christmas Pickle
Anyway, seems like every year we get to talk about the Christmas Pickle and whether or not it is a German tradition. I usually explain that I don’t think it is a German tradition, while someone else says they know someone who knows someone who lived in Germany and had a Pickle in the tree. Apparently, I am not the only German dealing with this story - other people fight the good fight too, trying to explain that “No, we do not hang gherkins in a tree but thanks for asking”. Don’t get me wrong, I find it very interesting and I am not bothered at all, I am just flabbergasted that this seems to be such a widespread rumor.
My theory to this day is that somewhere in the Alps, a village idiot tried to participate in decorating the tree but got mixed up with the snacks and hung a Pickle in the tree. An American tourist or soldier saw that and thought to themselves “Oh my, what a fun tradition. They are hiding a Pickle in the tree; I must go home and tell my fellow Americans all about it!” - and thus, the myth of the Christmas Pickle was born.
Of course, when a friend of mine visited us a few years back, we went to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth MI, which is the “World’s Largest Christmas Store” (and they are not kidding). Bronner’s had a whole section dedicated to the German Christmas Pickle, which made Markus and I both shake our heads. He had never heard of it either, which means that in Fulda (East Hessia), Stolp (Pomerania, now Poland), Kleeste (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and the Cologne area (Rhineland) no one has ever heard of the Pickle. Unfortunately, it is hard to disprove it too, because just as Halloween has been imported to Germany - without a doubt people now have brought Christmas Pickles back to Germany, which would make it somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Either way, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season - pickled or not.
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4 Responses to “The Christmas Pickle - a cherished German tradition”
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I was at the Christkindlmarkt in Akron with my German group over the weekend, and we talked about the Christmas pickle. The Germans and I were all of the consensus that it’s nonsense, while the Americans swore up and down it was a German tradition. I think it was probably some yahoo who wanted to take advantage of the American tourists, but that’s just my own personal theory.
Never ever heard of it in Germany and I’m sure it is totally made up (although with the fragmentation of customs in German, nobody can ever say for sure that it isn’t the custom somewhere). What I find amusing is the length to which some people go to argue that those Germans who claim that it isn’t a German custom must be wrong. Here one of my favorite arguments:
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.
Makes perfect sense!!
I have never heard of such a thing, even in Austria.
I want sweet stuff hanging from my tree, preferably those cute wrapped chocolates filled with liqueur. Must try to find some here in Vegas.
Oh, and of course it’s always hard to proof a negative, i.e., that the tradition does not exist. I think Germans’ word should be taken for it.
Happy holidays!
So it’s a Weihnachtsgurke! When I was in Bruges this year, I saw gherkins in a little shop selling Christmas baubles and other typical Christmas decoration stuff. We thought it to be a whacky idea and wondered why there weren’t any other vegetables. Thanks for explaining this German tradition to us Germans here in Germany. ;-))