The Christmas Pickle

Yesterday, my girlfriend told me a strange story. Her friend just told her the accounts of a job she had years ago in the US. She said that she was unhappy at her job and her distant relative offered her a job for the Christmas season to sell Christmas ornaments and other German Christmas traditional gifts at a Christmas market in New York City. At the last moment they cancelled New York and switched to Chicago. The problem is that they ordered two hundred of pickle shaped glass ornaments along with all different fruits and vegatables. However, when they arrived in Chicago they found out they and thousands of pickles or cucumbers. Her relative told her to tell people that this was a typical tradition in Germany. That it is known as the Christmas pickle. The first child to find the pickle hidden in the tree receives an extra present. She was nervous about telling this story. So...her first customer walks up to her and she tells the story and they reply,"strange because we come from Germany.." She sent them to her Uncle and he said, well it actually comes from the region of Thuringen. They seemed impressed and bought a pickle. The very next customer said that they also came from Thuringen and never heard of this story. She then sent them over to her Uncle to explain...He tried to say that it comes from a small town there, called Lauscha. They came from that exact city and thought it strange as well, but bought a pickle. Within the first few days of the Market, they sold all of the pickles. The next year they ordered more and more pickles and sell them out every year. What she laughed about was that now in Lauscha people are celebrating a Christmas pickle legend.

I googled German Pickle Christmas and the results show that it is a recent story. There is one reference to a John Lower at the turn of the century whose pleas for a pickle are an explanation. But it sounds more like this was made up to explain the tradition, rather than the cause. Does anyone else know about this? I would like to find out if any professional google searchers can find an actual reference???

didn't know there is a story behind it, but I have seen Pickles at the Christmas markets and at some of the shops for hanging on the tree. Hmm! I like your story!