Epcot Pickle Ornament Story

[FigNewton]

The Holidays around the World Vinylmation for sale in Epcot portrays a Christmas tree with ornaments representing the countries in the World Showcase. And there is a PICKLE hidden on it! I didn't know about it while we were there and did not buy it. After reading about it when we got back I wish I had bought it then.

 

[mariepapa]

My grandparents came from Germany and we never heard of this but likely, as someone mentioned, it might be a regional thing or a tradition started in North America.

Sounds like a wonderful tradition too! But why pickles??????????

 

[MareSINY]

I bought a pickle ornament years ago for my dad, since he's German (yes, that makes me German... but he was the German one out of the family! LOL) I thought he'd get a kick out of it. He had never heard of it. LOL

It's now a family tradition with my nieces. When I moved in with my sister and family I brought my ornaments and among them was the pickle. I explained to them how we leave out the pickle and Santa will hide it on Christmas Eve and whoever finds it first gets a special surprise. They remember the pickle every year and we hang it by the front door so Santa can do his magic! So, even if it's not a true German tradition it's now our true tradition.

 

[SnwflkCts]

I have hidden a pickle ornament on my tree long before I ever fell in love with WDW. Hiding the pickle in many cases was a way to get children to actually look at the tree rather than concentrating on the gifts below the tree.

The "extra gift," (at my house) somehow was always won by my youngest nephew. It is always a board game (or card game) of some sort that we would then play. It has been a fun tradition for us. My nephew is 25 now and he hides a pickle on his tree!

But there is a dark story associated with the "tradition" and why it is a pickle ... although I can't remember it exactly. It sort of was a Hansel and Gretel story where the unlucky children were put in a pickle barrel. But all ends happy ... I hope. I need to do a little more research on it.

 

[marius97]

My Polish in-laws do this (don't get me started on Polish people doing a German tradition.) I thought it was weird so I had done some research. It sounds like it is an american tradition that a lot people of german heritage take part in.

This is from about.com

German Myth 11
The German Christmas Pickle
Die Weihnachtsgurke
German Misnomers, Myths and Mistakes > The Christmas Pickle



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The German Christmas Pickle Tradition:
Myth or Reality?
It never fails. Every December someone asks about the German Christmas pickle ornament that's supposed to have a long tradition in Germany.

Here's the pickle “legend” from one Web site: “A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.” This Christmas pickle story, with a few minor variations, can be found all over the Web and in print inside the ornament package. It says that Germans hang a pickle-shaped glass ornament on the Christmas tree hidden away so it's difficult to find. The first child to find it on Christmas morning gets a special treat or an extra present.

Of course, anyone familiar with German Christmas customs can see the flaws in this “legend.” First of all, the German St. Nick doesn't show up on Christmas Eve. He arrives on the 5th or 6th of December. Nor do German children open their presents on Christmas morning. That happens on Christmas Eve in Germany. (See our German Christmas Guide for more about German Christmas customs.)

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But the biggest problem with the German pickle (saure Gurke, Weihnachtsgurke) tradition is that no one in Germany seems to have ever heard of it. Over the years this question has repeatedly come up on the AATG (German Teachers) forum. Teachers of German in the U.S. and in Europe have never been able to find a native German who has even heard of the pickle legend, much less carried out this Christmas custom. It may have been some German-American invention by someone who wanted to sell more glass ornaments for Christmas. Or could the Weihnachtsgurke be an obscure regional custom that few people are aware of?


1847 wurden die ersten Früchte und Nüsse aus Glas [in Lauscha] hergestellt, aus denen sich bald die Weihnachtsbaumkugeln entwickelten. Erst wurden diese mit einer Blei-Legierung verspiegelt, später sorgte Silbernitrat für den weihnachtlichen Glanz. - ZDF heute - (See German Christmas Ornaments for more about Lauscha and glass ornaments.)
A number of years ago when she was About's “Germany for Visitors” Guide, Rita Mace Walston wrote an article about the Christmas pickle ornament tradition. Despite her German background, she also had never heard of it. She wrote: “I did some first-hand research, asking friends, acquaintances, and even a few Christmas market vendors if they knew of the custom. I consulted my family in Bavaria, my best friend in Swabia, and folks who hailed from the different regions of Germany. No one had a clue as to what I was talking about. One acquaintance wanted to know if I wasn't trying to pull one over on her...”

Then Rita heard from someone who claimed to have an answer that might solve the mystery. A descendent of a soldier who fought in the American Civil War, John Lower (Hans Lauer?), born in Bavaria in 1842, wrote to tell about a family story that had to do with a Christmas pickle. According to family lore, “John Lower was captured and sent to prison in Andersonville, Georgia. ...In poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for John Lower. According to family legend, John said that the pickle—by the grace of God—gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. Once he was reunited with his family he began a tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree. The first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune.”

Whether this Bavarian-American pickle story is true or not, and if it really gave rise to the Christmas pickle legend is open to question. One may doubt the story itself. If you thought you were dying, would your last wish be for a pickle? Plus, it's a long way from a real pickle in Georgia to a glass pickle ornament in Germany! The Civil War ended in 1865, but glass Christmas tree ornaments did not become popular in the U.S. until around 1880, when F.W. Woolworth began importing them from Germany. However, one thing is certain: the “German” Christmas pickle tradition is virtually unknown in Germany. But...

The Lauscha Connection
There may be, however, a somewhat tenuous German connection to the glass pickle ornament. As previously mentioned, glass Christmas ornaments were being produced in Germany. As early as 1597, the small town of Lauscha, now in the German state of Thuringia (Thüringen), was known for its glass-blowing (Glasbläserei). The small industry of glass-blowers produced drinking glasses and glass containers. In 1847 a few of the Lauscha craftsmen began producing glass ornaments (Glasschmuck) in the shape of fruits and nuts. These Glaskugeln were made in a unique hand-blown process combined with molds (formgeblasener Christbaumschmuck). Soon these unique Christmas ornaments were being exported to other parts of Europe, as well as England and the U.S.

Today Lauscha exports glass pickle ornaments to the U.S.—where they are sold along with the “German” tradition story. Although I earlier believed that the pickle ornaments were not sold in Germany, it turns out that they are! Recently a reader from the U.S. contacted me to say that during a December visit with a family in the small German town of Höxter she had not only seen Weihnachtsgurken ornaments for sale at the local Christmas market, but witnessed the Christmas tree custom itself being observed in the family's home in Höxter. But does that prove it's a German custom?
A Web search in German and English turned up only the fact that the pickle ornaments are indeed sold in parts of Germany, ranging from Höxter in North Rhine-Westphalia to Kissing in Bavaria. All of the German articles on the topic debunk the legend (some even refer to the myth article you are reading right now, first written and published in 2003). My efforts to get confirmation of the actual pickle custom from someone in Höxter have so far been fruitless. (Have the people there really kept this custom a secret for all these years?) We still lack any proof that this is truly a German custom, or that the custom is not a fairly recent invention. Has the popularity of the supposedly German legend in America brought it to Germany, or was it really the other way around? It's still a mystery.

All I can say for certain is that to this day almost no one in Germany has ever heard of the German Christmas pickle custom. So far I have found no historical or other evidence to indicate that the Weihnachtsgurke is a genuine Christmas custom from Germany. If anyone has proof otherwise or can tell me how this legend really got started, please let me know.
n, especially in the upper midwest.

 

[mariepapa]

Thanks for the pickle info.

 

[BuzzBiteyear]

Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store, also has the pickle ornaments. That is where I first saw it.

Emily

Yep, I was going to mention the same. Bronner's in the German-immigrant town of Frankenmuth, Michigan ("Michigan's Little Bavaria") sells pickle ornaments with the story about it displayed.

 

[Robo]

I've seen jackalopes for sale, too.

 

[marius97]

Yep, I was going to mention the same. Bronner's in the German-immigrant town of Frankenmuth, Michigan ("Michigan's Little Bavaria") sells pickle ornaments with the story about it displayed.

Yes, but we Michiganders are a pretty strange bunch. I wouldn't take anything we do as proof.

 

[eeyorepixie]

We live in the heart of the German-American U.S. - Southeast Wisconsin. (Kindergarten was "invented" around here!) I'm 1/4 German, my wife is all Deutsche, and I have a great number of students with names like Schultz, Kraus, Gretzsch, Wagner, and the like.

The pickle tradition is very real, and still very much practiced around here. Perhaps it was primarily an immigrant-German thing, but it's most definitely not just a Disney thing.

I bought mine in Boston years ago, and every Christmas morning it is tradition that my 3 DD's search for it, and someone always ends up in tears or an all out brawl, but it is tradition

So really think it through, is all that I am saying.

 

[JoMarie]

Count me in as someone else who has done the pickle way before EPCOT, heck my grandmother has been doing it even before Walt Disney was born!

When I was younger my grandmother would hang the pickle on her tree and when we would go over on Christmas Eve my brother and I would have to find it. Although we didn't get anything like a toy or something, we got Frankfurters and Sauerkraut. Whoever found it got the Frankfurters and the runner up got the Sauerkraut. What can I say, we like food!?

 

[Nicoal13]

We live in the heart of the German-American U.S. - Southeast Wisconsin. (Kindergarten was "invented" around here!) I'm 1/4 German, my wife is all Deutsche, and I have a great number of students with names like Schultz, Kraus, Gretzsch, Wagner, and the like.

The pickle tradition is very real, and still very much practiced around here. Perhaps it was primarily an immigrant-German thing, but it's most definitely not just a Disney thing.

Same here. I'm from Southeast WI and am part German myself as is my husband's family. We have a pickle ornament and my Great-Grandma passed the tradition down in our family.

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

.......But Robo....are they GERMAN Jackalopes ???

 

[mmtska]

My mom gave me a pickle ornament for our tree when DH and I moved to Japan. It's from a little store in PA-not Disney. The one we used for years is from the same store. I love trying to find the pickle. It was always done between friends of the family and us!

 

[Pecobill]

It's only an "EPCOT Germany" tradition.

It is actually a real German tradition.My family has done it ever since they came over from Germany.

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

It is actually a real German tradition.My family has done it ever since they came over from Germany.

Funny - No one from Germany has ever heard of it!

This is according to our Friend from Berlin...and those on this post... !

 

[luvsJack]

My mother has a set of ornaments that my father bought in Germany when he was in the Air Force. A pickle ornament was among them. He didn't know the tradition, just knew mom would love the beautiful glass ornaments.

I wouldn't have a clue where in Germany he was as this was long before I came along; but couldn't it be a regional thing (as some have suggested? maybe someone from Germany could answer that?) I mean we have traditions here in the south that would be considered "an American tradition" that, if asked, someone from the North may say they have never heard of.

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

Google it....like I have done (Twice at different times)...... It's very interesting....

 

[TillyMarigold]

I wonder if maybe it is something that *used to* be done in Germany, but has lived on among German immigrants in the US far longer than it lasted in Germany? Or was started among German immigrants because it reminded them of some other tradition they couldn't fulfil (like Irish immigrants starting to eat corned beef instead of Irish-style bacon because it was too expensive).

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

We have upheld the pickel tradition for several years now....however, as my sons grow, it got less challenging to hide the pickel. Sooooooooooo, now we kind of have extreme pickel hiding. They pretty much search the whole house, and then when they are about to give up, we will play the hot/cold game. LOL A couple of years ago, I actually wrapped the pickel up and stuck it in the pickel jar in the fridge Last year, we swiped the 5" pickel for a miniture tinsey-tiny one. It took them forever to find it!! It may not be what the tradition was meant to be....but it keeps the boys (who are now 19 & 16) busy on Christmas day. (We always make sure the "Pickel Present" is something they can share)