Epcot Pickle Ornament Story

[Flossbolna]

This strange German pickle tradition that nobody here in Germany has heard of has come back to Germany. There is actually a German historian who has done a lot of research about Christmas traditions in Southern Germany. And she has found no evidence about this tradition here in Germany. But she came to the conclusion that it might have been very local, was taken to the US by immigrants and grew there. Since there appear to be a few on this thread who read German, this was an article in a German newspaper: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/598/495920/text/

And by the way, my family has its own pickle tradition. Quite close to my school was the factory outlet for a lead chrystal catory (Nachtmann) which attracted a lot of American shoppers. They added a Christmas shop next door since Americans tend to like to shop for German Christmas ornaments. For us this was really strange, Christmas ornaments were only available in the weeks before Christmas, not all year. My sister and I loved to browse this shop and one day we found a basket of pickle ornaments. We thought it was so hilarious that those "crazy Americans" would have pickles on their Christmas trees. We bought one and gave it to our father for Christmas. It always got a very prominent spot on the tree!

 

[floridianer]

Hey, Guten Morgen Flossbolna

I did a little research too and found this in Wikipedia:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weihnachtsgurke

The "weihnachtsgurke" is supposed to be a "german" tradition but it is almost unknown in germany...

How weired is this??

They say, that it seems to be a "german" tradition, but that these, who did this, went to america and it is now a german tradition which is IN the USA

Fact is, that only a little bunch of people do really know about it!

But I think this idea is really cool!!!

 

[resol37]

I apologize for not reading the entire thread, but my family lived in Germany for three and a half years when I was a child. My father was in the Air Force and we were stationed there. We did learn about the Christmas pickle from German friends while living there, but it is possible that the tradition is not nation wide. Just like in America, some traditions are regional.

We lived in Germany (West Germany at the time) from 1987 to 1990. Haven't been back so I have no idea if it is still practiced (though I'd imagine it would take more than 20 years to completely wipe a tradition from an entire country).

Looking back, mmtska mentioned a small shop in Pennsylvania with has a large Dutch background so it may be influenced by Dutch traditions with are often intertwined or mistaken with German traditions.

 

[SuzieN]

We have had a pickle ornament for years too! I think you can buy them in any Christmas shop. We have 3 kids so our pickle tradition is a little bit different - whoever finds the pickle gets to open an extra present, but it is a family gift such as a board game or dvd. There would be waaay too many "no fairs" if the finder actually got more gifts than their siblings!!!!

 

[rotlex]

It's only an "EPCOT Germany" tradition.

Not so!

My wife's family, Mother's side, is directly from Germany. They have held this tradition for a very long time. (Yes, pre-my wife being born, and she's 40)!

So no, it is not only an "Epcot Germany Tradition" at all.

I find it funny how you can Google for this, and come up with all types of different answers however. I guess it might depend on what part of Germany you are from, or how much of the "myth" you are to believe. Either way, try telling my wife, her Mother, OR her Grandmother it's not a "real" German tradition!

 

[Pecobill]

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

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

Plenty of people on this post say it's real

And I'm assuming you made a phone call to Berlin as soon as you saw this thread

 

[whitney37354]

My guess would be it's a regional thing. I live in the Southeast U.S. and we know what sweet tea is and drink it often. I've yet to find real sweet tea in the Northeast U.S. Putting sugar in the tea after it's iced is NOT sweet tea!

 

[FigNewton]

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

Thank you for personally checking with every living German in order to give us such a definitive answer to the issue.

 

[New Wave Dave]

We got our pickle at Bronners in Frankenmuth, MI a few years ago
they have a whole bunch of ornaments with legends attached to them
anyway, its a fun tradition in our family and when we go to epcot next week, I am buying pickle ornaments for all my friends so they can start their own traditions!

 

[KellyNY]

I never heard this story before, I am not from Germany, but funny thing is, I always liked pickle but did not buy it because I thought it will be invisible on a tree. Had no idea, that was actually the point.

 

[disrev]

I'm from Northern Indiana and am a part of a community with some heavy German ancestory. I was at a gathering with around 200 teenagers and we were having them share unique Christmas Traditions. One of the teens shared about the Pickle ornament, and I lost it.

Several other teens said, "We do that at our house too!"

I then asked (while holding back my laughter), "How many of you get a present if you find the pickle (cue Michael Scott)."

I was shocked when approximately 30 of the teens raised their hands.

Either there's some sort of German tradition, or a lot of families have been to EPCOT!

 

[pickles]

http://www.pickle-ornament.com/history-pickle-ornament.htm


guess it is popular enough to have a website

Maybe, the crazy Americans brought the tradtion to Germany and the Germans liked it so much or liked selling the pickle ornaments to US soldiers that the tradition stuck!

lot of people mentioning it on here seem to have a military base connection?

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

Plenty of people on this post say it's real

And I'm assuming you made a phone call to Berlin as soon as you saw this thread

I didn't say it wasn't a "tradition"...I said it wasn't a "German" tradition...

If you read my original post you would understand.

This is something I have been very interested in since last year...when I researched it online....as others have.

The reason I researched it online is because I found it fascinating that something marketed as "Authentic German" was completely foreign to our guest from Berlin, Germany, who spent Christmas with us.

It all began when we were unpacking Christmas decorations, and quite proudly showed our German guest our "Authentic German" traditional ornament. He stared at us like we were cuckoo...and proceeded to explain to us that he had never heard of this tradition.

We still hide the pickle Christmas Eve...and the kid (now teens) that find it...gets to unwrap the first present.

IMHO....IMHO....IMHO.....IMHO.....IMHO..... (go ahead...beat me up....BUT this is just about OPINIONS!)

Disney Magical Non-Authentic German Pickle Hugs to all,
Mary

 

[Pecobill]

I didn't say it wasn't a "tradition"...I said it wasn't a "German" tradition...

If you read my original post you would understand.

This is something I have been very interested in since last year...when I researched it online....as others have.

The reason I researched it online is because I found it fascinating that something marketed as "Authentic German" was completely foreign to our guest from Berlin, Germany, who spent Christmas with us.

It all began when we were unpacking Christmas decorations, and quite proudly showed our German guest our "Authentic German" traditional ornament. He stared at us like we were cuckoo...and proceeded to explain to us that he had never heard of this tradition.

We still hide the pickle Christmas Eve...and the kid (now teens) that find it...gets to unwrap the first present.

IMHO....IMHO....IMHO.....IMHO.....IMHO..... (go ahead...beat me up....BUT this is just about OPINIONS!)

Disney Magical Non-Authentic German Pickle Hugs to all,
Mary

Just because one German doesn't know about it doesn't mean it's not a German tradition.I know it's a German tradition my family has done it for years and our friends have done it just as long.Also you mentioned friends in Berlin.If you haven't noticed not one of us that said its a German tradition is from or lived in Berlin.So it's probably regional.

 

[Ennazus8810]

It was my understanding that this was a Polish tradition. My ex is Polish, and it was a very big deal in their family.

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

I definitely agree!

It is regional...

ALL the Germans in the Florida Region are probably celebrating this tradition!

Disney Hugs,

Mary

(PS... wikipedia...about...google...etc...agree that it's not a German Tradition..but what do those silly websites know??????)

Hey- I'm a Florida Native too! Florida Hugs to YOU! GO Gators!

 

[SueM in MN]

I apologize for not reading the entire thread, but my family lived in Germany for three and a half years when I was a child. My father was in the Air Force and we were stationed there. We did learn about the Christmas pickle from German friends while living there, but it is possible that the tradition is not nation wide. Just like in America, some traditions are regional.

We lived in Germany (West Germany at the time) from 1987 to 1990. Haven't been back so I have no idea if it is still practiced (though I'd imagine it would take more than 20 years to completely wipe a tradition from an entire country).

Looking back, mmtska mentioned a small shop in Pennsylvania with has a large Dutch background so it may be influenced by Dutch traditions with are often intertwined or mistaken with German traditions.

But, many of us who had heard of it were from areas where we knew the people who were doing it had come from Germany. The area in Wisconsin where I was living as a small child had enough first generation German-Americans living there that our church had one service each Sunday in English and the other in German up thru the 1960s.
Many of the people in that area had chosen that area to come to because friends or relatives from Germany had settled there. So, if it was a regional German custom, once people from that small area settled in the US, it may have spread easily in the US as those families spread out.

It was my understanding that this was a Polish tradition. My ex is Polish, and it was a very big deal in their family.

We know for sure that some people brought it over to the US from Germany, but if it was regional in Germany, the area it was common in might have been the area that bordered Poland. So, it may be a Polish and German regional custom.

Just because one German doesn't know about it doesn't mean it's not a German tradition.I know it's a German tradition my family has done it for years and our friends have done it just as long.Also you mentioned friends in Berlin.If you haven't noticed not one of us that said its a German tradition is from or lived in Berlin.So it's probably regional.

When I was googling, I did find some people with families from Berlin who were aware of the practice. So, it may depend on what part of Germany the people came to Berlin from.

 

[Flossbolna]

Just because one German doesn't know about it doesn't mean it's not a German tradition.I know it's a German tradition my family has done it for years and our friends have done it just as long.Also you mentioned friends in Berlin.If you haven't noticed not one of us that said its a German tradition is from or lived in Berlin.So it's probably regional.

Thank you for personally checking with every living German in order to give us such a definitive answer to the issue.

Did any of you read my previous post: this is a topic of debate here in Germany and there is even a historian who did some research into this! She came to the conclusion that there is no evidence of this tradition in Germany before some German christmas ornament makers started to sell those pickles to the USA. So the most likely thing is that it was invented somewhere in the US, was branded as being a German tradition because the ornament was produced in Germany and then came back to Germany, most likely to the area where those ornaments were made.

In a way it might have been one of the earliest viral marketing schemes in history?

And while I don't know every German personally, this topic regularly comes up in discussions around Christmas time (media are reporting on it) and I have yet to meet someone who knows this tradition. I guess you can't call it a national tradition if a large part of the popultion hasn't heard of it. If it is a regional tradition, don't call it German, but Bavarian, Thuringian, Saxonian or whatever. I guess you wouldn't want a tradition only from Texas to be called American either.

 

[wdwtweets]

If it is a regional tradition, don't call it German, but Bavarian, Thuringian, Saxonian or whatever. I guess you wouldn't want a tradition only from Texas to be called American either.

To be fair, seldom in Epcot do they get that specific. They sell Inukshuk ornaments in Canada without specifying from where in Canada these come. They sell "Japanese food" without specifying the region from where this cuisine comes. So, I'm sure many people leave Epcot thinking that every Canadian has an Inukshuk in their backyard and every Japanese persons eats Teppanyaki for dinner. Kwim?

 

[Flossbolna]

To be fair, seldom in Epcot do they get that specific. They sell Inukshuk ornaments in Canada without specifying from where in Canada these come. They sell "Japanese food" without specifying the region from where this cuisine comes. So, I'm sure many people leave Epcot thinking that every Canadian has an Inukshuk in their backyard and every Japanese persons eats Teppanyaki for dinner. Kwim?

I understand what you mean! My point was just referring to the posters here who questions the statement that the tradition isn't known in Germany. With food or products there is at least a specific country of origin, while a tradition only becomes a national tradition in my point of view if it is practiced by a large number of people in this nation. I would never doubt the food being sold at Biergarten being German food, even if it is mainly Bavarian food and thus regional again!