Never heard of it, don’t recall ever seeing one. However, if I did see one previously, I probably wrote it off as “bizarre Xmas ornament” and promptly forgot about it. I mean, the weird things some people put on their trees! 
Actually, it’s called “Acorn”.
I have one that someone gave me and I was told that it was German and whoever found the pickle first got a special present (freebie, usually). I hadn’t heard of it until about 5 years ago, they seem to be multiplying.
I have all kinds of things in my tree because I have been collecting ornaments since I was <1mo old. I mean, how many of you have a Jeff Gordon car being pitted by a crew of 5 elves in full DuPont firesuits? If you do…is it next to a raccoon stealing candy out of a Christmas stocking? I think not!
Yeah, I’m strange.
Whoa. My parents would do the “find the pickle” thing with us as kids, and I always thought they were just being weird. I’m surprised to hear anyone else does it, much less that some think it’s a tradition (even though it’s probably not).
It’s definitely a tradition, it’s just not a tradition that seems to have been widely remarked in England and the U.S. It may well be a German thing; if anyone knows the words for “Christmas Pickle” in German, I can go look it up in the Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens at the library. (My German is rudimentary, but I can use the index.) I’m not sure how old WhyNot is, but I’m guessing her reference to her grandparents’ first Christmas takes it back at least to the 1950s if not earlier.
Okay, that’s good, now I don’t feel like a little old lady!
Can I note, without offending, that I followed your link to the Victorian catalogs without really noticing who had posted it, then thought while looking at those pages that “I’ll bet Guinastasia would love this stuff”?
I’m 32, and my grandmother just turned 80.
This site by some chick named Sabine who lived in Germany (she has family there, but it’s not clear if she herself is German or not), thinks it’s an American tradition dating from the post-Civil War era. She agrees it’s not German in origin:
I can’t corroborate her story, but it’s as likely as any.
(I’d say it’s “possibly apocryphal”, but that makes some Dopers mad, apparently. ;))
And now you know … the *rest * of the story. Paul Harvey … good day!
I’ve heard of a “hide the pickle” game, but it wasn’t seasonal, and it had nothing to do with Christmas trees. It’s a delightful lust-based game.
Offend me? I’m actually quite flattered!
34 Christmases, in the US and the UK, visiting many people of many faiths… never heard of this before.
The only decoration of note that comes to mind is hanging a star or angel on top of the tree.
Having lived in Central Texas, where a whole bunch of folks of German descent live, I think I would have heard this one before. Who knew?
My family is of German descent, mostly living in eastern Penna. The rest of the family is German Reformed/United Church of Christ and my parents were converted to Catholicism.
Never has a pickle made an appearance on the Christmas tree.
My family is German American. I have never heard of such a thing until this thread. I still have all the antique ornaments from Germany. I’m quite sure I would remember a pickle in the box if we had one.
sings
Mister Briney, the Christmas Pickle…
done singing
Both sides of my family are quite proudly Bavarian, and while Bavarian Christmas ornaments are somewhat distinctive in my memory (my mother had a set like this), I recall no pickle. No pickle stories, either. We once received a set of candles for the tree from one of the Munich relatives and put them on the tree for a couple of years, but never did light them. No pickles!
“Hanging a pickle in your Christmas tree”. Sounds like a “B” side on an old blues record.
Canadian, living in Maryland, have lived in Alberta, NWT, and Ontario in Canada; I have never heard of the Christmas pickle other than on the SDMB. Og bless us, every one.
Here’s what that German Wikipedia page says, courtesy of Babel Fish. Enjoy!
A Weihnachtsgurke is a Christmas tree decoration blown from glass in form of a cucumber.