In 40+ years all around the US, prior to today I’ve never heard of a Xmas pickles.
I did, however, see a South Park Mr. Hanky ornament in some store last week. Western Civilzation is not Doomed; it’s already Dead.
I’m of German descent and never heard of hanging a pickle on the tree before. After looking on eBay and following links I found this. It says the german glass workers were too poor to buy apples and nuts to hang on their trees so they made their own out of glass. Then like so many other ideas whose time has come they took that idea and ran with it…
It’s better than buying nuts to hang on your truck, I suppose.
To unbabelfishify the Google.de above slightly, “There it is spread as an old German Christmas tradition. In Germany, in contrast, the practice is nearly unknown.”
I’m 45 years old, about 10 years ago I recieved one of those pickle ornaments with the chock-full-o-lies cards contained within the box. This was in Burbank, California. I was young and foolish in those days and accepted all information containing bits of cardboard that accompanied glass ornaments with a simple child-like trust.
Having a German-American grandmother and yet never hearing of this glass-vlasic custom did not ring any alarm bells at all. Most likely this was before my skeptical attitude was honed to a Van Brundvandian 5-bladed razor’s edge with Cecil’s advent into my life.
I even bought and gave other glass pickles to my friends, for this I apologize. It will not happen again. In fact, I’m planning to visit all of these friends and shatter those pickles in order to show my protest towards fake antique traditions. I will grind the glass under my heal into their carpets with an apologetic yet haughty sneer. They will then ask me to leave.
Except mine, my nieces and nephews have gotten used to tearing my home apart looking for the glass pickle. The winner gets one silver dollar for every year old they are. Usually the older ones let the youngest find it because I give them all lots of silver dollars before the holidays are over anyway.
I am a complicated man.
Shee-it, I’m a neopagan. We make up six fake antique traditions before breakfast!
I’m working on one involving a goat and some giant squid, but I hear they’ve been doing it somewhere for like 6000 years now.
My God. One of the ‘family’ ornaments we had when I was a kid was the bird ornament in this set, complete with a spun glass tail. It was one of my favorites because it was so unusual. My mother’s family was of German heritage so that makes sense. None of the other ones, though. Perhaps the bird was available separately, or the others were broken, or they were from her mother and the sisters got the rest.
No pickle at our house either, but I’ve seen them on other folks’ trees.
Oooh! Thanks for the link. I sent in a catalog request.
I’m 56 and my Dad’s side of the family is all German and this is the first I’ve heard of a pickle ornament. We actually have a couple of antique ornaments in the shapes of a beet and a parsnip, but those came from the Irish side of the Family and were probably just odd shaped American ornaments. We also have most of the ornaments in the link provided by Gorgonzola, but I’m pretty sure they were purchased in American stores with no particular ethnic association. (They may have come from the shops in Frankenmuth, MI, but I would not even bet on that.)
I could see German American Victorians starting this tradition. It would probably have been the Victorians that began the tradition, since they were big on traditions, and glommed onto things as such. Whether or not it was a tradition when they glommed onto it, it was afterwards. I wonder if there was a particular German glass ornament company that made a pickle as a part of their ornament set around that time? (Maybe the pickle symbolized a house with plenty of food to make it through the winter? They’d had a plentyful harvest, and could preserve enough food to feast in the middle of winter.) Perhaps it was similar to the Bride’s tree ornament set, but with more/different ornaments? This site lends a bit of credence to the “tradition”. I’d like to start a tradition myself, of having a Christmas Spider ornament. I love the modernized version of the story I read as a child.
I noticed something at the Christmases past site, so did a search for the actual site to confirm or disprove my observation. Inge glas is a German company, and they make a pickle ornament set and sell it, in 3 varying sizes just as the Christmases past site alludes to. Hmmm, maybe it’s an obscure tradition after all?
Ok, I know I was joking a few posts ago, but seriously? Do it! New traditions are sometimes even more meaningful than old - it’s great to hear my son talk about the bows on the Christmas tree and how we’ve “always” had them and they’re his favorite of the ornaments. Truth? I had a dumpster salvaged tree and $5 to buy ornaments the first year I lived on my own with him in our own apartment, and I went to the dollar store and bought a couple of boxes of gold balls and two sheets of simple bow knots on wire twisties to use as ornaments. It got me the most coverage for the least money. And they’re his favorite holiday “tradition”. He cried actual tears when I tried to set up the tree one year without the cheap, slightly tattered, decade old dollar store bows. The first Christmas he’s on his own, I’m getting him twistie bows from the dollar store for his tree, and when he has kids, he’ll tell them the tradition of bows on the tree from back when he was a kid. To me, they’re a symbol of how with creativity and perseverance, I gave my kid a beautiful Christmas while times were tight. To him, they’re warm fuzzies from his childhood.
Buy up half a dozen spider ornaments, write out the story on a notecard, and give them to your friends and family! We can come back to the Dope and see if our grandkids are asking each other where the Christmas Spider tradition really came from!
Sometimes he’s kosher, sometimes he’s gherkin, he can be dill or garlic-dill, but if you use brine on Christmas Eve he might come to your town.
Heck, in this part of the country, you often find either lights or ornaments in the shape of chile.
When I was a kid, my family hung smoked sausages from our tree. It was great! Most kids had that little advent calendar for the month of December (usually stocked with a crappy little chocolate)–I had a fresh kilebasa every day.
Fond memories of the household, indeed.
Tripler
For stocking stuffers, I got fresh horseradish and pickled string beans. Mmm hmm!
And you talk pretty, too. “Glass vlasic” is a lovely phrase.
I used to live with a guy who would hang his Swarthmore diploma on the tree, because it was the most expensive ornament ever.
I’m neopagan as well! 
Let me know how the goat/giant squid tradition goes. Right now, I’m trying to develope an “Extra-Virgin Sacrifice” using olive oil and computer sciences/engineering major.
I’d never heard of it before I saw Bad Santa and I thought it was just some bizarre “tradition” made up by that slow-thinking kid. Now you guys are telling me it wasn’t just a joke made up for a movie? Man, people are weirder than I thought.
I got suspicious about the ubiquity of pickles, and had to look this up.
Seriously, I wonder if old Henry J is behind this.
My friend Mr. Rococo and I were just playing a friendly game of “spin the picle”…
Zee Inlaws are from Germany and they were the ones that introduced Zee German Pickle to me. oooh, that could be taken so many different ways.
I’m not sure if they did the pickle thing in germany or my SIL grasped onto Zee Deutsche Gurke Tale with both hands and ran with it.
But there has always been a pickle on their tree.
I think it’s kinda stupid. This coming from a woman who hangs those stupid collector spoons from around the world on the christmas tree every year. Cause they look more stupid hanging on the wall in a stupid special spoon hanger thingie and I don’t collect them anymore, but I ain’t throwing them out.
And I like Acorn. never ordered anything from it.
So there.
I got nothing.