Christmas pickle??? I think someone is jerkin’ your gherkin.
This thread is a Vlassic already!
my Italian grandmother had a pickle, and so do I. 
She would buy an eclair or a cream puff from the fancy bakery, and whichever of us found the pickle got the pastry all to ourselves… though I would share it; my sister loves sweet things, I can take or leave them.
I’m pickled tink by all your answers!
Thank you Dopers 
It just seems like 6000 years, if you are in the “hot seat”.
(Another neopagan here… 
)
I have never heard of putting a pickle on the Tree as well. I would have thought it was something from The Onion. But then my family were all of English descent (grandparents came over in the 1920s).
My family is Dutch as are many in this area, and lots of people here have a Christmas pickle. We didn’t do it growing up but I hear about it mostly from other Dutch families, and I knew the tradition was for the children to look for it Christmas morning and get a special extra gift. Maybe it isn’t German but Dutch in origin?
Since it is near Christmas, I searched “Christmas Pickle Capital of the World”
http://www.angelfire.com/home/sallinger/holidayhouse/christpickle.htm
This one actually gives a city name Laschau, Germany where it came from. But I could not find Laschau, Germany. There is a Laschau, Austria.
It is interesting, but I am not convinced of anything yet.
Ok, if you do a web search on Weihnachtsgürke and happen to read German you will find, in addition to credulous English language pages and appendages of the Inge Glas company, who seem to be profiteering from this nonsense, you get many pages in German by Germans expressing slight confusion and amusement about this “old German tradition” that the Americans have.
For example,
“Christmas pickle and what’s the trend-- tips from Lauscha. . . The Christmas tree ornament in the form of a Christmas pickle comes straight from there. What? You aren’t familiar with the old German Tradition? Above all in the USA it has many fans. The kid that finds the pickle gets gifts first. The pickles finds a keen market above all in America!” http://www.mdr.de/kultur/kulturkalender/1107033.html
A more complete analysis here, in German and English:
Among other bits, “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?”
It seems to be as much as a German tradition as the Xmas Kiwi or Pomegranate-- or whatever fruit-shaped-ornaments Inge Glas happens to make. There are Xmas cucumbers made in Germany, but the German market for them is incidental, and they mostly get shipped to the states. You will note that the Inge-Glas is in English. . .
That is a really sweet story. sniffle
I’d never heard of this “tradition” until about 10 years ago, when someone contributed one to one of those “round robin” office gift exchanges (not sure what they’re called… you get a random wrapped gift, and can either keep it, or steal an already-unwrapped gift from someone who was ahead of you…).
Interestingly, last Christmastime we were in Arizona. At the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, we purchased a “Christmas Chili” ornament with an identical backstory (except for the reference to Germany. This would seem to indicate the whole thing is made up
Here is a Sunday comic strip expounding upon this fine and/or made-up tradition.
My pickle is posted here.
Burgermeister Meisterburger!
We have a pickle on our tree. I didn’t get it because of any tradition; I got it because I love pickles! (Sorry, muffin.)