12 Days of Christmas Traditions: German Pickle with A Mommy's Life / Six Sisters' Stuff

-12 Days of Christmas Traditions-

We are so excited to introduce you to our friend Whitney! We have known Whitney for a while now and consider her such a good friend . . . and she has such a fun tradition to share with you today! Here’s Whitney . . .

The German Pickle Tradition

Hi, I am Whitney and the momma behind the blog

A Mommy’s life…with a touch of YELLOW
I feel so honored and am so excited to be guest posting on Six Sister Stuff today
I LOVE These girls seriously they are the sweetest

I am a mommy to this crazy little 19 month old adorable little man, Maddux

and a wife to the love of my life, Ty

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah
I change my hair probably more than anyone you know
and get asked if I do hair all the time
(I guess just cuz it is always different…maybe I should)
I have my bachelors in Physical Education and Health Education
and will one day be out there teaching your teenagers
For now I love to keep myself busy with PROJECTS of all sorts
while the hubby is at law school and the babe in napping
including redoing furniture, crafting, cooking, sewing and decorating
Can I just say being a Say At Home Mom is the best job in the whole world!

My mom’s family, Bargar, is from German ancestry
and this fun tradition that I am sharing today goes back to her roots in Germany
It is the Tradition of the German Pickle

Let me give you a little background about it first:
John Lower, a German man, was born in Bavaria in 1842.
He left Germany with his family and     emigrated to the United States
While fighting in the American Civil War,
John Lower     was captured and sent to a prison in Andersonville, Georgia
He soon fell to poor     health given the poor conditions of the prison
Starving, he begged of a guard for     just one pickle before resigning to his death
The guard, taking pity on him, found     and gave John Lower a pickle
Lower family lore yields John’s testimony that the     pickle, by the grace of God,
gave him the mental and physical strength to live on
After being reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle on the     Christmas tree
Hence, the first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning     would be blessed with a year of good fortune… and a special gift, just as John Lower had     experienced!

According to German tradition,
the pickle brings good luck and was the last ornament placed on the Christmas tree
On Christmas morning the first child to find the pickle was rewarded
with an extra little gift left by St. Nicholas.
This German tradition encouraged the children to appreciate

all the ornaments on the Christmas tree,

rather than hurrying to see what St. Nick had left for them

So For Our Family the tradition goes a little like this:

The pickle is placed on the tree just like any other ornament

on the same day, normally Dec1st, that we decorate the tree

Then on Christmas Eve, after we all went to bed

Mom and Dad hide the pickle ornament deep within the trees branches

Then on Christmas Morning

The kids get to try to find the pickle ornament

in the tree when mom and dad say go

It is like a little hunt and a race to see who finds the pickle first

It is not as easy as it sounds

since the pickle and the tree are both green it actually takes a while

and we get kinda vicious and competitive about it especially when we got older

The child who finds the Pickle first and gets it out of the tree

wins an extra present and in our family that is a nutcracker

My mom has a whole collection of nut crackers

and each year my mom gets new one

for the winner who gets to keep it and take it with them in adulthood

The nutcrackers in the picture above are mine
They are the ones I had won and now use as Christmas Decor

Back in the day we used to just use a real dried out pickle to hide

but then we were able to find the glass ornament and have used that ever since

My cute friend Ashley knew about this tradition that we did

and thought it was so funny

anyway when Ty and I got married for our wedding present

she gave us a pickle ornament of our own

so that we could continue on the tradition in our own little family

Thank you Ashley It really did mean a lot even though it is kinda funny

We are really excited to start this tradition with our little man

Thank you girlies for letting me share one of my families traditions with you today
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Questions & Reviews

Lindsay says:

I adore Whitney & I LOVE this tradition! What a great post! Thanks so much for sharing!
Rodarte Family says:

I've also enjoyed this tradition since I was young and have since shared it with my own little family. I love the idea of using a nutcracker for the special gift. It's almost like a trophy! Thanks for sharing. . . I hope you don't mind if I adopt the nutcracker idea :)
Tanya@takesix says:

My sister married into a Dutch family. They do this same tradition. So much fun!
Christine Young says:

How much fun. My family has a pickle and gives out a pickle present. For us it started with my husband's family. Everyone would search for the pickle and there was always an extra pickle present waiting just for the first to find the treasured ornament.
Lisa Perry says:

We hide the pickle ornament every year too. My kids are getting older, (early twenties) but they still get excited about finding the pickle and getting the gift every year. I hope they will continue the tradition with their families.
Sam says:

I am german, especially from the region where the pickles are very popular and have to say that I never heard of this tradition, but it seems a really nice idea.
Ulrike says:

That´s a very cute tradition and I don´t wanna spoil it for you.
But it´s not German. No German has pickles or hides pickles anywhere on or around the Christmastree.
In fact, the whole tradition wouldn´t even work in Germany, because there St. Nikolaus brings gifts on Dec. 6th, not Christmas. This is days before the Christmastree is put up and decorated. Sorry, but I had to at least once in my life pass this on.