Tag: holidays

Christmas Pickle

December 05, 2025

After a nearly two-hour bus ride our tour arrived at Neuschwanstein Castle today.  The castle is a 19th-century palace on a rugged hill of the foothills of the Alps in the south of Germany above the incorporated village of Hohenschwangau and the narrow gorge of the Pöllat stream.  Since 2025, the castle has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, “The Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria”.  According to Guinness World Records, it is the tallest castle in the world at 213 feet (65 meters).  Walt Disney used this castle as a model for Disneyland.  When we arrived on site there was snow on the ground and the castle was shrouded in fog.  The walk to the castle began with a 30-degree incline that took me 30 minutes to navigate.  After a brief rest we began the last 15 minutes of the walk that shifted to a 45-degree incline.  When our appointed 5-minute entry slot arrived we began a 25-minute tour that took us to the top (fourth) floor.  Although the trip was tiring, it was well worthwhile.  As our tour continued to Oberammergau our guide told us of one of the Christmas traditions celebrated by her family while growing up, the hiding of the Christmas Pickle.

When I went online, I found Christmas pickle (Weihnachtsgurke) is a game of hiding a pickle shaped Christmas ornament among the branches of the tree.  While supposedly a centuries-old German Christmas tradition, most Germans have never heard of it, but it is beloved by many families in the US and UK.  After decorating their tree on Christmas Eve, the parents hide a pickle ornament among the branches.  The first child to find the pickle on Christmas Day receives an extra present or good fortune for the coming year.  In some stories, the pickle-hiding game is a centuries-old German tradition that has been passed down through generations.  In others, a captured German-American soldier was saved from starvation on Christmas Eve during the Civil War by eating a pickle.  Other people believe the tradition is related to St Nicholas resurrecting three boys who had been murdered and hidden in a barrel of pickles.  Anyone familiar with traditional German Christmas will see some flaws in the story.  Germany celebrates the arrival of St. Nicholas on December 6 rather than Christmas Eve and children open their presents on December 24, not Christmas Day.  The biggest problem is that few in Germany have ever heard of it.   A December 2016 survey by YouGov found only 7% of Germans had heard of Weihnachtsgurke, and only 6% of families practice the custom.

Our guide pointed out a souvenir store where we could buy a Christmas Pickle.  I toured the other shops before deciding to get a Christmas Pickle for my son and his family as a nice way of sharing a German tradition as we are of German descent.  When I asked the cashier where I could find a Christmas Pickle, her response was, “Was is pickle, I do not know this word.”  I broke out the translator on my phone and typed in my request, which was displayed on my screen in German.  “Ah, gerken!”  Then she showed me a wooden pickle for 24 Euro.  She saw the look on my face and told me to wait while she found a cheaper version upstairs.  While I waited, I Goggled “Christmas pickle” and found this was not a German tradition, but an American tradition that has only recently spread to Germany.  When I shared this information with the clerk, she told me she only keeps the Christmas pickle for tourists.  I did not buy a Christmas pickle for my son and his family.           

THOUGHTS: When my guide asked if I found a Christmas pickle I just laughed and said I had.  I knew nothing would be gained by telling her what I had learned.  I have found that traditions come from all sorts of origins, and the origin is not as important as the joint celebration it brings to a family or community.  Sometimes it is better to just keep your traditions alive (no matter where they come from) to bind us together in a shared belief.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

Decorations

November 29, 2024

Inside today’s Black Friday edition of my local newspaper was an article on another aspect of the US’s busiest time of the year. Millions of Americans will venture out to buy a live Christmas tree this weekend. This year tree growers were particularly hard hit. Growers faced the usual challenges of root rot, a lack of labor, and foreign competition, and inflation hit hard on everything from seeds to tractors. That was before Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction. The western part of North Carolina produces more Christmas trees than any US state except Oregon. Roughly 21.6 million live Christmas trees were purchased in the US last year at a median price of US$75, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. The day after Thanksgiving is the peak sales day for live trees, but Thanksgiving comes late this year, making for an unusually short selling season, another pressure on growers. Once the tree is purchased, you still need to add the decorations.

When I looked online, I found setting up and taking down Christmas decorations are associated with specific dates. Many Christian churches begin (liturgically) with a “hanging of the greens”. It is customary to set up the Christmas tree on Advent Sunday, the first day of the Advent season but many churches set the decorations after service on the last Sunday before Thanksgiving. More traditionally, a Christmas tree was not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December). This marks the end of the Advent season and the start of the twelve days of Christmastide. Christians in many localities remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve (January 5th), the last day of the twelve days of Christmastide. Other Christian countries remove their decorations on Candlemas, the conclusion of the extended Christmas-Epiphany season (Epiphanytide). English tradition says it is acceptable (desirable) to leave your tree and decorations up until February 1st. In reality (except churches), decorations tend to go up and down depending on the weather and mood of the residents.

A growing trend in Christmas decorations is to leave your lights up year round. There are two problems with this. The lights can look unsightly, and they will also wear out quickly. While Christmas lights are weather-resistant they are not intended to be left on your home for years at a time. Permanent Christmas lights are a kind of residential architectural lighting you install once and use at Christmas, other holidays throughout the year, and even as day-to-day lighting. The lights are made up of a series of LED modules affixed along the soffit, trim work, or both, and concealed in specialty plastic or aluminum channels designed to blend in with your home’s color. If you look closely when the lights are turned off, you can see them, but they blend in well enough to look like part of the home, not strings of wires everywhere. Then you need to choose if you want to buy commercial lights, pay a professional to put them up, or just go with an off the shelf product. Who knew that Christmas decorations could be so complicated.

THOUGHTS: Scant labor is a problem for both the Christmas tree growers and the installation of outside decorations. North Carolina is one of the biggest users of the H-2A visa program for agricultural workers. The regulations around hiring foreign workers have become increasingly cumbersome, hourly rates are increasing to more than $16 next year, and the incoming administration has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration. Some are also nervous about the rhetoric around clamping down on legal immigration. The trees will not get harvested or the decorations put up without this outside labor force. German pastor Martin Niemöller is quoted saying, “First they came for the Socialists . . .” Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.