In a Pickle

Christmas tends to bring out a little mischief in some of us (even during a time of recession). The mischief in our household comes out in the old German tradition of hiding the pickle. Now, this is a PG rated blog (most of the time), so get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about the Christmas pickle ornament.

Here's a brief rundown of the old German tradition: The whole family gathers to decorate the Christmas tree. Once done, the parents shoo the children out of the room, hide the pickle ornament on the tree and then bring the children back in the room to search for the pickle. The child that finds the ornament first gets an extra gift.

DJ and I have modified the tradition. I hide the pickle, he looks for it; he then hides the pickle and I look for it. At the end of this fun game, we do have a small gift exchange. Some of my best memories involve this game. There have been years past where I have laid down, head underneath the tree, flashlight in hand trying to find a damn green pickle ornament on a green tree. You think it wouldn't be that hard, right? Yeah. You try it. One year, it took me 24 hours to find the pickle. It was stuffed into the pants of a cloth Santa ornament. Yes, that still qualified as 'on the tree.'

Two years ago found the girls of my poker group crowded around our tree searching high and low for the ornament that had been hidden by our husbands. One of the girls was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant and determined to find that pickle. With DJ's little flashlight that straps to his head firmly on her head, she moved our presents out of the way and wiggled her pregnant self underneath the tree. My fear was that she would start laughing so hard her water would break and she would be forced to deliver with her head underneath our tree. (Alas, that did not come to pass. She gave birth to a baby girl two weeks after our party.) She eventually found the pickle, but only after her husband got some great pictures that he still cherishes to this day. In fact, they loved the tradition so much, they now share it with their two girls.

You never know . . . . If you come to our house this holiday season, you might find yourself on a pickle search!