This year I did quite well. It only took me 3 hours to find the "Christmas Pickle".
I took only a 10 or 15 minute break every half or hole hour between looking for the anonymous pickle, last year it was 2 day's but I only looked for 10 or 20 minutes at a time.If you know something is there and you can't find it , well that's the challenge, man did this drive me crazy because Meg and her Mom found it before I did..... So not fair.
Legend of the Christmas Pickle
In old world Germany, the last decoration placed on the Christmas tree was always a pickle...carefully hidden deep in the boughs. Legend has it that the observant child who found it on Christmas Day was blessed with a year of good fortune...and a special gift.
What pickle ???
Can you see it yet?
There she is.
2 comments:
Actually, truth be told -- like most of christmas -- the facts are not correct. As it turns out, the German tradition was started to attract rabid squirrels still living in the freshly cut trees. They would eat these "special" pickles (tainted with rodent poison -- a special version only the Germans know how to make) and the pesky critter would eventually die. The poison, however, was a special nerve poison... it would trigger something in the squirrels brain that would make it think it was sinking... thus forcing the squirrel to climb to the top of the tree. This is where the final effects of the poison would settle in and the squirrel would die, in place, and stiffen up hard as a rock.
Most people don't realize that, according to German tradition, the 'dead' squirrel was difficult to reach, as most home had ceilings of at least 12 feet, and the trees were tall enough to fit just under the ceiling. So, rather than risk the embarrassment of having stiffy the squirrel starring at you all through christmas dinner the crafty Germans would place a large star on top of the tree using a large grappling stick. It was enough to hide the squirrel, but still had 'holes' in it so that the squirrel could 'look on.' The Germans were not well educated and still believed that the christmas squirrel could still see through it's dead eyes from beyond the grave, and that blinding the squirrel would just irritate its ghost and it would haunt them forever.
Children that ate the christmas pickle didn't usually die from the poison, but they almost always developed a nervous tic.
See... now you know the truth behind the christmas pickle. I can't believe how modern people have turned it into something it was never meant to be. Oh, the humanity.
actually david there is no tradition of a christmas pickle in germany in any way, shape or form. no one knows how it started and why it is said to be a german tradition. it's still a ton of fun to hunt for it and just adds to the fun and excitement that all of christmas brings.
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