The Pickle and The Almond

We’re only a few days away now, and that means that Christmas festivities are well underway in this house.  


The decorations are up,



the baking is in full swing,



and even the (spoiled) dog’s gifts are wrapped and ready for the big day.  



There are always SO many things that we try to fit into the holiday season, and that means that I am continually covered in flour, drained of creativity, and have very little (in reality NO) time to write this time of the year.  So this newsletter is going to be light on invention and words, but hopefully interesting enough based on its content; pickles and almonds.


What do pickles and almonds have in common?  In this house, the answer is “Christmas Tradition.”


By now you’ve probably picked up on the fact that we have a lot of family traditions.  A great many of them happen during the holidays, as one would expect.  I’m going to share two of those with you today.  


The tradition of the hidden Christmas pickle takes on serval variations around the globe, but in this household, we celebrate it by hiding a pickle ornament deep in the boughs of the Christmas tree after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve night.  The first kid to find the ornament the next morning receives an extra gift.  If the tradition itself sounds simple that’s because it is.  The history behind the tradition, however, is not.



It’s rumored to have started in Germany.  Beyond that, there are several accounts of the “how” it began and what truth - if any - it is based on.  Some give the credit to a pair of youths stuffed into a pickle barrel, some to a war POW, and some say it was a German glassblower who got the ball rolling… but regardless of the confusion as to its origin, it was a tradition that picked up steam throughout Germany, and didn’t stop spreading until it could be found across much of Europe and eventually around the globe.  


So along with all of the baking and decoration and shopping and wrapping, each Christmas I hunt down a pair of extra gifts.  



One for the pickle finder, and the other for the almond finder.


The tradition of the almond in the rice pudding is similar to the hidden pickle.  In fact, it’s exactly the same except that you hide a single almond in the whole batch of rice pudding and see who ends up getting it.  In our home, that person, also, gets an extra gift.  


This tradition is pretty certainly Scandinavian.  In some cultures, it does just earn an extra gift or prize, but my research findings claim that in Norway the almond discovery suggests that the finder will be married by the following Christmas.  We haven’t told my daughters that part.  😉


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, friends!

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