So Sandy I are in charge of planning our staff Christmas party. We do it every year and this year we decided to have a suprise theme, PICKLES!!!!!!. In our shopping we noticed a lot of pickle ornaments and we wondered why, after some research we found this story:
A decedent of a soldier who fought in the American Civil War, John Lower (Hans Lauer?), born in Bavaria in 1842, wrote to tell about a family story that had to do with a Christmas pickle. According to family lore, “John Lower was captured and sent to prison in Andersonville, Georgia. ...In poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for John Lower. According to family legend, John said that the pickle—by the grace of God—gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. Once he was reunited with his family he began a tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree. The first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune.”
This story was by far my favorite of the pickle stories out there, I mean, how can you ignore the fact the "By the grace of God" this man was able to survive. Needless to say Sandy and I feel that it is important to share this Christmas tradition with our fellow staff members. Sandy picked up some pickle Christmas ornaments to send home with everyone, I found (pictured above) a yodeling pickle and little pickle catapults, I also found some pickle band-aids but for some reason couldn't purchase them. The yodeling pickle will likely be a prize for a coloring contest of this pickle http://www.gedneypickle.com/index.cfm/go/palooza.COLOR. And the catapults will be given away with our white elephant exchange.
I plan to make a few pickle dishes surgery dip (of course), and pickle wheels with cream cheese and ham, I also plan to have a few varities of pickles for sampling. If you know of any more pickle recipes you can let me know. After reading this i hope you all incorporate the Christmas pickle into your holiday traditions.
2 comments:
This is too great. I love it!
I have SO heard of this pickle hiding tradition. But I've also heard that whoever finds the pickle gets a special present and then has to bring the special present and has to hide it the following year. I have never heard the history behind it though. Nice!
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