Hang a pickle on the Christmas Tree?!?

We too hang a pickle on the tree. I say it’s a dill, because that is my favorite kind of pickle! Whatever the origins, it’s a really fun thing to hand and let the family find. One year it was so well hidden we nearly didn’t find it before we took down the tree!!
 
Where did hanging a pickle on the Christmas tree in America originate?

One suggested origin has been that the tradition came from Camp Sumter (Andersonville) during the American Civil War. The Bavarian-born Private John C. Lower had enlisted in the 103rd Pennsylvania Infantry, but was captured in April 1864 and taken to the prison camp. As the story is told, on Christmas Eve he begged a guard for a pickle while starving. The guard provided the pickle, which Lower later credited for saving his life. After returning to his family, he began a tradition of hiding a pickle on their Christmas tree each year.
Here is an article I added on the thread @huskerblitz previously posted which links the Christmas pickle in a roundabout way to U.S.Grant and the historic Grant Cottage:


For the most part speculation, and not really able to be definitive on the origin of the tradition. I will reiterate here that my mother is German and the pickle never featured in our Christmas celebrations or decorations. I do love the idea of the hunt for the pickle, though, and can't imagine many Christmas trees surviving the ordeal!
 
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For the most part speculation, and not really able to be definitive on the origin of the tradition, I will reiterate here that my mother is German and the pickle never featured in our Christmas celebrations or decorations. I do love the idea of the hunt for the pickle, though, and can't imagine many Christmas trees surviving the ordeal!
Both sides of my family are also German, my grandmother immigrating herself from there. It has never been part of our Christmas tree either.

And don't get me wrong, I think it's a neat tradition as well. But I don't think any of us can conclude this was a German tradition originally. But then again, I don't know if we have to know where it came from to enjoy it.
 
I've seen them amongst Christmas Ornaments for sale various places...never entertained the thought of putting one on the tree until I stumbled across this thread today....liked the Andersonville tale...sounds as good as any other tale alleging to be "the" story. This afternoon while running errands for the wife, I came across the 1/2 price bin at a local Dollar Tree. What do you think was sitting all by itself on top of the cart full of Xmas "stuff"? We now have a pickle hanging from our tree! 😄
 
We had great fun with it when my son was small. I think it would be a super thing with a group of children hunting all at once. It really does blend in if you hang it near the center of the tree.
 
Its possible the tradition had more then one origin. For my family the tradition started with in the last several decades. For us it was the connection to pickling cucumbers. I did research work on mechanical harvest yields of the crop and have family that live close to the MT Olive Pickle Co. in NC.
 
A great little book I got from Bronner's is "Ornament Legends, Symbols & Traditions".

I have many of the ornaments they talk about, including the Bird Nest, the Candy Cane, the Cardinal, the Dolphin, Guardian Angels, Holly, the Nutcracker, the Owl, the Pickle, Poinsettia, the Pretzel, the Sand Dollar, the Star,, the Turtle and the Unicorn. Have several ornaments with these themes. Been collecting them for years.
 
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