It has been noted, however, that in the 1880s, Woolworth stores started selling glass ornaments imported from Germany, and some were in the shape of various fruit and vegetables...with pickles perhaps being among the selections. Some folks claim the Christmas pickle indeed is a very old German tradition, and that the pickle was the last ornament hung on a Christmas tree. Subsequently, the first child to find the pickle got an extra present. That claim, however, also has its doubters.
There are two other far-fetched stories linking the pickle to Christmas. One features a fighter in the American Civil War, who was born in Bavaria (an area of what is now Germany). He was a prisoner, and starving, he begged a guard for one last pickle before he died. The guard allegedly took pity on him and gave him a pickle, which gave him the mental and physical strength to live on.
The other story is linked to St. Nicholas. It's a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from a boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the evil innkeeper killed the boys and put them in a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn and found the boys in the barrel. He miraculously brought them back to life.
There's also an old legend about St. Nicholas rescuing boys from a barrel, but the barrel held meat for pies--not pickles.
The truth of the matter might be that an ornament salesman, with a lot of spare pickles to sell, invented the legend of the Christmas pickle.
This much is certain: The American city of Berrien Springs, MI (also known as the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World) holds a pickle festival during the early part of December each year.
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