| As legend has it, in Germany parents decorate their | | | | Michigan, where 24% of the population report German |
| Tannenbaums on Christmas Eve. The last ornament | | | | ancestry. Residents claim that hundreds of years ago |
| hung is die Weinachtsgurke-a delicate glass ornament | | | | two young Spanish boys, when traveling home from |
| in the shape of a pickle. This is a significant ornament, | | | | boarding school one Christmas Eve, sought refuge for |
| for the next morning the children will rush in to open | | | | the night at an inn. Here they encountered a |
| their gifts from St. Nicholas. But the festivities can not | | | | cantankerous inn-keeper who trapped them in a pickle |
| begin until one of the children locates the elusive | | | | barrel. When St. Nicholas stopped at the inn that |
| gherkin. The one who finds it gets to open the first gift, | | | | evening he sensed their distress and tapped the barrel |
| and may even receive an extra treat for his or her | | | | with his staff, magically freeing them. Whether this |
| effort. So the story is told here in America. Glass | | | | story is true or not, Berrien Springs calls itself The |
| Christmas Pickles are a popular ornament, and usually | | | | Christmas Pickle Capital of the World.The first |
| come with the curious legend tucked or printed on the | | | | ornaments used by Germans to decorate Christmas |
| box.The oddest part about this legend is that it is | | | | Trees were fruits, particularly apples, and nuts. These, |
| virtually unknown in Germany. Nobody knows where it | | | | along with the evergreen tree itself, represented the |
| came from, or who started it. Well known is the fact | | | | certainty that life would return in the spring. In the |
| that the decorating of Christmas Trees with lights, | | | | mid-eighteen hundreds, a few enterprising individuals |
| ornaments, and tinsel originated in Germany, but unless | | | | living in the village of Lauscha (in the present-day state |
| the Pickle Tradition was practiced in a remote region | | | | of Thuringen) began selling glass ornaments. Using fruit |
| of the fatherland, it is likely that the legend was | | | | and nut molds at first, they eventually branched out, |
| created at least in part by Americans, perhaps of | | | | adding thousands of molds to their repertoire: angels, |
| German descent. There are several stories floating | | | | bells, saints, hearts, stars, and so on. Still, there is no |
| around about how the tradition may have started.One | | | | evidence of their having made a pickle, or of the pickle |
| rumor tells of a Bavarian-born Union soldier fighting in | | | | tradition ever being practiced in Lauscha or any other |
| the Civil War named John Lower (or perhaps Hans | | | | German village.Wherever the legend came from, the |
| Lauer) who was captured and sent to prison in | | | | Christmas Pickle Tradition is here to stay. Several |
| Georgia. In poor health and starving, the prisoner | | | | German glass ornament makers have capitalized on |
| begged for just one pickle before he died. A merciful | | | | the story and offer a variety of gherkins, dills and |
| guard took pity and found him a pickle. Miraculously, | | | | cucumbers (some even donning cheery Santa caps!), |
| John lived, and after he returned home he began the | | | | perpetuating the myth even as their German neighbors |
| tradition of the Christmas Pickle, promising good | | | | vehemently deny having ever heard of it. Whatever |
| fortune to the one who found the special ornament on | | | | the origin, the tradition is sure to bring a hearty dose of |
| Christmas Day.If this story seems a bit stretched, there | | | | Christmas cheer. And isn't that the point? |
| is a second story being perpetuated in Berrien Springs, | | | | |