The legend of the Christmas pickle!

The Christmas Eve pickle?

No, that’s not when you forget to buy the batteries or are still assembling that bike at 2 a.m.!

It’s actually something like an Easter egg hunt.

An ornament in the shape of a pickle is hidden in your tree on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning, children search for the pickle, and the child who finds it gets an extra present from Santa.

The Christmas pickle tradition is said to have many origins. Some say it comes from Germany, others call it a marketing trick to sell vegetable ornaments that goes back to the late 1800s. In fact, Woolworth’s (remember Woolworth’s!) was the first store to import glass-blown pickle ornaments in the U.S.

But the best pickle tradition story comes from the Civil War. It goes that a soldier, Private John C. Lower, was captured and taken to the Andersonville prison. On Christmas Eve he begs a guard for a pickle to save him from starvation.

Lower received his pickle, which saves his life. And when he returned home, he started the pickle-in-the-Christmas-tree custom.

Now, whether you believe this story or not, it does have a “pickle” of truth to it! And that’s about how healthy a food pickles are — or can be if you get the right ones.

A good pickle is good source of antioxidants, and an excellent way to get more probiotics — or friendly bacteria — into your diet.

But it has to be a “real” pickle, not the usual store-bought kind that is made with artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup. The kind of pickle you’ll find at an old-fashioned deli or farmers market.

So pick you pickles with care — on Christmas Eve and all through the new year.

Sources:
“History of Christmas pickles” Dana Hinders, lovetoknow, Christmas.lovetoknow.com