Hide the pickle

We like to play hide the pickle at our house.  It’s an old tradition meant for the whole family to enjoy.  We sometimes play hide the pickle when guests come to visit also.  Gosh, I love to play hide the pickle!

Hide the pickle!

When we lived in Nashville, we had a friend who worked part-time at a place that sold Christmas ornaments.  One night at a get-together, she asked if we wanted to play hide the pickle.  Being young and carefree, we eagerly agreed.  She gave us a box with a glass pickle inside.  I had never heard of the tradition but apparently folks back in the old country would hide a glass pickle ornament somewhere in their Christmas tree (check this out for an explanation).

Our Christmas tree!

I think whoever finds it has to clean the kitchen or do push-ups or something like that.  The kids love that of course!  So, we put our tree up the other night.  Only since we moved back to West-by-God-Virginia have we had a real tree in the house for Christmas.  We headed to the farmers’ market to get a tree grown in WV (which isn’t all of them at the market) the other night and finished decorating it finally.  The finishing touch was for me to hide the pickle deep in the tree which delighted Abigail.  Really, it’s a great tradition and one for which I am thankful!

Happy kid!

Well friends, I don’t know about the people with whom you spend time, but if they ever ask you if you want to play hide the pickle, cautiously nod your head and see what happens!

8 thoughts on “Hide the pickle

  1. Well I’m glad you were talking about a Christmas ornament you had me worried there for a minute. Since you’re using a real tree shouldn’t you be using a real pickle? It might make it even more interesting. There’s another obscure Christmas tradition of hanging a spider ornament on the tree, she might not be so thrilled with that one. Merry Christmas to you all.

  2. We have a similar version. I call it hide the Christmas-ornament-that-I-made-in-kindergarten-with-my-picture-in-the-middle and generally I am the one hiding it and not informing anyone that I have done so or that they should look for it.

  3. Your tree is beautiful Warren! Makes me wish I hadn’t put up the old artificial this year. I have never heard of hide the pickle. Neat sounding traditional. 🙂

  4. GW and DA, I am glad you two decided to click…I’d say because of the title rather than in spite of…either way, it’s good!

    Ed, we have so many of those ornaments. I guess the ones from when I was in school are gone but the kids are sticking us up nicely!

    Angela – thanks! Emily especially takes great pride in setting it up!

  5. How pretty! The girl, I mean 🙂 The tree looks great too. We don’t have a pickle ornament but I’m thinking we need one, if only to see Larry’s face when I ask him if he wants to play hide the pickle.

  6. You need to try it C. Kel! It’s good fun!

    Granny Sue – Def ask Larry and ask it in front of Derek! That would be worth some laughs!

Comments are closed.