Our Story of the Christmas Pickle
The Christmas Pickle is one of those fun stories that supposedly isn’t claimed by its home country of Germany, but is indeed claimed by the town of Berrien, Michigan, where they have an annual celebration of the Christmas Pickle.
Supposedly, as the story goes, in Germany, the Christmas Pickle is an ornament, in fact the last ornament to be put on the tree and is hidden somewhere within the tree. The child who finds it receives one extra gift on Christmas morning.
Our Christmas Pickle story is slightly different and is running on three years now. It keeps growing and growing into its own legend.
Three years ago when we were performing the second installment of the Sanders Family Trilogy, Sanders Family Christmas at Wayside Theatre, one of the cast members, the lovely Liz Albert, gave each of the cast members a Christmas Pickle ornament as a gift. In the town where the musical is set there is a pickle factory, you see, so that all made sense.
Well, my lovely wife, Thomasin brought home her Christmas Pickle, only to have it break in her hands as she was trying to put in on the tree. She was devastated.
Not to be outdone, Liz, last year gave Thomasin another Christmas Pickle ornament as a gift.
Unfortunately the same fate befell that Christmas Pickle as well. It broke as Thomasin was attempting to place it on the tree, but not into as many pieces.
So, assuming the third time would be the charm, Liz, once again gifted us with a Christmas Pickle this year. But this time she gave it our friend and stage manager, Malia, with strict instructions for her not to allow Thomasin to touch it, but see that it got to the tree.
Malia performed her duty, (top picture above) and came upstairs and lovingly placed the pickle on our tree. (The first ornament, not the last, but oh, well.)
When we were later unpacking the ornaments, Thomasin came across last year’s Christmas Pickle in the box. We decided, since Malia and several of our actor friends, all of who have intimate knowledge of the Christmas Pickle saga so far, were coming to dinner on Christmas Eve, that we would place the broken Christmas Pickle prominently on a table, knowing they would see it. We knew they’d immediately have a moment of shock, and then a good laugh.
Well, on Christmas Eve morning, Thomasin was passing by the table where said broken Christmas Pickle was prominently displayed, and her robe proceeded to brush the pickle on to the floor and shatter it further, proving Liz’s point that Thomasin should never, ever go near a Christmas Pickle.
Not to be defeated, we picked up the broken glass pieces and displayed them, still aiming to punk our friends. The intended effect with our friends was indeed achieved. We all had a good laugh.
Malia and I are renting a safety deposit box at the bank next week to store the intact Christmas Pickle and the legend of our Christmas Pickle I’m sure will continue to grow.
