Okay, my European boardie dears - help clear something up for this ignorant American. Is there or is there not an old Christmas tradition involving a glass pickle ornament on the Christmas tree? Is this just a fabricated marketing farse?
lol - there was an article on that exact story in the newspaper a few weeks ago... can you read German? or do you know someone who can? --> then you should read the article ;D
It seems to be a very "American" thing to believe that Germans put one pickle ornament on their Christmas tree (I guess the story you know goes like this: one glass pickle is hung on the tree and the child that finds it first gets an extra present, or can open their presents first, or something like that).
I'm German, I've grown up here - and although my dad was not from Germany, I had one German grandmother who was very much into traditional Christmas: I had NEVER EVER heard about that pickle thing until I read that article.
The article even says that it's supposed to be a FRANCONIAN tradition (Franconia is a region in the North of Bavaria) - now, my Grandma WAS from that particular part of the country, she grew up and lived there for 87 years, and as I said, I've never heard about (let alone seen) pickle ornaments ;)
The story gets better:
Apparently, many many American tourists asked for pickle-ornaments in German shops and so some ornament-companies have started making them to satisfy the (American) demand. And because the whole tradition seems so special (and kinda weird), GERMANS have started to buy them, too.
So, all in all it seems to be a tradition that was invented by some German emigrants (maybe one family thought it was a nice idea to do it and told other emigrants about it who thought it was a "German thing"?) - and then it was brought back to Germany by market-forces, tourism and the media in the 21st century ;D
hahaha Well thank you for clearing this up for me. I had a growing suspicion that this wasn't an old tradition as everyone here would believe. We've had a pickle ornament on our trees every since I was a little kid, so it's still special to me for that reason, but I'm happy to know this isn't some obscure old German tradition. :)
*blushes* we have a pickle ornament. We bought it at Frankenmuth, Michigan. Each year, we let a different child hang it up and let the other two try to find it. There is no reward other than being the winner.
But we have other made-up traditions, too. There is an ugly ornament that I don't like. I try not to hang it. Don sneaks it out of the box and hangs it somewhere and waits for me to notice. I'll move it to the back of the tree. He'll move it to the front. And this is the type of people we are.
My family must consist of "those kinds of people" too. Several years ago a co-worker gave my mother THE single ugliest Christmas angel decoration known to man. Knowing how gross I thought it was, my mom wrapped it up and gave it to me as a joke. I saved it and the next Christmas, wrapped it up and gave it to her. Every year we pass it back and forth to each other. The best part is that we always seem to forget that the other has it, so it really is hilarious when the other unwraps it.
The city was settled by German immigrants. It's now a touristy town with a big Bavarian Inn restaurant and what is supposed to be the world's largest Christmas store. In an embarrassing story, I lost 2 of my 3 children in this store a few years ago. I looked for about 2 minutes and then notified a worker. The whole place went into complete lockdown, announcements were made and my kids were back with me in just a few minutes. It happens so often that they developed a very efficient system to deal with it. Each worker checks a specific section of the store assigned to them. Whew! I was so relieved and so embarrassed. I swear, we only turned around for a second and they took off to look at shiny Christmas things!
ROFL, what a great system! They should put this in their ads, "we find your children within 5 minutes".
Actually, I think there was a short documentary on that shop on TV some days ago, is it "Bronner's"?
I will google the Bavarian Inn restaurant...
Edit: googled it. The Lodge actually looks like the new spa-hotels that have sprung up next to new golf-courses in rural Bavaria, those people did their research well ;D
The dinner menu has some grave mistakes when it comes to "Bavarian-ness", though ;P
I have not personally been to Frankenmuth (sp?), Michigan, but my parents went a few years ago. My mom has the Christmas ornament addiction as bad as I do (possibly worse) and she was pretty disappointed because most of the stuff wasn't even German. . . and they ate at the Bavarian Inn and weren't impressed. If it makes you feel any better, my parents lost each other in Bronner's too. :)
I have not personally been to Frankenmuth (sp?), Michigan, but my parents went a few years ago. My mom has the Christmas ornament addiction as bad as I do (possibly worse) and she was pretty disappointed because most of the stuff wasn't even German. . . and they ate at the Bavarian Inn and weren't impressed. If it makes you feel any better, my parents lost each other in Bronner's too. :)
I don't think Bronner's is supposed to be German. It's just a big Chrismtas store that happens to be in Frankenmuth. As for the Bavarian Inn--Exactly! I was never impressed with the food either, but my husband loves it. I think it's more quantity over quality. They're supposed to be famous for their chicken dinners and I'd prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken any day. Theirs tastes like Shake 'n' Bake, if you ask me.
I don't think Bronner's is supposed to be German. It's just a big Chrismtas store that happens to be in Frankenmuth. As for the Bavarian Inn--Exactly! I was never impressed with the food either, but my husband loves it. I think it's more quantity over quality. They're supposed to be famous for their chicken dinners and I'd prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken any day. Theirs tastes like Shake 'n' Bake, if you ask me.
I think it's hilarious that they call themselves Bavarian Inn, yet they have...hm... maybe one? two? Bavarian-style meals on their menu. Kassler is not Bavarian, neither is Wiener Schnitzel (obviously, Vienna is in Austria), and chicken is... well. Chicken.
I love KFC, we have two in Munich now *lol*, but a few years ago we had only ONE and it was right opposite the building I worked in. It was great... for the first three weeks ;D
