Why do American children look for a cucumber on the Christmas tree at Christmas

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Among the many Christmas traditions, there is one that is not popular in Russia, but is well known overseas. Little Americans, waking up on Christmas morning, run to the tree, but not in order to immediately unpack the presents, no - first, in the green branches of this festive tree you need to find … a cucumber.

An old German tradition - or not?

In the United States, this custom is considered to have come from Germany, but the Germans, if they know about the Christmas cucumber, are more likely from stories about American holiday traditions. This, of course, is no longer about a real vegetable: an ornament in the form of a cucumber is hidden on the tree. And sellers of such Christmas tree decorations often supply them with packaging with a story about an old German custom. Allegedly, once upon a time in Germany, it was customary to hang apples on a Christmas tree - as a symbol of abundance. But in one of the lean years no apples were found, and then resourceful Germans decorated the tree with pickles.

It is worth noting that the custom of decorating a Christmas tree came from Germany. It is also true that apples, and then other edible decorations, were an indispensable part of the Christmas tree dress. Perhaps it was cucumbers that were used if the tree was decorated in a poor family. There is also a legend about the first glass toys on the Christmas tree - they were allegedly replaced once with real apples - also in a lean year.

But as for the cucumber and the old custom - the more you try to learn about them, the more confusing the whole story looks. Firstly, there is no mention of decorating a Christmas tree with a cucumber, either fresh or salted, in German folklore. The Brothers Grimm pass over in silence such a tradition, and they would hardly have missed the opportunity to include it in one of the folk tales recorded by the people.

Old-timers in Germany do not remember this tradition either, and new generations of Germans know it only as a festive "fashion" that came from overseas. Books written in the 19th century and earlier, if they contain something about toys for the Christmas tree, then certainly without mentioning cucumbers and their search. On the branches, in addition to apples, nuts and breads, berries and fruits, baked goods were hung, initially all this was real, edible, then it was gradually replaced by artificial decorations - from papier-mâché, glass. "Mushrooms", "birds" appeared, they made decorations from empty eggshells. The first "cucumbers" on a Christmas tree appeared in Germany in the twenties of the last century - perhaps precisely due to the fact that they were actively produced for American buyers.

Several legends about the history of the Christmas cucumber

According to one of the versions, the beginning of the custom of hiding a cucumber on a Christmas tree was laid to some extent by Santa Claus himself. Allegedly, it was Saint Nicholas who once rescued two boys from a barrel of pickles, locked inside by a villainous innkeeper. Sounds unlikely? And here's another legend: according to it, a soldier from Bavaria named Hans Lauer was captured during the American Civil War, and now, dying of hunger, asked the jailer for some food. He took pity and gave the arrested a cucumber. Then, after being freed and returning to normal life, Lauer paid such a debt of honor to this vegetable every year - by placing it on the Christmas tree.

But these stories, most likely, have nothing to do with reality, nor with German or even American folklore. Still, most likely, the cucumber Christmas tradition arose as a marketing coup to sell as many Christmas tree decorations as possible. At the end of the 19th century, the export of Christmas decorations from Europe began to gain momentum, and among the producers was the German city of Lauscha, the one in whose workshops glass Christmas tree decorations once appeared for the first time.

The United States is still considered the main buyer of decorations for Christmas trees, and it is clear that any sale is more successful if the trail of an old, and even European, legend follows the goods. You can find a lot of “cucumbers” at Christmas markets, for every taste, both completely green and decorated with salty ones.

In the USSR, despite the fact that this tradition was unknown, "vegetable" toys were found - not only cucumbers, but also tomatoes, peppers, onions. True, in the case of the Soviet Union, perhaps the idea that inspired the manufacturers was a little different. On a New Year tree, in the midst of winter, during frosts and snowfalls, to find a cucumber - and any other vegetable or fruit - this immediately reminded of summer, and it is always pleasant to remember summer in northern latitudes. Soviet “Christmas tree” cucumbers now adorn the homes of collectors of retro gizmos or simply those who carefully kept family Christmas boxes and now have the opportunity to plunge into the past.

Christmas cucumber now

As for that very Christmas cucumber, this is what the tradition itself looks like: parents and, in general, representatives of the older, "adult" generation, hide one cucumber on the Christmas tree - a Christmas tree toy or even a real one. And the children, waking up on Christmas morning, start searching - even before they start opening presents. The one who finds the cucumber either gets the right to be the first to open his gifts, or becomes the owner of an additional present, or he is simply declared the lucky one who will be lucky all year round.

Just as Santa Claus got his own official residence not so long ago - Veliky Ustyug, so the Christmas cucumber eventually acquired a "homeland". The capital of the Christmas cucumber, whatever that means, has declared itself the town of Berrien Springs in Michigan - by the way, this is the region where the harvest of cucumbers is very impressive. Why not, since this makes it possible to attract the attention of tourists to the city, and the residents themselves, who are a little less than two thousand, feel themselves part of the holiday and the Christmas tradition, which, although it does not claim to be an old one in reality, still has more a hundred years old.

Read also: about the most romantic Christmas love story - "Gifts of the Magi".