The tree is up, the lights are lit, and there is just one last ornament to be hung. No, it's not the star, angel or whatever sits atop your Christmas tree. The final touch on any well-dressed tree is the Christmas pickle.

A brine-soaked cucumber may not be the very first thing you think of when it comes to traditional holiday ornaments, but for children in Germany it is the most important decoration.

According to the centuries-old tradition, a pickle ornament is hidden in the branches of the Christmas tree. On Christmas morning, children search the boughs looking for the hidden gherkin. The child who finds the Christmas pickle receives a special blessing and an extra gift.
This exact origins of this tradition are disputed, but the generally accepted idea is that it stems from a near-death experience of a German man imprisoned in America after the Civil War. It was Christmas and the starving prisoner asks the guard for one last pickle before he succumbs.

The guard complies and that pickle somehow manages to sustain the prisoner. He lives to tell his family back in Germany of the pickle that saved his life and a tradition is born.

My German brother-in-law swears that he has never heard of the Christmas pickle, so the possibility exists that it was created by pickle ornament manufacturers. Regardless, it sounds like fun and I intend to incorporate it into my family's holiday traditions this year.