Christmas Traditions

[St. Amish]

My grandmother always hid a pickle on the tree. Not for any good reason. It was just a thing. Grandma's tree had a pickle on it. Everyone would look for the pickle, and then once they found it, go on about their business.

Not sure how it started. Depending on the website you find, it's a German, Bavarian, Dutch, or American tradition.

[Pleater]

My father also used to toast 'absent friends' at Christmas.

My Nanna - mother's mother, always used to prepare an extra plate, cutlery, and set a spare chair in the corner of the dining room. We used to visit her each Boxing Day and it would still be there - I don't know how long it stayed there, but she used to keep the twelve days of Christmas.

She was always a bit evasive as to why it was there - she would say it was in case anyone turned up unexpectedly - but everyone in the family turned up because they were expected.

From my father's side - his mother was a great maker and baker - she made an oblong Christmas cake - it was always sliced into a thick piece which was then cut into four - and I do just the same. She also made a Twelfth cake which was a different recipe and cooked in a fluted circular tin with a hole in the middle - a major feature of this cake was the different colour glace cherries, red, green, orange and yellow, cooked whole. There was more fruit than cake - and nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds, very lightly chopped so as to fill in the spaces between the fruit.

A Yorkshire custom - I think - is to eat white Cheshire Cheese with Christmas cake.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[beloitpiper]

My grandmother always hid a pickle on the tree. Not for any good reason. It was just a thing. Grandma's tree had a pickle on it. Everyone would look for the pickle, and then once they found it, go on about their business.

Not sure how it started. Depending on the website you find, it's a German, Bavarian, Dutch, or American tradition.

My maternal grandparents are from Bavaria, and I can tell you that this is a distinctly German-American tradition, as finding a pickle in the tree in Bavaria is bad luck.