The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 6 - “Toxic Tinsel: The Victorian Christmas Tree That Tried to Kill You”

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back, dear listeners to the Strange History

0:03 Speaker 1: podcast and day six of our Victorian Christmas countdown, the

0:07 Speaker 1: twenty five Strangest Days of Christmas. Today's Victorian Christmas tradition

0:13 Speaker 1: is a mystery that historians are still arguing about. The

0:17 Speaker 1: Christmas pickle, Yes, a pickle hidden in the Christmas tree.

0:22 Speaker 1: The tradition goes like this, a glass pickle is concealed

0:26 Speaker 1: somewhere among the branches on Christmas Morning. The first person

0:30 Speaker 1: to find it receives good fortune for the coming year

0:34 Speaker 1: and usually an extra gift. You may have heard it

0:37 Speaker 1: claimed that this tradition is German. But here's the twist.

0:41 Speaker 1: Most Germans say they've never heard of it. So where

0:44 Speaker 1: did it come from? One theory. In the late eighteen hundreds,

0:50 Speaker 1: Woolworths began importing blown glass ornaments from Germany, fruits, vegetables,

0:55 Speaker 1: and yes, pickles. When customers asked why, the pickle store

1:00 Speaker 1: clerks allegedly made up the good luck story to help

1:03 Speaker 1: sell them. In other words, the Christmas pickle may be

1:06 Speaker 1: one of history's oldest retail marketing lies, and yet the

1:11 Speaker 1: tradition survived because people love a weird holiday ritual.

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1:18 Speaker 2: first AI powered mobile app that helps you locate any

1:21 Speaker 2: Christmas pickle in under eight seconds. Just point your phone

1:26 Speaker 2: at the tree and pickle Spotter says you're getting warmer, warmer,

1:31 Speaker 2: don't touch that, oh dear, Okay, that's broken now, Pickle

1:35 Speaker 2: Spotter making holiday competition unnecessarily intense since twenty twenty four.

1:41 Speaker 1: Does your family still recognize the Christmas pickle tradition? If

1:45 Speaker 1: they do, we want to hear your story. We may

1:48 Speaker 1: read it on the podcast. Email us at Strange History

1:51 Speaker 1: pod at gmail dot com. Tomorrow we return to the

1:55 Speaker 1: streets where Christmas was once a boisterous, occasionally drunken public carnival.

2:01 Speaker 1: Bring your wacle cup, you'll need it.