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

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The Story

Victorians adored decorating their Christmas trees — but many ornaments were crafted from arsenic-rich green paint, mercury-coated glass, and lead-based glitter. Amy explores how a little holiday sparkle occasionally led to dizziness, nausea, or sudden fainting — and why newspapers still called it “the height of elegance.” Forget festive — Victorian trees were basically weaponized foliage.

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back, dear listeners to the Strange History podcast and day six of our Victorian Christmas countdown, the twenty five Strangest Days of Christmas. Today's Victorian Christmas tradition is a mystery that historians are still arguing about. The Christmas pickle, Yes, a pickle hidden in the Christmas tree. The tradition goes like this, a glass pickle is concealed somewhere among the branches on Christmas Morning. The first person to find it receives good fortune for the coming year and usually an extra gift.

Speaker 1: You may have heard it claimed that this tradition is German. But here's the twist. Most Germans say they've never heard of it. So where did it come from? One theory. In the late eighteen hundreds, Woolworths began importing blown glass ornaments from Germany, fruits, vegetables, and yes, pickles. When customers asked why, the pickle store clerks allegedly made up the good luck story to help sell them. In other words, the Christmas pickle may be one of history's oldest retail marketing lies, and yet the tradition survived because people love a weird holiday ritual.

Speaker 2: This episode is brought to you by pickle Spotter, the first AI powered mobile app that helps you locate any Christmas pickle in under eight seconds. Just point your phone at the tree and pickle Spotter says you're getting warmer, warmer, don't touch that, oh dear, Okay, that's broken now, Pickle Spotter making holiday competition unnecessarily intense since twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1: Does your family still recognize the Christmas pickle tradition? If they do, we want to hear your story. We may read it on the podcast. Email us at Strange History pod at gmail dot com. Tomorrow we return to the streets where Christmas was once a boisterous, occasionally drunken public carnival. Bring your wacle cup, you'll need it.