10 Briny Gifts for Your Pickle-Loving Friends

Have you heard of the Christmas pickle tradition? Whether you hide a pickle ornament in your Christmas tree each year or you’re completely baffled by the custom, there’s no denying that pickles add a little something special to the season.

Yes, pickles are beloved all year round. But we can treat the holidays as an excuse to fill our friends’ stockings with pickles galore. Find our recommendations for the best pickle products below; the pickle lover in your life will relish any or all of these pickle-themed products. (Sorry for how many times we just said “pickles.”)

For the kosher dill enthusiast, the scent is half the appeal, and now you can fill your home with the satisfying smell of a briny batch. This candle, a collaboration between Vlasic and home fragrance and accessories company Candier by Ryan Porter, translates pickle obsession into a high-end home decor statement. It really looks like a full jar of pickles, so keep it out of your kitchen to avoid confusion.

Ignoring its obvious grammatical issues, this hat is the perfect way for the pickle fans in your life to make their loyalty known. The low-key design and bold statement strike the perfect balance of chill fanatic. The hat comes in black or white and costs a reasonable $20. If baseball caps aren’t your vibe, Grillo’s merch page has a solid selection of other pickle-themed clothing available for purchase, as well as a few stylish bucket hats.

Another home run from Grillo’s, a company with its finger on the pulse of the pickle community. Everyone can use a good water bottle…or is it a pickle juice bottle? Would it be bad form to walk around with a jug of pickle juice during the day, taking salty swigs at will? Well, if that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. Carrying around this lightweight plastic bottle is a lot easier than lugging around a glass jar of the remaining brine.

Do you want a refreshing freeze pop, but all the fruity offerings are just too sweet? How about an icy, sour, satisfying pickle-flavored variety?. Van Holten’s sells these frozen treats in a 24-count case for $20, so there are plenty to go around. The brand also sells a number of other pickle products via Amazon, including a pickle brine mixer you can use in cocktails or as a chaser for holiday pickleback shots.

Another way to satisfy a sweet tooth that also craves sour is with this pickle cotton candy from Chocolate Storybook. The tubs contain 1.75 ounces of cotton candy each, and you can order a two-pack containing both the Dill and Spicy Dill variety for $15. Sure, Chocolate Storybook recommends buying this as a gag gift or white elephant contribution, but for the true pickle lover, there’s nothing gimmicky about it.

If you’re looking for way to make pickles part of someone’s day-to-day routine, this little self-care bundle is the perfect gift. The three-piece set comes with a dill pickle soap, pickle bandages, and dill-pickle-flavored lip balm. Who wouldn’t want a boo boo made better by a pickle bandage? Oh, just me? That’s fine, I’ll take it.

For the more active members of the pickle community, there’s this PickleSplash drink, intended for sports hydration, muscle cramp relief, and a cocktail mixer, because why not. I can’t actually guarantee this is going to hydrate you enough to keep you at peak performance or make your muscle cramps disappear, no matter what the optimistic product description promises. What I can say is that this sounds like it would taste pretty great, and maybe that’s all the convincing you need.

The pickle ornament for one’s Christmas tree is the most festive gift you could give to a fan. It springs from the regional tradition of the Christmas pickle, observed in much of the Midwest by way of Germany. Here’s how it works: You select a clever spot to hide your pickle on the tree, challenge your loved ones to find it, and the victor wins an extra Christmas present. It seems that big brands have finally started cashing in on the tradition—you can now buy a pickle ornament from Target, Crate and Barrel, and The Container Store, and dozens of vendors on Etsy offer fun options too.

You might be surprised to hear that these salty-sweet treats even exist, or maybe the true pickle fanatic isn’t surprised by much of anything anymore. Eating pickles on the go can be a bit messy, even when they’re sold in convenient pouches, so this pickle-juice-flavored taffy provides a simple solution to the mightiest craving.

One of the most underrated snack combos out there is popcorn dipped in pickle juice, and many people who indulge in this behavior also like to add a little hot sauce. Rather than having to grab a single kernel at a time to get the right ratio of juice to popcorn, this pickle-flavored popcorn cuts out some of the extra work with a dry seasoning that mimics all the spicy and sour flavors. You can grab a bag for $3.99 on Vat19.com.