Never heard of the Christmas pickle before. My wife's family did have a similar tradition growing up. They would hide the baby Jesus from the nativity set, and the first person to find it in the house opened their presents.

As far as far memories, my family did grocery bags. Every year my mom would ask for our favorite snack foods, and then pile those goodies in a grocery bag. Typically, we started Christmas presents with those bags and it kept us youngins occupied while other people were opening gifts, lol.

Love the idea of creating new traditions for Baby Girl and Little Man!