Though I’ve been familiar with the terms for years, I wasn’t sure of the exact differences between a pidgin and a creole. So:

• A creole is the combination of one or more languages into a new, stable language. A mashup of languages, if you will.
• A pidgin is a simplified language used to help two groups with distinct languages communicate with each other.

“Creole”, of course, is also a term used to refer to various ethnic and social groups. Now I feel better that I know the difference between these terms.