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It's where the chintzier items that have been handed down from Patrick's family find a home. A dollar-store set of china nativity figurines—with pasty white complexions and painted-on eyelashes that resemble Tammy Faye Baker's—takes shelter under its boughs. This was always a big day back in the old East Baltimore neighborhood. Kids of Eastern European descent got a stocking full of goodies 19 days prior to Christmas.
Get creative in the kitchen with these kid-friendly Christmas recipes. If you talk to most families who celebrate St. Nicholas Day, you'll find they each have special gift traditions. Whether St. Nick leaves treats in shoes or in Christmas stockings depends on where you were raised. While your kiddos are sleeping, take the letters and fill their shoes with candy and other small trinkets. It’s sure to be a fun tradition to find on the morning of December 6th. When he asked, "Did he really give me this?" I could say, "No, I did, because I love you and to remember Saint Nicholas."
Why Do We Celebrate St. Nicholas Day?
I vividly remember explaining this sweet holiday to new friends in college who had never heard of it before. Each year, on the 6th of December, we kick off the holiday season with an early visit from St. Nicholas, the Patron Saint of Children. St. Nicholas is known for his gracious and selfless nature and the holiday is a great way to get in the spirit of giving for the upcoming season. For St. Nicholas Day we give gingerbread to my children's classmates and teacher, neighbours and dear friends. We pile in the car early, early on the 6th and deliver brown bags of gingerbread to the neighbours.
We hang the stockings before bed, and everyone sneaks in to put gifts in each other's stockings. When possible, we share a common meal with others who also celebrate this way, followed by a visit from St. Nicholas himself. We are blessed with a few family friends who honor St. Nicholas in a variety of ways, including what has grown into a Secret St. Nicholas gift-giving the night of Dec. 5.
Saint Nicholas Favor Bag Retro Party Dutch Vintage Custom 4X6 10 count "Groeten van St. Nikolaas"
It has an added advantage we had not anticipated—when the letters go into the shoes, that is the end of talking about wanting this or that for Christmas. At school, other kids are telling each other about what they are going to get, or what they want, but our kids had already sent their notes to St. Nick. They also were the only kids who had received an actual visit from him and some small treats earlier in the month! So our kids did not spend the next three weeks adding to their requests, or paying much attention to toy ads on TV. Our family observes St Nicholas Eve—my husband is of German descent.
In the remaining weeks before Christmas, we try to emphasize how nice it was to receive gifts. Now we do the same for others, for this is what God does at Christmas. So we bake, sew, glue, and paste for grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. This family really doesn't want to rush Christmas into the beginning of Advent. To help the children wait, surrounded as they are by cultural pressure for an "early" tree, they put up a St. Nicholas Tree on December 5th. God of joy and cheer, we thank you for your servant, the good bishop Nicholas.
Oreos and Candy Cane Chocolate Bark
I'm sure that no other school today remembers Saint Nicholas in the same way. 2007 child psychologists would be horrified at the thought of such a scenario. However, I assure you that every Saint Wenceslas graduate would fondly recall Brother Ulrich, aka Saint Nicholas, the nuns, and the devil on this special day. Gold chocolate coins, Sacagawea dollar coins, other money, or gift certificate to represent the money Nicholas threw into the window of a poor family’s house. Is there someone in your neighborhood who will need their snow removed from their sidewalk?
We give all our immediate family gifts on St. Nicholas Day. On St. Nicholas Eve we hang simple, homemade muslin stockings, to which we add an embroidered symbol each year. We remember the story of St. Nicholas and his gift of dowries to three young maidens.
Santa’s Stuffed Belly Cookies
The family puts their shoes out on St. Nicholas Eve, filled with carrots and notes of appreciation to the saint and asking for his prayers. Listen to hear them talk about ways St. Nicholas helps keep a focus on love, hope, generosity and faith in this busy season. When I had my own children, I wanted to make the holiday season a season and observing St. Nicholas Day was a perfect way to do that. When my son was two, we put his shoes outside his bedroom door on the evening of Dec. 5th, and in the morning he was very surprised to find a shortbread cookie inside his shoe!
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And each day (unless one or all was egregiously out of line!) there'd be a little present in each sock. Usually these were practical, such as a big new eraser, sometimes fattening, as in candy, and sometimes special—a toy car, or something. This season long present-giving matched our opening of Advent House doors and evening readings around the table . If you’re a Milwaukee local, then you’re likely familiar with the tradition of St. Nick’s Day on December 6th. And, if you’re anything like me, you probably end up having to do shopping for St. Nick’s Day late and in a hurry! We’ve come up with a great list of ideas for your last minute shopping!
He always writes a "pastoral letter" and he even suggested one year that on Christmas we say a prayer and sing a carol at the manger before opening presents—a tradition we have kept up ever since. Later, we wrote up The Story of St. Nicholas , and put it in a basket with a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and small gifts chosen for the children in a particular family. We included a handmade snowflake cut out of paper and instructions to put the snowflake on the front door, copy the story, and deliver a similar basket to another neighbor. By Christmas nearly all of our neighbors' doors would have snowflakes on them. As Senior Shopping Editor, Katie connects Taste of Home readers with the best gifts, deals and home products on the market.
His ancestors came to the US long enough ago that they have lost any European customs. When our first child was born, we wanted to acknowledge both backgrounds, and we also wanted to try to steer the Christmas focus from toys and gimme gimme. On the evening of Dec 5, we put them in our shoes and place the shoes at the fireplace. Sometimes we put a carrot for the reindeer, horse, or whatever animal he was using. The letter was not a long list of stuff desired, but a polite letter inquiring after St. Nicholas' previous year and saying how we were, how the writer had grown, high points of past year and so on. If a wished for item or two was mentioned, that was okay.
The ornaments reflect an interest or activity that each one has been involved in this year. With the ornaments each child also receives a $10.00 bill, knowing that with this gift from St. Nicholas comes a charge to purchase a gift for a needy child. Some years they each purchase one small item and some years they pool their resources to buy one big item. Regardless, it must be something that they would want for themselves and then give it away to someone else.
How about leaving a bag of food on their doorknob or porch. Is there someone who needs a hot meal and a listening ear because they have no one? Keep in mind, you need to perform your Nicholas deed in private or it’s not in the spirit of St. Nicholas. On December 5th, after dinner, but not so late that children would be sleeping, we sneaked down the street, left the basket on a front step, knocked on the door, and ran away. We hid behind trees to be sure the door was opened and the basket received. We had lots of giggles delivering the basket and we had so much fun watching snowflakes appear on neighbors' doors.
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