St. Nicholas Day

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there..."

A Visit from St Nicholas

by Clement C Moore

Every year on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, children leave their shoes, slippers or stockings out to find them filled with candies, nuts or fruit by St. Nicholas. Our son eagerly anticipates this annual tradition by leaving his slippers outside his bedroom door to wake to find them filled with a sweet card from St. Nick and special candies. 

The sweet card from St. Nick writes to tell our son that St. Nick's elf, Christopher-pop-in-kins reports that our son's been a good boy (so far!) this year and encourages him to keep up the good work! 

 

Glittering snowy sprinkles and glistening stars pepper the surrounding floor, leaving a magical trail from this special visit!  Chocolate coins, special hot cocoa mix, peppermints and other candies overflow from his cute little polar bear slippers.

It's an Old World tradition that keeps the religious focus on the Christian aspect of the holiday which is important to us. 

But you don't need to be religious to keep this tradition alive.  We explain to our son that St. Nicholas (St. Nick/Santa) visits before Christmas in order to check in on how he's behaving and to scope out where to leave the presents!  It's a wonderful prelude to the hoopla of Christmas and stretches out the anticipation (the funnest part!) just a little bit longer!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!