St. Nicholas Day, which falls on December 6th (or the eve of the 5th) is a day celebrated in many European countries. Children will leave their shoes out in the evening and receive small gifts in them from St. Nicholas the next morning. Sometimes, a knock will sound at the door on St. Nicholas eve and a gift will be waiting outside. St. Nicholas was a man who is said to have shared his wealth with the poor. In one story, in particular, he helped a family with three daughters by anonymously throwing bags of coins through their window.
Our family, here in the U.S., has celebrated St. Nicholas Day since our daughter was a baby. In this time of over-consumption and entitled greed, it may seem silly that we’ve added another special holiday to December, but we added it for a few reasons. For one thing, I feel that by keeping Christmas small and having other fun celebrations to look forward to, it actually keeps some of the frenzy out of this month. I also love the idea of giving behind this story. It seems that this idea has gotten all twisted and warped in the Santa tradition. Our children leave their shoes out on St. Nicholas eve. Sometimes St. Nicholas brings chocolate coins or a very small and simple toy. He has even brought new pairs of slippers! There is also real money left in each slipper that is to be used for helping others. The kids have used this money to pick out toys or food or clothing to donate to groups collecting for families. Every other year, our St. Nicholas brings a small nutcracker. Sometimes there’s a mysterious knock at the door on St. Nick Eve and the nutcracker is outside, and sometimes the nutcracker shows up the next morning.
St. Nicholas also brings us Winnie, our Christmas Kindness Elf, who visits with us until Santa picks her up on Christmas eve. Her kindness ideas seem to fit quite nicely with the spirit of St. Nick. And, lastly, St. Nicholas picks up our fabric gift bags. We’ve made the transition to only fabric gift bags, so it’s very nice of St. Nick to take some of these to Santa to use.