As a little kid I knew nothing of St. Nicholas Day. As a teenager, I knew of it, but didn't know that much or the whole gist. I knew it had to do with the "real" Santa Claus.
While living in England I saw a whole slew of people participate in the tradition of leaving their shoes out for St. Nick on the eve of St. Nicholas Day (so on Dec. 5). It intrigued me.
I wanted to know more.
I read up a ton on it. Turns out that it's fairly common in most European countries to celebrate St. Nicholas Day, as well as within in Catholic families.
I mean, Saint Nicholas. He is a Catholic saint.
In a nutshell, St. Nicholas was from modern day Turkey and did a lot of good things for other people. There are stories that he threw three sacks of gold into the house of a man with three daughters for whom he had no dowry for (which meant they'd never marry, and would very likely be sold into slavery during those days). They supposedly landed into three stockings they had hanging over the fire place - so that's where the modern day hanging of the stockings at Christmas comes from.
There are a ton more stories about him - mostly helping out the poor and children. Hence he eventually became the Super Santa we know now.
I really, really loved the ideas of St. Nicholas, and the tradition of leaving your shoes out for him to fill with treats.
I have conflicted feelings about pretty much everything, ha, but decided that the kids and I would just talk a whole lot about St. Nicholas and the good things he did, which we did, since we are Catholic and Saints are totally applicable. And I really would like them to know my religion some (okay, okay, I would like to know more about some of it). Next year I'd like to find a good kid-appropriate book to read to them about the real St. Nick, as well.
I also talked to them about the typical tradition of leaving the shoes out and it being filled with treats. I never said St. Nicholas would be the one to fill it with treats, or that he ever did it, but I did tell them that this was a fun tradition that had begun in memory of St. Nicholas.
The kids were stoked.
They left their shoes on the back porch (way too much ice and snow for the front, and though I know a lot of people do outside their bedroom doors, with kids who don't sleep through the night, that was just going to be a disaster). When they awoke the next morning they had truffles and caramels and a little geometric puzzle each stuffed into their tiny shoes.
And H promptly exclaimed, "Momma, that dead Nicholas guy brought us candy!"
I'm really glad she understood the story of St. Nicholas and really took it to heart.
We'll try again next year...
And just for fun, we have gotten a ridiculous amount of snow!
No comments:
Post a Comment