Today (December 6th) is St. Nicholas Day. In anticipation of this, we carried on our tradition of secretly delivering some treats to a few neighbors last night with a little note. Anna's prayer of thanks last night before bed was for the sheer thrill of trying to leave the gifts without getting caught.
Some years, we have baked cookies and delivered them,
but we simplified and just used this template this year wrapping them around little Hershey bars.
We had to dart behind the alley a few times as doors opened and people looked around,
but of course that just added to the fun.
Here is the note we left with the little treats.
“Saint Nicolas is related to our modern day Santa Claus and we celebrate his feast day on December 6. In the Christian church tradition, Saint Nicolas is the patron saint of children because he was reputed to have given gifts to them secretly in the night. He was renowned for his secret generosity and it is this aspect of his legend that we celebrate in our American tradition of Santa Claus. Please accept this ‘secret’ gift as a commemoration of his generosity and as an early reminder of the great gift that God gave us at Christmas.
Blessings, your ‘secret’ St. Nicolas friends”
our St. Nicholas puppet along for the escapade…
There was a giant Christmas party going on at this house so we had to run fast…
coming home to warm up…
(We might have gone to more houses, but our hands were about to turn to ice so we had to call it quits after a while..)
Traditional celebrations of St. Nicholas Day
include gifts left in children’s shoes (from which American Christmas stockings developed).
Here are Anna and Taylor's shoes left out last night with the surprise waiting for them this morning of finding chocolate coins and some chocolate bars of their own
a great link here for more information about St. Nick...
Favorite book for St. Nicholas Day:
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
Amazon's summary of it: "Many parents and teachers struggle with how to approach the Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus dilemma. Many deal with this by telling children that the legends surrounding Santa Claus are based on a real, historical figure named Nicholas, a Christian bishop known for his generosity. This picture book presents a shortened, somewhat fictionalized version of the life of Saint Nicholas, explaining that Nicholas was a servant of God and that, through him, Gods love was reflected to others. The story touches on the ministry of Nicholas and his generous gift of a dowry to three young girls as a response to Gods love in Jesus. And it brings application to our own lives as we, too, respond with grateful hearts to Gods great gift of love to us. Combining museum-quality artwork and family friendly language, this book clearly articulates how God showered His love upon us through Christ and helps children see that our own gift-giving is a grateful response to the sacrificial gift of Gods Son."
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