Good morning friends, tomorrow is the Feast of St. Nicholas day! Do you celebrate?
I have been celebrating St. Nicholas for my entire life, and my mother before her, and her mother too. It is a custom that my family brought over from Germany.
In many places where St. Nicholas is prominent his feast day, December 6th, is the day you receive little gifts, typically gold coins and an orange. On December 5th, today, you put your shoes or stocking by the fireplace or by the window so that St.Nicholas can fill them with treats .
Who is St. Nicholas?
For those of you not familiar with St. Nicholas, here is an abbreviated history. Nicholas was born in the third century in the village of Patara. His wealthy parents died while he was very young and being the devout Christian that he was he set about giving away his inheritance, to the poor, needy and suffering people in his town.
He was raised by his uncle who was a member of the clergy and he dedicated himself to serving God, while still young he became the Bishop of Myra. He became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need and his love for children as well as his concern for sailors and ships. In fact he is the patron saint of children and sailors.
Legends of St. Nicholas
There are many tales and legends of the life and deeds of St. Nicholas which help us to understand why he was so loved and revered. One famous story tells the tale of three young girls who had no dowry. Their father was a mean and nasty man and said that with no dowry he could not keep them, he would have to sell them as slaves.
Nicholas heard this and tried to think of ways to get them money, without offering charity, as he knew the father would not take it. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, money appeared in their home. The bags of coins where thrown in an open window, and landed in their shoes drying by the window sill. Hence the reason we put our shoes out!
Some people say it was bags of money, some people say gold balls. That is why you see three gold balls sometimes represented as oranges as the symbol of St. Nicholas. Now you know why you find an orange in the toe of your stocking.
It is also the reason St. Nicholas became known as a gift giver.
Feast Day of St.Nicholas
The anniversary of the death of St. Nicholas also became a celebration of his life, December 6th or if you follow the Julian calendar December 19th.
So on the eve of his celebration(December 5th) we leave out our shoes or stockings and a few carrots for his horse or donkey and hope that in the morning we will find some treats. If your bad all you get is a few twigs or some coal.
We also celebrate Christmas, this was just a little visit from the great man to make sure that we were being good.
Apparently we were because we always got an orange, some walnuts and lots of chocolate treats.
What about your family, do you celebrate St.Nick?
What are your family traditions? I love hearing all about other peoples traditions or traditions from your country so please do share.
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Books About St. Nicholas
If you are interested, there are many books about St.Nicholas and how he transformed into the modern Santa Claus, Pere Noel and Father Christmas.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The Legend of St.Nicholas: A story of Christmas Giving
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
The Bakers Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale
Whichever name you know him by, St. Nicholas was a lover of children of all ages.
You can also read more at the St. Nicholas Center where there are images of the man, a history of his life and of course suggestions for celebrating his life.
Or watch Saint Nicholas: The Real Story.
Here are a few more books for kids.
UNTIL TOMORROW
I hope you enjoyed a little Christmas history with this post about St. Nicholas. Don’t forget to put your shoes or stockings out.
Take care and thank you for spending part of your day with me. I will see you tomorrow.
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Love this post! My husband is of Ukrainian heritage and he always celebrated St. Nicholas Day at his church. When we married we started celebrating with little gifts. We recently joined a great church near us and they always had a St. Nicholas Mass on the Saturday before the 6th. The children were asked to put their shoes in the chapel area, St. Nicholas would bang on the doors and come into church in all his red robed glory. He would invite the children to come and sit and tell them about his life and the Christmas story….then leave and fill the shoes with treats. There was a modified for Covid version last night in the church courtyard – we did not attend. But this morning at Mass he banged on the door, walked down the aisle in his red robes, bishop’s hat, and staff and read the prayer for the day and told about his life. So glad we got to see him. Then my husband came home and found his treat from St. Nicholas today….since he was already in the area! Great tratditions!
Ann this is such a lovely tradition. I too went to a church named St.Nicholaus but we never had this tradition! I wish we had, what wonderful memories for the children.
Loved the post! I grew up in Germany, so of course we celebrated St Nicholas. Still, I learned something new about his story and background. I remember agonizing over the type of shoe to leave out as a kid. You had to strike a fine balance; it had to be big enough to accommodate the wished-for treats, but not so big as to come across as greedy. So tall boots were out!
I love this story! You are so right, one does not want to come across as Greedy to Santa. What sorts of things did you find in your shoe?
We usually got spiced cookies (Lebkuchen and Spekulatius), chocolate, walnuts and mandarin oranges. Thanks to your blog I now understand the oranges part.
Thank you for letting me know. It is fun to hear about what others received. Have a wonderful Christmas season.
I so much enjoyed this post.
Thank you Pala!
What a nice tradition to carry down. Thanks for the history Elizabeth!
Such a great post!
Thank you Cindy.
Beautiful and brings back sweet memories
Thank you Linda.
So interesting! In our homeschool reading curriculum, we just covered a cute little story about St. Nic, but this history lesson was good to know.
I celebrated St. Nicholas day as a child as my parents were from Slovakia. I received chocolate coins,walnuts, an orange, and an onion if I had misbehaved. It’s a tradition I continued with my children and now grandchildren.
My son , at the age of 11, was devastated to learn that St. Nick was not real.! He explained that Santa was everywhere, but St. Nick was special.