Growing up, my brothers and I always hung our “stockings with care” the night of December 5th rather than on Christmas Eve. The next morning we’d celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas and discover small trinkets in our stockings as my mom’s German heritage dictated. I’ve enjoyed carrying on this tradition with my own family.
But this year St. Nick is actually coming this evening, and the girls will have to wait until Sunday morning to rummage through their stockings. Daddy has to work all day today, so we asked St. Nick if he could come to our home later so we could all share in the festivities. (He happens to be a very obliging fellow, thank goodness.)
Another annual tradition I’ve started with my kids is asking St. Nicholas to give them each a pair of Christmas PJs in their stockings to wear throughout the Advent and Christmas season. I’m keeping all these pajama sets, and one day I plan on using them to make a Christmas blanket for each child. Hopefully, I’ll learn to sew by then. If not, Gaba (my super talented seamstress mom) has offered to assist her sewing-challenged daughter.
Does St. Nicholas pay a visit to anyone else’s houses on his feast day rather than on Christmas? What other Christmas traditions does your family honor each year?
I’ve celebrated St. Nick’s day my entire life- my mother is dutch, and we looked forward to traditional dutch goodies in our shoes every Dec. 6th. Now I’m busy figuring out how best to keep it going with my own children. So far we’ve realized that we’d much rather fill the shoes generously than go overboard with Christmas stockings…and we give gifts among ourselves on Epiphany (a tradition from my husband’s family) so Christmas is much less commercial and much more focussed on Christ.
We celebrated St. Nick’s day when I was a child too. My father is from Croatia. We cleaned our Sunday best shoes and placed them by the front door. When we awoke the next morning we would have a trinket along with a bit of candy. I am carrying on the tradition with my family. This year we are celebrating a day later as well. We have been out of town for a couple of days and just returned.
A certain small girl left her shoes by the door last night and was delighted this morning to find cookies in them. I love St. Nicholas and prayed a great deal to him for my husband and child.
We also celebrate at our house. When I was a child we always got candy, fruit and a Christmas tree ornament in our shoes. It is fun to go back over the past 30 years and see all the ornaments – we would put a date on each one. I have since carried on the tradition with my own children. St. Nick must be running a little late this year because we found out he is coming to our house this evening as well. AFGG
St. Nicholas comes every 6th leaving gold wrapped coins and a special letter reminding them of Jesus’ love for them. He also leaves them a small gift related to Christ: one year, a Fisher-Price nativity set; one year, a nicer 2-D nativity 24 piece set (hang a piece a day until Christmas). This year, he left a nice set of child-size things used during Mass: ciborium, chalice, candles, incensor, paten, etc. They played Mass for two hours yesterday.
St. Nicholas returns on Christmas and fills the stockings again. Mom and Dad are responsible for the other gifts.