The Legend of St Nicholas Day – Start a Fun Family Tradition
Start a fun Christmas tradition with your on St Nicholas Day! Learn about the legend of St Nicholas and what you can do to surprise your kids.
Greed is good.
At least when it comes to candy.
So when my mom told me about St. Nicholas Day when I was a kid, my greed was in high gear.
Good little boys and girls will have their shoes filled with tasty treats while naughty kids will have twigs in their shoes.
Being the candy loving kid that I was (and still am!), I naturally rooted in my closet for my tallest pair of boots expecting them to be overflowing with candy.
My sister and I put our boots outside our bedroom doors (wouldn’t want any racoons absconding with even one bite of our treats!) and fell asleep dreaming of sugar plums (and Skittles, Snickers and Starburst).
Lo and behold, St. Nicholas obviously confused us with two other little girls because we found lots of yummy surprises the next morning!
This is a such a fun tradition and a great way to kick start the holiday season!
So don’t forget to have your kids leave out their shoes before they fall asleep on December 5.
Will they choose sneakers or their tallest pair of boots?
oh sure….you got the sticks and twigs in your boots! 🙂
Me being from Germany, this is how I grew up. But for us and all our friends he came to our house with his assistant Knecht Ruprecht who had a wooden rod that (in old days) he would hit the kids on their bottoms if they were bad. Now he only pretends to hit you. Of course we were scared to death of him LOL. It’s quite fun thinking back now and I wish I’d have this scary guy come to my house and scare my kids 😉
We always got nuts, chocolate and oranges too. So in Germany there is no Santa. They only celebrate Jesus’ birthday because St. Nicholas comes earlier in the month. I kind of really miss this, because it’s an old tradition from a long long time ago.
I grew up in Germany so I am very familiar with Nikolaus Tag. Also Knecht Ruprecht! I carry on the shoes tradition with my kids except we put out the stockings. I so miss all the festivity that goes along with that day in Germany.
That is so fun!! That’s what they did in Curacao, Sinter Klaus would come and put candy in their wooden shoes … after he arrived on a boat from Spain, of course. 🙂
How fun!! Of course, the college age kids in my house would want money instead of candy. 😉 Think my preschool parents would kill me for sharing this??
xo Heidi
This is fun… We have a fun tradition in our house Boudreaux Clause (Santa’s cajun cousin) comes and fills the stockings on New Year’s Eve… We especially like it because it gives the kids something to look forward to after the big day… (and I can catch some sales. :o) )
Fun – I may have to try that!!
My kids are products of Catholic school so the shoes always went out, but they were lucky if St. Nick remembered to have enough to even fill a few shoes. I’m telling them to leave their shoes at your house now, I mean their boots!
Cute tradition, Kelly.
Cynthia
My family has always done this (but we would use our stockings, not shoes.) We come from a part of Ohio that was settled by German Catholic immigrants so it’s definitely a hold over from the old-world traditions. My husband and I have started this with our daughter as well. She always gets a treat and a new pair of pajamas to wear for Christmas.
Love the pajama idea! I just bought some and this will be the perfect way to give them early 🙂
Love it! I am trying to incorporate my husband’s Scandinavian traditions around the holidays. My mom’s family was German so this will be nice to do, too! Thanks for sharing!
Forget my kids, I want some candy! I am leaving my thigh high boots out! Sees for me please St. Nicholas.
This year our grandson is about 20 months old at Christmas and so we were trying to think of a nice tradition that we could have with him……….and this one sounds lovely and not too labor intensive….I’ll mention it to my husband tonight! Thanks for the idea!
Hahaha! I did this once and put coal in my son’s shoes and he didn’t realized it and got a little hurt in the process! LOL! Now I only try to put soft stuff in them when I can!
In Holland (The Netherlands) we also celebrate Sinterklaas and his knecht ‘Zwarte Piet’ (black pete). Story is that Zwarte Piet climes down the chimney to leave presents for the kids (does that sound familliar?). Kids put up their shoes by the chimney and sing songs for Sinterklaas in order to remember him to not pass by their house without leaving presents. The Santa Claus tradition in the Anglo Saxon countries originates from Sinterklaas.
So fun learning all about these different traditions – thanks for sharing Monique!
Kelly
Ha! In El Salvador we put our shoes under the tree and Baby Jesus would leave us treats
My mother and father were stationed in germany when my okdest brother was born. We had this tradition as a result. I loved it and i was just explaining it to my wife for our kids to enjoy. We tried the boots. Somehow St. Nikolaus, which is how we pronounced it, always found and replaced it with a sneaker. We were also called dummkopfs on a regular basis. Odd for an irish catholic family?
WOW did this bring back some memories! My parents used to do this! I missed it this year, well, not really I have about 2 more hours to pull this one off but I’ll keep it for next year!
Dec. 5th is my son’s birthday so it was always a special day… if he had known about this beautiful tradition… he would have really milked it! 😉
I love the idea… perhaps I will start it for the next generation of little ones in our family one day!
I live in the Netherlands and he is called Sinterklauss here. His helpers are called Zwerite Piets (which if you look back into the history of it are slaves). My kids are use to Santa but since we are stationed here we do both, even though there is no Santa here.
I’ve never heard of this! How fun… my kids would love it!
What a great tradition, something to look forward to!
Any tradition that involves candy…count me in! What fun.
Well, at my house it used to be the 6th of December. Once I was a child, I went and checked my boots and there was nothing there. When I went to bed, I found a new pair of boots filled with candy underneath my blanket. I was so happy that St. Nicolaus did not forget about me and not to bad to get a visit from Knecht Ruprecht.
I am so happy that i found this post. My grandmother immigrated from Germany at 30 and started this tradition with us, except we always called it Kris Kringle. My grandmother had a friend come dressed in the tradition Kris Kringle garb–he would read a book to us that had our picture and a list of good and bad things we had done that year. We would decorate gingerbread houses, eat a big dinner with the whole family, place our shoes on the porch, and we would wake up to a bag of gifts placed next to our shoes. So many wonderful memories. I will be starting this traditions with my 4 year old niece this year.
ciao, I’m italian and I live in Trieste. Here too there is an old tradition with S.Nicolò that on 5th of December brings candies to good children and cork to bad ones…:) in this region we are the only to celebrate this saint, people near us celebrates S.Lucia (13 December) or the common Santa Klaus. I’m happy to hear that there are other countries with same uses of mine:) thanks , and hugs:):)
I come from a large family that is quite spread out and I regret that my son, an only child, doesn’t get that big family excitement that I got growing up with five siblings, so I always looking for things to do and traditions to start to make thing more exciting. As my mother-in-law is German and our Christmas decor is sprinkled with German decor. I adore this tradition and can’t wait to start it this holiday season!
How fun! Since I have a son named Nicholas, we have become more interested in learning about St. Nicholas in our house. So, as part of our Christmas countdown calendar, I’m going to add this to December!
Fun Nicki – I hope Nicholas enjoys this legend … and the candy!
We had a similar tradition in our house. Father New Year who comes New Year’s Eve and leaves little gifts in your boots.
I love hearing about fun Christmas traditions!
Hi please answer can I put my boot outside on December 6 Nicholas day yes or no
St. Nicholas leaves an orange, a candy cane, chocolate coins and a sack full of real money – the real money for us to spend on or give to others during this season – at our house! Kelly
I love the idea of giving back Kelly!
My Dad is German so I’ve grown up with this tradition for year’s. I’ve kept it going with my kid’s. They have little Red Santa Boot’s which are cute, but sometimes I get the date mixed up. My 3 kid’s are 22, 21 and 19 and I still do it for them. What child doesn’t like getting chocolate and sweets. We are all kids at heart’s…. I hope they continue the tradition once they have a family……
Love the idea of filling up little Santa boots!
Sadly, with the death of my On a st Nicolas night and morning, any true i knew has all been extinguished.
It is a fact. Hold the tradition and love your children constantly.
I’m so sorry for your loss Kurt