Posted by
M*A on Friday, December 05, 2008 11:25:28 PM
Today is
Repeal Day!! A friend pointed it out to me as I was leaving work. I’m a little late getting this posted…thanks to a lovely glass of my
Lonz with dinner…ok…so it was two lovely glasses. Cheers!
Tomorrow
is St. Nicholas Day. When I was little, we would leave a sock outside
our bedroom doors and in the morning there would be suprises. Little
ones, new socks, candy, fruit. I’ve done the same for The Daughter and
The Boy. Our tradition has pretty much been new socks and some kind of
fruit they’ve never had and/or candy.
Below is a nice explanation of the tradition I found here, with lots of links.
Children love surprises and love Christmas. One tradition that is fun to celebrate with young children is St. Nicholas Day.
St. Nicholas was the forerunner of Santa Claus and, like Santa Claus,
secretly delivers gifts to good children as they sleep at night.
Instead of Christmas Eve, St. Nicholas delivers his gifts on the night
of December 5th which is the eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas or St.
Nicholas Day which is December 6th. Also, instead of a sleigh pulled by
eight tiny reindeer, he travels on a horse.
It was the Dutch who brought the celebration of St. Nicholas Day to
America. During the early days of the settlement of North America, the
Dutch founded the colony of New Amsterdam at the mouth of the Hudson
River where New York
City stands today. In fact New York City began as the Dutch city of New
Amsterdam. The Dutch name for St. Nicholas was Sinterklaas which
morphed into Santa Claus. While in some countries St. Nicholas brings
presents on Christmas Eve, in other countries, including Holland, he
brings presents on the eve of his feast day. It was the 1822 poem, A
Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore, that established the
time of St. Nicholas’ annual visit as being Christmas Eve in America.
Moore is also responsible for changing St. Nicholas’ mode of
transportation from a horse to a sleigh drawn by eight tiny reindeer.
It wasn’t too many years after the publication of A Visit from St.
Nicholas that St. Nicholas evolved into the Santa Claus that we all
know and love today.
However, St. Nicholas Day falls right within the Christmas season
and, for people with young children, it can be celebrated as a part of
the Christmas festivities for the children. A visit from St. Nicholas
on his horse during the night a couple of weeks before Christmas can
give the children a taste of the big visit from Santa Claus that will
be coming soon as well as a little break from the stress and excitement
of waiting for the big day. It will also add to the mystery and magic
of the season for the children.
The celebration is simple and easy and is mainly for the children.
You start by telling them the story of St. Nicholas and his kind acts –
just click on the tag St Nicholas on this hub and you will be taken to
other hubs of mine about St. Nicholas. I have also included links to
other St. Nicholas sites on the Internet. On the evening of December
5th have the children place one of their shoes outside of their bedroom
or hang their Christmas stocking on their bedroom door or other place.
They can also leave a carrot or apple in the shoe for St. Nick’s horse
(and maybe a cookie or two for St. Nick himself). After they are
asleep, place a few pieces of candy, a simple little toy or trinket
(something small like you get with a McDonald’s Happy Meal), a gift
certificate to their favorite fast food establishment, or similar
little gift. This is not a big gift giving event. Keep it simple with
the idea of simply adding a little extra cheer to the holiday season or
breaking the daily routine in anticipation of Christmas. You don’t want
anything too elaborate because, more than likely December 6th will be a
school day so you don’t want to delay them with elaborate gifts or
celebrating. The fun is in keeping it simple, but still a small and
festive break in the daily routine. Look upon this as being a little
bigger than a visit from the tooth fairy, but not a major event or
production.
As the author says above…it’s not a major production. It’s a
tradition that I’ve carried on from my Mom that she carried on from
hers…and back and back. I think that’s the thing I like best about
this time of year. All the sweet little things that remind me of when
my kids were little and my own childhood. And the possibilities for
making new traditions/rituals…which The Daughter and I are working on
right now…but that’s a story for another post…like the story of the
Thanksgiving Tree…and now that I think about it..they are related. But
that’s for another day.