Don't Forget Saturday Is St. Nick's Day!

Do you celebrate St. Nick's Day? Every year on December 6th, I remember waking up looking for my stocking full of goodies. Not everyone celebrates St. Nick's Day; it's popular in European countries and in German and Dutch communities. I grew up in a city with strong German roots and St. Nick's Day was always celebrated. My mom had never heard of it until she came here for college. When they told her to put a shoe outside her door at night, I think she thought they were nuts!

Who Was St. Nick?
St. Nicholas was basically the model for the jolly man himself (Santa Claus). St. Nicholas was from a wealthy family and would secretly give out gifts to people. The story I remember hearing was about a father who had three daughters. He was poor and could not afford dowries for the girls. Without the dowry the girls would probably become...night workers. Nicholas threw a bag of gold coins for each daughter into the house through a window at night. (Some accounts have it over 1 night, 3 nights, or even 3 years.)

How To Celebrate:
Growing up, we each had our own stocking that we put out the night before St. Nick's Day. My husband would put his Christmas List in his stocking for Santa to pick up. However, other people put out shoes instead of stockings. The night of December 5th, place a stocking or shoe outside the children's door(s) and fill it with goodies. In the morning (on December 6th), open the stockings!

This year's stocking stuffers: Candy Cane Tootsie Pops,
Crayon Rings, Etch A Sketch, Coloring Books, Candy

Stocking Stuffer Ideas:

• "Gold" $1 coins in honor of the bags of gold coins St. Nicholas gave
• Candy (I just picked up cute soda flavored jelly beans in a small soda shaped bottle at Target.)
• Small games
• Books or Comic Books
• Small stuffed animals
• Coins/Money
• Barrettes
• Hot chocolate mix
• Lego's (Bernardo is into Ninjago right now, while Higgins does better with a box of Lego's he can create his own inventions with.). Lego also has Ornaments: There are several to choose from. Kids build the Lego figure and place them inside a clear round ornament to hang on the tree. The boys each got one last year and loved them!
• Small toys
• Special ornament (We get each kid an ornament every year. It has their name and the year on it. We try to make it special for that year. Examples include an apple/desk/pencil if they started school, a horse for their first horse ride, an ornament from vacation, a train if they took a train ride, etc.)
• Pez Dispensers (I loved getting these every year. I used to have a small collection, but now I have no idea where it is. They come in so many varieties you are sure to find one for boys or girls.) They have Christmas, Star Wars, Avengers, Scooby Doo set, even Presidents, etc.
• Flashlight (Higgins got his own flashlight last year and it has outlived the previous one. Luckily it seems he learned his lesson that you can't put a flashlight in the toilet and expect it to still work.)
• Crayons/Colored Pencils/Markers
• Stickers
• Toothbrush
• Temporary tattoos
• For older kids: gift cards to a movie theater, laser tag, their favorite store, iTunes, Amazon
• New earbuds for the computer, i-pod, etc.
• Chapstick (or lip gloss)
• Chocolate coins
• Hot Wheels/Matchbox Cars
• Small fruit (clementines, apples)
• Hexbugs
• Gum
• Compass
• Small Nerf Guns
• Mighty Beanz
• DVD: Target's $5 shelf is great for these. The boys sometimes get a joint St. Nick gift of a DVD.
• Elf On The Shelf. Eugene orginally came to us on St. Nick's Day.

LINKS
St. Nicholas, Wiki
http://www.stnicksday.com/