Growing up my family always celebrated St Nick's day. It seems to be more of a mid-west tradition since no one I know that lives down South has heard of it. But it's a tradition I plan on keeping with my children so I thought I'd share the tradition of St Nick with y'all
It's
not celebrated much in the U.S. -- although there has
been some awareness of the holiday in Wisconsin -- but in
Northern Europe St. Nicholas Day is a big thing.
Traditional celebrations included gifts left in
children's shoes (from which American Christmas stockings
developed).
Good
children receive treats -- candies, cookies, apples and
nuts -- while naughty children receive lumps of coal. In
Germany, children still put a shoe outside their bedroom
doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, and hope to find
candy, coins and maybe a small gift in them on Dec. 6. In
the Netherlands, children put their shoes in front of
their chimneys in hopes of finding chocolate or a small
toy in their shoe when they wake.
More info
While feasts of Saint Nicholas are not observed nationally, cities with strong German influences like
Milwaukee,
Cincinnati and
St. Louis celebrate St. Nick's Day on a scale similar to the German custom.
[33]
As in other countries, many people in the United States celebrate a
separate St Nicholas Day by putting their shoes outside their bedroom
doors or hanging an empty stocking by the fireplace on the evening of 5
December. St Nicholas then comes during the night. On the morning of 6
December, those people will find their shoes/stockings filled with gifts
and sugary treats. Widespread adoption of the tradition has spread
among the German, Polish, Belgian and Dutch communities throughout the
United States.
On 24 December, Christmas Eve, each child puts one empty
stocking/sock on their fireplace. The following morning of 25 December,
the children awake to find that St. Nick has filled their stockings with
candy and small presents (if the children have been good) or coal (if
not). Gifts often include chocolate gold coins to represent the gold St.
Nick gave to the poor and small trinkets. They also awake to find
presents under the tree, wrapped in Christmas-themed paper. This is a
very traditional part of Christmas
So basically every Dec 5th we'd hang up our stockings and wake up on the 6th to find out stockings full of goodies along with candy to symbolize us being good or potatoes and coal if we were bad
G and E's stockings are already to go!
