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Last year, I felt that it was important for our family to be a little more authentic in how we celebrate the Christmas season. Because I feel that baby steps are important, we started with the Feast of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a bishop in Turkey who was known for assisting the needy, sick and suffering people. There are several stories of St. Nicholas providing money and help to those in need and he became widely popular in Europe.
Several popular American Christmas traditions hold their root in European origin.
Christmas Stockings
The beginnings of Christmas stockings came from one of the stories about St. Nicholas. As the story goes, he heard of 3 maidens whose father could not afford a dowry. In order to keep them from being sold into slavery, he threw money for their dowry into the window which landed in their stockings.
Oranges
An orange (or an apple) is often thought to symbolize the gold that was thrown in the window and is traditionally thrown in first.
Chocolate Coins
Chocolate coins are self-explanatory in the story of St. Nicholas as summarized above. I did find these awesome St. Nicholas Coin printables last year that you can put on the coins before adding them to the stockings.
Candy Canes
Shaped like a bishops staff, candy canes are a symbol of a bishop as a shepherd who cares for his flock.
Gift Giving Under Cover of Darkness
St. Nicholas did his gift giving secretly, under cover of darkness. As the bible says, do not let your right hand know what your left is doing. (Matthew 6:3).
We have taken these to heart and decided to change our old traditions. Instead of our stockings being an addition to an already overloaded Christmas morning, we have decided to put them out the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas. In the morning, the stockings are filled with all the above items plus a few. As with any family tradition, we have tweaked it to fit our family. Since the stockings I purchased pre-kiddos are HUGE, it takes a LOT to fill them. We include: the first oranges of the season AND an apple, chocolate coins, a candy cane, gingerbread men (an old Polish St. Nicholas tradition), the annual ornament (I buy my kids an ornament each year) as well as one small toy and a religious item for their church busy bag.
Do you celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas?
Jen can be found writing at Happy Little Homemaker.
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We have always hung our stockings out for St. Nick to fill on Dec 6th but after living in Virginia for a few years I came to realize that it was more of a German heritage than a Catholic heritage. It really is a fun tradition! Oh, yeah–you can’t forget the shelled peanuts–they help ‘fill up’ the stockings as well.
That’s a great idea! I’d never heard of that one.
Thanks!
We have always celebrated the Feast of St Nick on December 6th. We’ve never used stockings, but would always find a small gift by our pillow. If a child was naughty, they would get a piece of branch tips covered in gold or silver paint, to refer to the old practice of spanking naughty children.
For Christmas, I always remember that we would start the Christmas Eve Dinner at the first sign of the North Star, and it was the North Star that brought us gifts, not Santa. Just another perspective. Very happy to see this tradition brought to life in North America!
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I had never heard of the North Star before… What nationality are you? I like the branch idea, too. Has anyone ever gotten the branch?
I would love to change our family stocking tradition from Christmas Eve to the Feast of St. Nicholas. Just not sure how to make this transition with my youngest who still believes St. Nick comes on Christmas Eve. Not sure how I’d explain that he comes to our house on Dec. 6th but to eveyone else’s on Dec. 24th.
I can see where that would be a problem…my oldest is 3-1/2 so she’s still pretty malleable. Maybe keep it in your back pocket for when the youngest is old enough to know it’s you?
This year is the first day we’re celebrating St. Nicholas’ Day. I am trying to separate St. Nick from Santa Claus, especially as my daughter is getting older and trying to figure out what is “real.” Looking forward to sharing the real story of St. Nick on the night of the 5th!
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I love this! I am definitely doing this from now on! Thank you for sharing this.
We have been celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas for 16 years. We have always had the kids put their shoes (or boots for my stingy one!) by the front door, an old Dutch custom. In the morning the shoes are filled with a piece of fruit, chocolate coins, some other assorted candy, a small trinket, and, one year, my oldest received an onion. She had been lying a lot so according to customs, they would put a potato or onion as a little warning. It worked!!!!
We’ve been doing this since our oldest was a baby. We always put out the boots by the woodstove the night before and Daddy runs off to our parish to borrow a red cassock, which he arrives home wearing (along with a red paper mitre and wool beard) ringing jingle bells as he approaches the children. We read the story of Saint Nicholas and remember to include him in our prayers the night before the feast. The next morning is always filled with a joyful breakfast of speculaas (we bake them the day before in the shape of a bishop), hot chocolate and clementines. Such sweet memories with these beautiful traditions!
My family has always celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas by hanging our stockings the night before. It was a tradition passed down from my maternal grandfather who was Polish. It allows a special time to think about the “Saint” part of Santa Claus. We are able to give the children small Christmas gifts that would be useless until the following year, such as Christmas socks or ribbons. Now my kids are older, but I keep the tradition alive by putting a book from the used book store in the stocking each day, with a special gift on The Feast day. Combining the Advent calender with St. Nicholas’ stocking.
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