St. Nicholas, part 2

As mentioned in yesterday's post, we have asked a couple of guest authors to post their ideas and traditions about St. Nicholas Day -- which is coming up on December 6th.  This one is written by Kerry Williamson, who writes The Potter's Shed blog.  She and her husband and four children live in Monroe, North Carolina.

Recently, I’ve been trying to recall when we first started celebrating Saint Nicholas Day.  You see, I sent my eldest off to college this fall, and I’ve found myself reviewing a lot of our family traditions wondering what will “stick” and what won’t as our family begins to really grow up and out.  He’s our first out of the house, but the next two will be coming in close succession.  (Thankfully we have a caboose baby who will delay the final nest-emptying by several years).  Anyway, back to Saint Nicholas . . .

 I was trying to recall when we first started this tradition.  As best I can tell, we seemed to have begun celebrating Saint Nicholas’ feast day (Dec 6^th) somewhere around 2004, when our eldest would have been about 8 years old.  Will it really be our 10^th Saint Nicholas feast celebration this year? 

Neither my husband nor I grew up with Saint Nicholas….only SANTA.  We started it as a way to allow more emphasis to be placed on Christ’s birth on the 25^th, and as a way to honor a great and much-loved saint.  No year’s celebration has really been the same as the year before, though.

Some years we’ve had a great morning feast, goody-filled shoes, new decorations, and a day of movies and fun.

Some years we’ve only put out shoes and decorations

Some years we’ve had shoes only.

But, we’ve celebrated.  And I hope, even if my children don’t continue this tradition in their own homes, that they have developed a love and fondness for a man who loved Christ…and was a REAL person.  It’s what I hope they learn about all the saints we read about (some of whom we feast) – that they were real actual people from history, even if some of their tales are hazy with the mist of legend.

If you are interested in adding this feast day to your family tradition, it can be as elaborate or simple as you can like….in fact start simply!  Pick a tradition or two that works for you and give it a try.  Here are some ideas to get you started…but just check out Pinterest or Google “Saint Nicholas” and you’ll get many more!

• Put shoes out for St Nicholas to fill
• Maybe consider leaving him a nice beer as they do in Belgium to say, “Thank you!”
• Have a breakfast “feast” (this can be a simple as store-bought cinnamon rolls)
• We’ve had gingergread waffles, soft-boiled eggs, peppermint hot cocoa as part of our feast
• Make gingerbread cookies in shape of St Nicholas
• Have some fun with a few days of “Secret Santa” good deeds for each other or neighbors
• Make a St Nick display with all your Santa/Father Christmas/St Nick decorations in one spot
• Read a story about St Nicholas, some ones we like:
• Saint Nicholas by Ann Tompert
• Santa’s Favorite Toy by Hisako Aoki (a sweetly illustrated story that has “Santa” pointing to Christ.)
• Legend of Saint Nicholas by Demi
• Saint Nicholas: The True Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Steigemeyer
• Wonderworker: The True Story of How Saint Nicholas Became Santa Claus by Vincent Yzermans

You’ll find lots more ideas and resources at the SaintNicholas Center!  You can also read more at my blog: The Potter’s Shed.

St. Nicholas Day, part 1

Since St. Nicholas Day may be an unusual day to celebrate for many of our readers, we've asked a couple of guest authors to share some perspectives and ideas with us.

This first post is written by Anne Kennedy, who writes the blog Preventing Grace.  She and her husband, who is the rector of an Anglican church in Binghamton, New York, are raising six children, and they have celebrated St. Nicholas Day as a family and as a church each year.  Here is her perspective on the traditions and truths of this feast day:

My associations with St. Nicholas are nearly as old as I am. I grew up in a tiny African village, surrounded by people who neither celebrated Christmas nor St. Nicholas, nor any western holiday, including birthdays. But there was a Dutch Missionary Nurse and so besides growing up with a plentiful supply of Dutch pancakes, I also developed a great affection for St. Nicholas and his feast day on December 6th.

There is, for the westerner, an immediate and terrible choice when considering The Feast of St. Nicholas. Are you going to conflate him with Santa Claus and Christmas or keep him separate? Certainly their origins are similar. If you keep them separate, how can you possibly explain the similarity between Saint Nick, with his big white beard and his sack full of lovely toys and St. Nicholas with his thin white beard, weather beaten face and sack of gold coins? You must have your answer ready for an inquiring and clever child who is extremely interested in every single detail and contradiction in your face and words.

"Santa Clause is a fairy," I always say to my dubious and concerned children. "St. Nicholas is a Saint." Slowly they've learned to swallow their questions and just put their shoes out on the evening of December 5th and then three weeks later, hang their stockings on December 24th. When they come back to report that St. Nicholas did not visit their friends, I ask whether or not their friends put their shoes out. "No? Well, then there was nowhere to put the chocolate and orange and so he had to just leave."

Those are the basics of a St. Nicholas Visitation at my house. An orange, some chocolates consisting mainly of gold coins and, when I can find a nice one, a chocolate "Saint Nicholas" (so what if it looks exactly like a Santa), and a small special item that fits in the shoe--a pocket knife for a little boy, perhaps, or a silver spoon for a young girl, or a little tiny doll for a little little girl. When I am in my right mind, I think and plan and scour the Internet for little treasures. When I am knocked back by life, I run out between December 4th and 5th rushing through the aisles of crowded box stores, looking for something, anything, small and wonderful. 

And then there's the Visitation of St. Nicholas to the church. He comes whatever Sunday is closest to the 6th, unannounced, banging on the sacristy door with his Shepherd's Staff, glorious in cope and miter, bearing a basket of oranges (but really clementines, which are dainty and perfect for little reaching hands) and gold coins. He is always well timed, right during the end of the announcements. The Announcement Giver, hearing the loud knock at the door, stops and says, "I wonder who that is?" and goes to the door and opens it and there he is! The children gasp and wonder. St. Nicholas is usually someone they haven't seen very often--not any of their fathers or Sunday school teachers, but a man, as tall and thin as possible, hopefully with a small well trimmed beard.  He comes in and announces his greeting "In the Name of the Lord Jesus, whom I served so long as a bishop, fighting off the wicked heresies of Arius, even with my own fists. Are there any children here?" he asks, "who would like a piece of chocolate?" And the children come rushing forward.

Over the last many years, as I've embraced a life of a sort of average American, teetering between the quiet anticipatory joy of Advent and the craziness of the Christmas rush that demands and requires the management of so many expectations, desires, and sheer brutish work, the Feast of St. Nicholas continues to be a brief moment of private, quiet celebratory joy. It stands out and apart from the craziness. It is unexpected and satisfying in the delight it produces. For me, it unites that past and the present, in a schmaltzy liturgical glory, and some years I even make pancakes.

How to Make An Easter Basket Spiritual

This post comes to us from Jessica Smartt, author of smarttereachday.com.  I always enjoy her perspectives on motherhood and life in general, so am thrilled that she is sharing some of her creativity and wisdom with us on this site today!

Easter baskets...spiritual? Is that a stretch?? Like trying to squeeze Santa in a nativity scene?

Nope, I don't think so!

I'm here to say that you can celebrate the real-ness of Easter with your kiddos, and still let them experience the joy of hunting for, and enjoying their Easter baskets.

How?

Here are a few suggestions:

• It's all in the delivery. If you "hype up" the Easter baskets for weeks, then your kids, too, learn that that's what's important. If you read your Jesus Storybook, and discuss Jesus' death and resurrection, then they understand something different.

• Draw the correlation between hunting for baskets (or eggs!), finding them, being elated, and the women's joy when they discovered Jesus. Now look. I know that can seem like a stretch. I don't think it has to be. We are helping them to pretend, in a small way, what it would be like to search and search, and find something wonderful. When we discuss the Easter baskets, I'll talk about this. When they find them on Easter, I'll say, wow! Can you imagine how excited those women were, when they thought Jesus had died, and they found him and He was ALIVE!!? Isn't that amazing! I'm so glad Jesus was alive.

• Fill it with good stuff. Duh, right? I recently shared 25 Meaningful Easter Basket Ideas. You can browse the list for yourself, but the basic idea is to think like this: How can I fill this basket with things that will LOVE my child, and draw him closer to Jesus? Check out the list, and let me know if you have others!