Monday, December 05, 2011

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Here's our fireplace this evening... notice anything?


Do you see the shoes?

If you know my children, you might imagine that the shoes left on the fireplace are just the result of less than thorough tidying. But no, they are there on purpose, anxiously awaiting St. Nick's arrival overnight.

Waiting shoes...

I've written about St. Nick before, but you can read more here if the details are fuzzy for you! 

I will admit to taking a little license with the purpose of recognizing St. Nick's feast day. Normally our children receive an ornament from St. Nick, maybe some candy, and sometimes holiday books and/or movies. Because we pack ALL of the Christmas items away (movies, books, CDs) when it isn't December, I prefer not to wait until Christmas Day to give them those kind of holiday items. 

This year St. Nick is actually bringing them a Fisher Price Nativity. St. Nick doesn't usually bring large items or toys but he is attaching a note to the kids explaining that he does not normally bring something like that, but he hoped it would help them remember what we are celebrating this time of year.... Both children had expressed an interest in the set earlier this fall (yes, Harper will still play with Little People sets!) and Matt and I didn't want to wait until Christmas and give it to them to play with for only a week... 

Maybe we're missing the point of St. Nick, but I don't think we'll be scarring them with one out of the ordinary St. Nick year - and very few of our friends here recognize this day so it isn't as though they will be comparing their St. Nick experience with everyone else's! 

If you do St. Nick what will your children find in their shoes this year?

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6 comments:

Heather said...

We don't leave shoes out for St. Nick, but I wanted to tell you that Wesley still LOVES the Fisher Price Nativity we have. He plays with it every day in the month of December. Great gift!

Nowheymama said...

!!! Saint Nicholas is bringing US a Fisher Price Nativity this year, too!!! MUCH bigger item than usual, but it's for the four of them to share.

But it will be put out after school because I couldn't deal with getting them out the door this morning if they saw it.

Sara said...

We usually leave out Mike's socks instead of shoes. And I will fully admit that every year I forget which night it is and I have to google it! :) This year St Nick left the girls a necklace, candy, bouncy balls and a princess pen.

tracy said...

St. Nick always leaves each kid a gigantic chocolate chip cookie. That's what Seth's parents always did for their kids, and we've carried on the tradition. (Waiting for the kids to be asleep so that we can bake the cookies results in a pretty long night!)

My girls LOVE that nativity set -- my mom gave it to us a few years ago. We must have a more basic model (no wisemen or that well-thingy), but they adore it nonetheless. All during Advent, someone is constantly walking around with the baby Jesus clutched tightly in her hand.

I am LOVING the daily blog posts in DECEMBER!! Every day I'm sure you won't have posted, and every day you DO! So awesome.

Christina said...

St. Nick always left us an ornament, and now does for our kids. The cool thing was, that at our house, he'd leave a trail of Hershey kisses from the bed to our shoes in the hallway. Unfortunately, the cats and dog would get into that here! And our Fisher Price set is under the tree. All the kids still love it!

CARRIE said...

We don't do St. Nicholas, and I didn't as a kid. Is it a Catholic thing? Because, lord knows, I was brought up pretty darn Catholic. Maybe somebody was drunk and playing bingo and therefore missed the St. Nick information session?