Tonight is a special night for the families who follow this European tradition of leaving their shoes out on the night before December 6th to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas.
We celebrated this tradition as a child and I have so many fond memories of this special day leading up to Christmas. It was always a favorite with lots of anticipation and glee and I am so happy to share it now with my children. One of my mom's favorite Saint's Days - to this day, she still reminds me to leave my shoes outside my bedroom door on the eve of December 5th!
Now in my own tradition, in the days leading up to this event, starting on December 1st, we read a story a day written by the talented author and Waldorf teacher, Christine Natale. Her Bishop Nicholas stories are found free here. They are short, so you could even start them today and space them out to read them all before the big day tomorrow :)
We are also enjoying this out of print book by Jakob Streit called, Saint Nicholas. With the help of Cindy from Whole Spirit Press, we were able to track down a few remaining copies, the link of which has been listed on my blog. I'm not sure if they have all sold out, but you may contact them as listed. See the post here.
Last year, I did a post documenting our celebration which can be found here. We'll see what Old St. Nick decides to leave the girls tonight :) And I hope to share shots of our Advent celebrations and winter preparations over the next several days.
Also, get ready for a special giveaway that I will be hosting, so stay tuned! Lots of fun and festivity coming down the pipeline!
I am loving your Hairy St Nick! he is beautiful!
ReplyDeletethanks for all the St Nick links
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Beautiful tradition! Our wonderful St. Nick that you made for us last year will be featured in Wilson's classroom at Davis Waldorf. :)
ReplyDeletethis is our first year celebrating st nicholas day. we are so excited! we have been reading christine's stories. i did obtain a copy of the jakob streit book, thanks to your guidance, but we have not read from it yet. thanks for all the inspiration! ;)
ReplyDeleteMy husband took a hand in the story telling last night and snuggled the children down to tell them stories of St Nicholas, the shoes were left out, very well cleaned, along with some snacks for the saint. He left them some sweet treats and they were SO delighted.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites too, and my mom still calls me every 5th of December to remind us as well! We hang our stockings, as was done in my family as a child, but the French side of our family puts out shoes on Christmas Eve, so both are honored. What a gorgeous St.Nick!
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