St. Nicholas Day

Today is when Hazel's school celebrates St. Nicholas Day. This is a holiday that is not traditionally celebrated in the United States, so I had not heard of it. However, in her advent calendar she got a needle felted St. Nicholas (I made it last night). I did some research and the best site for information on St. Nicholas including free stories--printable or on-line-- is St. Nicholas Center.

We read a story about The Real Santa Claus after opening  the advent calendar. She then started to color one of the print-outs from the website, but got distracted.

Before her nap, she sat on my lap while I read to her several of the stories on-line. Many are like books on-line. She fell asleep in my arms. The free stories can be found here.

This website also offers crafts and activities. Printable ones are found here.

They also have suggestions to celebrate on your own. The idea I liked most was leaving a gift of food at a neighbors with a card about St. Nicholas (printable). If we have time to bake some banana bread after Hazel's nap we may try this. Run a loaf with a card attached to a porch, ring the bell and run.

I'm hoping by celebrating the different saint days with Hazel that the Waldorf School does, she will get a better understanding of each of them. I know Steve loves this part of her education, being the one who is Catholic in the family.

So Happy St. Nicholas Day! I hope you find a way to spread some love and goodwill to all.

3 comments:

  1. We always celebrated St. Nick's Day in my family. I have 8 brothers and sisters and the younger kids (me included) would try to fool St. Nick by putting out several pairs of shoes, thinking he'd lose count and just fill them all with goodies! It never seemed to work, though. I still celebrate with the kids in my class. I have them leave their shoes in the hall during nap time and when they wake up, they find treats from St. Nick. And I also have given my husband an ornament in his stocking every St. Nick's Day since we met. I don't know why, but I really love celebrating this holiday.

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  2. Sounds like a lovely tradition to start and love Betsy's comment too! Glad Hazel received her postcard :-)

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  3. What a gorgeous tradition. I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard of it! I love your little needlefelted St Nicholas too.

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