St. Nicholas Day

Back when I was in my middle school years, my Mom introduced to us the concept of St. Nicholas Day. This was the first year that I introduced St. Nicholas to Aliza and Josiah.

There is lots of information about St. Nicholas at stnicholascenter.org if you want to read a more scholarly version of what I told my kiddos.

On December 6, St. Nicholas Day, this is generally what I told Aliza and Josiah. St. Nicholas, who was a missionary a long time ago, took care of children and families who didn't have food to eat or toys to play with. One of things he did was leave gifts on doorsteps at night and then in the morning families found something warm, something to eat, something to play with and gold coins on their step. They didn't know who left the gifts, but they were very thankful. St. Nicholas was kind and generous in secret....so, today, we are going to something kind and generous in secret!

One of my friends and I have given each others children their Christmas gifts on St. Nicholas Day for several years. This year we were able to drop off our gifts at each others houses at the same time. Soooo....we set off with our gifts. Aliza and Josiah were happy to sneak into the house and leave them on the counter. It worked out that my brother was doing some work on my friends house so Josiah got to see Brian on the "building site." Very cool. Now Josiah says when he grows up he wants to work with Uncle Brian on a building site.

When we got home I knew there were going to be presents on our step. Aliza came up to the house (I was still retrieving children from the car) and said, Uhhhmmmm.....Mommy?? There are presents on our step! Are they for us? It was magical. They had done their kind and generous act and had no idea it would be returned. Aliza said, "Josiah, lets open our presents on our favorite blanket."

After the presents were opened Aliza went outside to look for clues as to who left them presents. A bit later she came in and asked me for a magnifying glass to continue her search.