I can’t believe it is almost here, like a day away here! I love this tradition with our family. I have been doing this since I remember as a little kid so I am so excited to start it with our little one. That is what is so fun about the holidays, starting or having those fun traditions with your family.
Some people haven’t heard of this tradition so I am going to give you the story behind it and if you haven’t already, you could start St. Nicholas Day.
St. Nicholas day originated over in Europe in the 1200’s. He was a Christian priest who had lots of money and would travel around to homes to give gifts and presents to little children . He wanted to keep it a secret and to have no one know who was sending the gifts . One story is about a poor man who had no money to give his three daughters for their wedding. St. Nicholas dropped of bags of gold (thats why you see the golden chocolate candies) in their stockings which were hung over the fire to dry. Every night of December 5th, the girls would hang their stockings up over the fireplace to see if gifts would end up back in their stockings. So the stocking tradition began there!
So many countries have had different traditions since then. Netherlands & Belgium, St. Nicholas arrives by steamship and rides a white horse giving gifts. In the Netherlands, they have candies, small gifts and riddles- which they throw into the door. Germans/Dutch- lay carrots and hay in their shoes for the horses hoping that St. Nicholas will exchange for small gifs.
Our family tradition? We hang our stockings the night of the 5th of December. Small gifts are given, like ornaments, candies, socks, oranges, etc. I have loved this as a child and still love it this day! Hope you all learned something from this and maybe start a fun tradition with your family.
Brushes & Burp Cloths 