St. Nick's Day?

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
St. Nick's Day?
14
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 10:17am

Does anyone here do St. Nick's day? Dh and his sibs would wake on on December 6th to find their shoes lined up on the stairway filled with apples, oranges and a small toy or treat. Whe we got married, he would fill one of my shoes in the same way. I tried and tried to remember to do it for him and succeeded only a time or two. When dd came along, we started the tradition with her (sadly, this was the end of my shoe being filled).

When she was little enough to believe in Santa, she was always a little puzzled that her friend's shoes did not get filled. It's really sweet, beause she never remembers the date and she's always surprised.

Can't wait to put the shoe out tomorrow morning! I have some homemade body scrub and lip gloss (made by a friend of mine), clementines, apples and a couple of magazines.

Just wondered if anyone else did this.....

jt

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2005
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 10:42am
Frankly, I've never heard of this but it does sound like a sweet thing to do. Have a wonderful day tomorrow.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2004
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 10:59am
I've never heard of this.
What a nice tradition. Did this originate from a different country?
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 11:22am
Holland, I think. Dh isn't dutch, so who knows how it got started in his house. Nobody seems to remember.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-29-2003
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 11:26am
We used to do this as kids---we'd set out our shoes, and a little trinket would be put into them............I don't think we did it often, but I do recall the tradition....it may have been one of those things that we heard about in school and our folks felt some pressure, but it didn't turn out to be a tradition that was carried out very long, and wasn't passed on to my kids.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2004
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 11:34am
A charming tradition.
All though I'm not sure I can picture edibles placed in MY shoes..
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 1:06pm

No, but we did "Three King's Day" a Spanish custom, when I was growing up in Puerto Rico. You feel a shoebox with grass for the camels and receive small gifts - not nearly as big as Christmas at my house. It was celebrated on January 6th, I believe. We stopped this tradition when we moved back to the United States, so I haven't done this with my children.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2000
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 1:08pm
I've heard of it but neither my family nor dh's did it growing up so we never did it with the boys.
Pam
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
Mon, 12-05-2005 - 2:16pm
What a neat tradition. I've never heard of it. That's the day we usually take down our tree.
Avatar for suzyk2118
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-1997
Wed, 12-07-2005 - 5:29pm

I had to reply to this one - I was out of town for work yesterday so dh had to do St. Nick duty. This is the email I got back from my ds13 (we gave him Homer Simpson slippers because they fit him - not because they were 'stylish' - he wanted warm ones and these fit his whopper feet...anyway...I was telling him how cold it was where I was...):

"That sounds cold. I went outside while dad was still having breakfast and made a snowball from the little layer of snow on the grill. Then I threw it at the window. It is so cool that I made the first snowball of the year! At least for our family. For St. Nicholas day I put out a big boot from the garage. Then just for a surprise I put out a beer for dad in the boot. It was kind of funny. He was a little bit surprised. Well, I got the Homer slippers and am wearing them now. They are really warming up my feet.

Thanks,

Love,

See you later,

Hopefully,

M@"

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-22-2003
Wed, 12-07-2005 - 6:35pm

I think I heard of this custom years ago, but didn't realize it was practiced much in the US. DD said one of her teachers left all her students candy on their desks yesterday, saying "there were no shoes out, but this was left for you."

I thought that was sweet!

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