Keeping it Jolly: Celebrating St. Nick

Wow.  You guys, this was our second year celebrating Saint Nicholas Day and I'm blown away.  Let's start with the small stuff--the rituals, the things that are starting to form tradition.  For starters, the girls and I spent the afternoon before Saint Nicholas Day packing bags for our neighbors full of fruit, nuts and chocolates.  We didn't need to include a note explaining what St. Nicholas Day is all about because everyone here already celebrates it. So instead, we added a simple greeting on the outside of the bags, wishing them a happy day.  I made some belly-filling chicken pot pie for dinner and the girls got all dudded up in their jammies before we donned boots and jackets (the stairways here are freezing) and headed out to deliver our gifts.

The trick with this was trying to keep Bailey quiet; the staircases in most buildings are the stuff of dreams for a kid who likes to test acoustics and, unfortunately, there are a few concepts that my rambunctious bear refuses to accept.  I'm just glad that "stop peeing on the floor." came before "whisper, please!".  Since stealth wasn't exactly on our side, we went with speed.  Those bags were delivered to their doorstops lickety-split and we were back home for hot chocolate before we knew it.  We settled in with our cocoa and read our Saint Nicholas story (which is NOT historically accurate, but it hits the high points we're trying to get across.  Audrey will probably be really mad with me about this in a few years.)

I was actually thrilled when we thought we were wrapping the night up, but Audrey just kept the questions coming.  She is not ok with her current grasp on this whole Santa issue.  At her preschool, they're working the concept of magic Saint Nicholas--even more so the idea that you have to be good to get presents (we've never brought this up). At home we're just telling her the dude was real once, but people dress up like him to celebrate now.  Even so, she refused to go to sleep until she knew in no uncertain terms that: a) no one was coming into the house while she was sleeping. b) there are no chimneys in the apartment. c) no one would be dropping off gifts at the door. and d) that the presents she would find in her stocking were already, in fact, in the house.  I basically dropped all pretense with the kid and told her that after she went to bed I was going to go put presents in her stocking for her to find in the morning--and moreover that Santa is not real.  She seemed to finally accept that explanation--and, thus, I have officially let my four-year-old know that the Jolly guy is a myth. I'm more concerned with her sleeping at night than her future therapy bills at the moment, I suppose. 

As always, it was such giddy fun to watch the girls open their stockings in the morning.  We've gone grotesquely all-out with their Christmas gifts, so we kept things low-key with stockings this year.  They always get new jammies as well as the same gifts of fruit, etc. that we give to others.  Audrey, in particular, was excited that she got a candy cane and a rainbow lolly pop (while Bailey joyously smashed hers together until they were pulverized).  We got the girls a new movie each and threw in some headbands and fancy pink slippers to boot.  Nothing spectacular, just a sweet and happy Saint Nicholas morning.  After the girls modeled their new duds, we went on with our normal routine--there was still preschool and work and play dates to be had.

Nevertheless, our day was still filled with the joy of giving to others.  The girls had a few small things they did today that were new to our tradition.  There were some things that we just do every day to emphasize the joy of giving.  Either way, I think Saint Nicholas Day is becoming a favorite of mine. Especially since this was the first year I took on some projects of my own. For a lot of reasons I don't want to go into much detail, but I do want to state for the record that God can make a lot of really awesome things happen with seemingly little effort.  I struggled with ideas for my projects basically for the last six months and God met me here this month--and He showed me how good it is to give...especially when it's not for our own glory.  He is good.  So, I hope every day I will wake up, overflowing with His grace and love, ready to roll on that tide to make each day a Saint Nicholas Day.