Growing up, I never celebrated the feast of Saint Nicholas, so I was surprised to hear the tradition of leaving out shoes on the night of December 5th so that St. Nick would come and treats would appear on December 6th, his feast day. I first learned of it when my oldest kids attended Catholic school and were asked to bring in an extra shoe to be filled with chocolate coins. Now their school makes paper bag shoes for St. Nick goodies, and at home, we use stockings because putting treats in dirty shoes is gross.
Sorry, not sorry.
There have been many St. Nick Eves that we have scrambled to find things to put in our kids' stockings. Sometimes the day just creeps up on ya when you're in a busy season of raising little ones. But then they get bigger and can help remind you, and every once in a while St. Nick is prepared for landing, like this year.
I found these German St. Nick Chocolates online (they now have similar Santa ones for sale) and for the first time ever, I bought matching pajamas for all of us. It's not cheap to buy nine sets of pajamas, so I made sure to buy a pattern that wasn't necessarily "Christmas exclusive" but we could wear all winter long. Are matching PJs a little corny? Perhaps, but it's our last year celebrating all together before they start heading off to college one by one, so I'm going to bask in the matchy-matchy corniness :)
I have also learned that giving gifts on St. Nick's day that you can use and appreciate for the days leading up to Christmas is much more fun than giving those same gifts on Christmas Day. For example, Christmas jammies, an ornament for the tree, Christmas books, a holiday outfit/socks, or Christmas movies can be enjoyed for a lot longer when they are received on St. Nick's Day. And that's my two cents...in chocolate coin currency :)
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