Saint Nicholas and the Clean Shoes
I am a bit of a magpie at Christmas time, anything that is shiny or catches my eye and I adopt it as my own. A good example of this is how even though I am LDS, and Daddy COE we still celebrate one Saint and that is Saint Nicholas who likes clean shoes...
You see a few years back at Top Ender's nursery the children were introduced to Sinterklass aka Saint Nicholas. One of the Nursery workers was Dutch and she thought it would be nice to show the children a few different traditions and customs that were from The Netherlands. I can't say that I disagree, as anything that teaches the Children about other cultures is a good thing in my book and this is why I believe that the more new things we introduce to our children the better!
Anyway.
Sinterklass comes by in the evening of the 5th December and checks if the children are being good and kind and polite and if they have left a clean shoe or boot outside the front door will leave small sweets and gifts in the shoe/boot. If they are bad they get a stick... but as far as I know Sinterklass is a bit like Santa and only ever gives out the sweets and gifts.
We have adapted the tradition a little in our house (well I'm from the UK not the Netherlands or Germany or Central Europe where they traditionally celebrate this!) and Sinterklass will come by on the evening of the 6th after the Children have cleaned their shoes and left them in the hallway. Whilst we are busy preparing dinner Sinterklass will leave chocolate in the shoes and then with disappear with a big bang of the front window to let us know that he is all done.
It's very magical to find your shoes full of sweets and chocolate (and one year a small case of makeup) and a few minutes later Daddy will come home to see our treats... wonder where he has been?!
You see a few years back at Top Ender's nursery the children were introduced to Sinterklass aka Saint Nicholas. One of the Nursery workers was Dutch and she thought it would be nice to show the children a few different traditions and customs that were from The Netherlands. I can't say that I disagree, as anything that teaches the Children about other cultures is a good thing in my book and this is why I believe that the more new things we introduce to our children the better!
Anyway.
Sinterklass comes by in the evening of the 5th December and checks if the children are being good and kind and polite and if they have left a clean shoe or boot outside the front door will leave small sweets and gifts in the shoe/boot. If they are bad they get a stick... but as far as I know Sinterklass is a bit like Santa and only ever gives out the sweets and gifts.
We have adapted the tradition a little in our house (well I'm from the UK not the Netherlands or Germany or Central Europe where they traditionally celebrate this!) and Sinterklass will come by on the evening of the 6th after the Children have cleaned their shoes and left them in the hallway. Whilst we are busy preparing dinner Sinterklass will leave chocolate in the shoes and then with disappear with a big bang of the front window to let us know that he is all done.
It's very magical to find your shoes full of sweets and chocolate (and one year a small case of makeup) and a few minutes later Daddy will come home to see our treats... wonder where he has been?!