I feel sorry for saints. Seriously. I feel sorry for saints because sometimes the honoring of them gets sadly askew. And perhaps never more so, then dear ol’ Saint Nicholas. He must weep every Christmas!
The real St. Nicholas was such a godly, generous man. I’m not going to recount his whole life here, but tomorrow (Dec. 6th) is St. Nicholas day and there are so many wonderful resources for teaching our children about the real-life hero that he was, and honoring him for who he was, not as a replacement for Jesus on Christmas day. (Here is a great little overview on St. Nicholas’ life.) Our kids learned about the real St. Nicholas in their Story of the World history curriculum.
There are many wonderful ways to celebrate St. Nicholas, and honor him as a man, while still honoring Jesus at his birth. My friend Anna shared the following ideas for a Dec. 6th celebration of St. Nicholas:
Holiday stockings for each person with four items in each:
- Something made of wood: toy, puzzle, book
- Something warm: socks, pajamas, gloves, scarves
- Something good to eat: candy, special snack
- Something gold: chocolate coins or money
The other tradition that goes back to St. Nicholas is the baking of “spiced bread” (gingerbread). So, a super fun activity for Dec. 6th would be to bake gingerbread cookies. Traditionally, these were cut out like bishops, to honor St. Nicholas. At her presentation, Anna made us bishop gingerbread using the Pioneer Woman’s recipe — yum! Of course, you could go a lot of directions with this — loaf gingerbread, or making a gingerbread house together.
So, what’s the big difference between Santa Claus and the real St. Nicholas?
Santa gives gifts on a works-based system of earning. It’s all about him keeping track of who’s naughty or nice. This tradition tells children that gifts are something we earn. That is, we deserve them or are entitled to them because of what we do or don’t do.
This isn’t grace! This isn’t the gospel!
St. Nicholas gave to the poor because he loved and followed Christ and wanted to alleviate suffering in the world. It was an extension of the gospel of Jesus. St. Nicholas would never have wanted his life to be a distraction from honoring Jesus.
So, there are so many wonderful directions you could go with this! Because our kids are older, they didn’t want to switch our stocking-opening to Dec. 6th, because they love getting stockings on Christmas (we don’t give our kids gifts on Christmas, so stockings are “all” they get from us. Dutch actually started crying, real tears, when I suggested switching stockings to Dec. 6th. That’s how much he loves tradition!) So, we are continuing our Christmas-morning stocking tradition, following the 4-item guide above, but then we’re honoring St. Nicholas day in its own right by using that day for giving to the poor. We’re getting creative, but basically we’re taking an opportunity to give, in honor of St. Nicholas day, then finishing off the day with making and decorating gingerbread cookies!
So, have fun with it! There are so many great books out there, also, all about the real St. Nicholas story. I know it’s a little late to snag one for tomorrow, but it still might be worth investing in one to read to your kids. We also enjoy journeying through One Wintry Night each Christmas. So many great reads!
So, happy St. Nicholas Day. I pray that his life will inspire generosity in your family, and that as we honor him rightly, we’ll make space to honor the one he honored, Jesus Christ.
{Thanks for reading.}