With St. Nicholas’s feast day coming up on December 6th, I’m going to share with you some of our family St. Nicholas feast day famiy traditions as well as some other fun ways to celebrate the day with your children! In this blog post, I will go through 7 great traditions for St. Nicholas’s Day!
Saint Nicholas holds very close to my heart since he is the patron saint of children! He was given a lot of money by his parents who passed away when he was a young boy, and he was extremely generous with his wealth. St. Nicholas reminds us about the importance of generosity, which is extremely important during the season of Advent.
1) St Nicholas Shoes Tradition
Our family celebrates the St. Nicholas shoe tradition. The night before St. Nicholas’s feast day, the kids pick out their best, nicest shoes and put them by the fireplace (can also be by the door, tree, etc) They leave the shoes out on December 5th and then in the morning they wake up to some little goodies! We usually leave gold coins, a mandarine orange, candy canes, an ornament, Christmas Pajamas for the Advent/Christmas season (my favorites are from Holy Pals a Christian Pajamas company click HERE to check them out! and a wrapped book HERE are some of my favorites. The ornament tradition is fun- I try to find an ornament that pertains to the kids for that year- something that they are really into at the time and then I make sure to write their name and the year! I also love to use feast days like St. Nicholas Day to give the kids religious/Catholic books. It’s a great way to grow our library and the kids love them! Here is a great list of Catholic books for kids!
It’s so fun to give Christmas/Advent pajamas on all Saint Nicholas feast day because they can wear them the rest of the season! Here are my favorites from Holy Pals (plus 10% off with code HEATHERJ ) As you can see from the picture below we love the matching PJ’s for every Christmas season, since Thomas was a baby!
2) Hide Saint Nicholas
A fun and meaningful tradition we love is letting Saint Nicholas “appear” on his feast day. We use the little Saint Nicholas toy (pictured below), and each night either mom or dad hides him somewhere around the house. In the morning, the kids race to find him! (And yes—our kids know it’s us. I even set a little phone alarm at night so I don’t forget!)
It’s such a simple, fun alternative to Elf on the Shelf. Whoever finds Saint Nicholas that day wins a chocolate gold coin, which they get to enjoy in their lunch. If one child tends to be faster, you can always rotate turns to keep things fair and fun.
His final “appearance” is on Christmas morning, and whoever finds Saint Nicholas first gets the honor of opening the very first Christmas present. It’s such a sweet way to weave joy, tradition, and our Catholic faith into the season! My kids love this!
3) Start Baking Cookies
We start our Christmas cookie-making on St. Nicholas Day! The kids and I love baking and they are always eager to get started! On this day we make the cookies and then we give them to our neighbors to show generosity toward our neighbors the way St. Nicholas did! We love these Nativity cookies cutters!
4) The Giving Tree
Another way to celebrate St. Nicholas Day and to continue the theme of generosity is to go to your church and grab a name or two from the giving tree. Many parishes have a Giving Tree Program, where you can pick out a child’s name and then you shop for their Christmas gifts. It’s the perfect opportunity to help the children get in the spirit of giving!
5) Decorate the Tree
On St. Nicholas Feast’s Day is a great day to decorate the Christmas tree (or Advent Tree)! The kids look forward to this all year long!
6) Saint Nicholas Party
Nothing is more fun then a party with family or even inviting friends! It is a great way to share the joys of our beautiful faith! Below are some of my ideas for the party click HERE for links. Fun Ideas for the party is to have a cookie baking time!
7) Learn about St. Nicholas Feast Day
There are some great books out there to teach the children about St. Nicholas. Here are a few of my favorites:
- The Legend of St. Nicholas by Dandi Daley Mackall
- St. Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer
- The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan
- A Special Place for Santa
There are also some great movies free on youtube about Saint Nichols.
8) Christmas Lists
Another thing you could do is sit the kids down and encourage them to write their Christmas lists with some of the things they would really like as presents. If Santa visits your house, they could write a letter to Santa as well! Below is my YouTube Video with all the ideas!
