Saint Nicholas Day

I love the story of St. Nicholas. It is a message that conveys the true spirit of Christmas and the true story of Santa Claus. October 6th is St. Nicholas Day each year, and we celebrated the occasion yesterday in the co-op class I teach--1st & 2nd grade History of the Holidays Unit Study (3 weeks on Thanksgiving, and 3 weeks on Christmas). In today's class, we began with the kids leaving their shoes outside the classroom after filling them with hay and carrots for St. Nicholas' white horse, just as kids did hundreds of years ago on St. Nicholas' Day. The teachers then secretly swapped out the horse feed for treats during the class, and the kids got a surprise when they went to get their shoes after class. They watched a short animated video of St. Nicholas, then we sat in a circle with the celebration tray (see photo) and candle lit in the center. There were tiny wrapped gifts placed around the center, as well. We talked about how St. Nicholas gave in secret, and then we did an activity to demonstrate giving in secret. With every child closing their eyes, and in anticipation, they waited until they were tapped on the head at which time it was their turn to select one of the gifts and secretly place it in another child's open hands. The game was done when everyone had a chance to give and each child received a gift. Then they opened the gifts. We discussed how it felt to give in secret, and how that is what Christmas giving is supposed to be about. We talked about how our own church and our families give in secret this time of year (like Operation Christmas Blessing, Shoeboxes, etc.), as well, carrying on the true spirit of Christmas. Finally, students played a game in groups where they decorated a red balloon with cotton balls to look like Santa and then the team to keep the balloon in the air the longest was the winning team.

Here is a website that is a lot of help in finding out more and teaching this on this topic to kids: http://www.saintnicholascenter.org/. The site has several printable activities, historical art, recipes, and stories, as well as a place where your children can send in their drawings of Saint Nick to be posted on the site, alongside the drawings of children from other countries around the world.

The following photo is a tray similar to what was traditionally made for a St. Nicholas Day celebration, and also includes Jessica's St. Nick coloring project from last week's class that introduced St. Nicholas, which shows the traditional clothing of a bishop.