st. nicholas day ideas
I love to celebrate, and a big part of living seasonally for me is finding little excuses to celebrate throughout the year. It feels like there are TONS of things to celebrate between Halloween and the new year, but I like to make a big deal out of holidays the rest of the year too. An easy way to do that is to find some saints (this doesn’t have to be recognized church saints, it could just be historical people who are in line with your family’s values or maybe honoring a relative that has passed away on their birthday) that you resonate with. One of the easiest ones to start with if you haven’t done this sort of thing in the past is St. Nicholas whose feast day is tomorrow, which is why I’m posting this today – so you still have time to celebrate if you want.
We like to tell the story of St. Nicholas at dinner (we have an actual book, but this is a great substitute online and free), and we encourage the kids to think of a kind surprise to do for a friend the next day at school. Then everyone puts their shoes on the front porch for St. Nicholas to fill with a surprise or two. If I forgot to pick something up (often), I’ll just put a few pieces of candy in their shoe. I’ve come to love this day because the focus is on the actual person of St. Nicholas and his generosity, so it doesn’t feel as materialistic and overwhelming as Christmas day can feel at times.
Here are some fun ideas if you have time:
- Coloring pages
- Games
- Blessing of candy canes – I thought this might be fun to encourage the kids to hand out candy canes to their friends
- Our favorite tradition is to make and decorate some speculaas cookies!
Happy St. Nicholas Day!
P.S. If you missed or just didn’t want to celebrate St. Nicholas, another easy win and often overlooked saint is St. Lucy whose feast day is December 13th. More celebrating!
