In the Orthodox church, kids not only get to celebrate Christmas, they also get Saint Nicholas Day. Every December 6th, Orthodox boys and girls around the world put out their shoes at night and awaken to find candies and little toys. The candies of choice are gold chocolate coins in remembrance of Saint Nicholas’ gift to the man whose daughters were to be sold into slavery since they had no dowry. For us, the dreaded “Santa Clause Issue” will be an easier one, since we can actually talk of the real man behind the myth and point to his generous acts of charity that are a part of our lives year round.
The boys were pretty geared up about it all. They set out their shoes the night before and sat down with Jesse to read a children’s book we have about Saint Nicholas.
The boys each got a small action figure and a bunch of gold chocolate coins that I got from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at the mall. You should’ve seen the way Gregory freaked out when he saw his shoes just outside the back window! He jumped into our bed Saturday morning begging for us to open the back door so he could get his “Ironman” 🙂
A day later on Sunday, our church held a special Saint Nicholas Day event for all the kids in the parish. They dismissed all of the kids (around 70 of them!) right after communion and sat them all in chairs in the parish hall. One of our young adults dressed himself as St. Nicholas, while another lady (his fiancé’, actually!) “interviewed” him. The kids got to learn all about St. Nicholas’ life through the answers he gave. Then, there were crafts and snacks for the kids, and then they got to go up by age group and receive a stocking full of gifts and candy from Saint Nicholas. How fun and cute!
I definitely know that this will be one of the holidays I most look forward to from now on!
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