Feast Day of St. Nicholas

We never started any traditions around this wonderful saint when my older children were at home- I think occasionally they left their shoes out for some treats to be placed in them. We still don't have a regular tradition that we have stuck to, but we take time out on this special day to honor this special saint and have some fun. 

 Our feast day table from 2010. 

We also spent some time that same year learning more about this saint. Cousins joined us for a whole day of St. Nicholas fun. 

And here is our table and treats from last year, 2011. 

This year... well, I can't set it yet! The kids aren't even home from their evening with their sister and brother-in-law. I just hope I can stay awake! 

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!!! 

December 6::The Feast of St. Nicholas

About St. Nicholas from Domestic-Church.

Our table is set.

I am not sure that it is in keeping with advent wreath etiquette, but I needed 

somewhere to put this one last St. Nicholas and I thought it looked cute. 

These coins are a new "tradition". I printed the covers from Shower of Roses. 

I had planned on getting fancy with this chocolate Santa and making him a 

miter and crosier. Next year! I'll put it on the list. 

We don't usually do gifts, but my boys love, love, love Fruity Pebbles and rarely get them, so it will be a true feast day treat for them. St. Nicholas is also leaving this new family game for us to play tomorrow. We own the book and will read some of it in the morning. 

Other sources: 

St. Nicholas Center 

St. Nicholas at Paper Dali 

St. Nicholas Table

Photo credit: Paul

A Full Day With Saint Nicholas

For this, our third installment of our "Christmas Traditions" study, we chose to learn more about St. Nicholas.

My boys and my wonderful niece and nephews with their St. Nicholas crafts.

We began our day with this fun "draw and tell" story.  Basically, you tell the story of St. Nicholas throwing the bags of gold coins in the poor man's window while at the same time drawing on a white board (paper, chalkboard). Each part of the story adds one more line or element to the drawing. In the end, you have a bag of gold coins.

We moved on to read some information from Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in the Domestic Church. This was a nice jumping off point to discuss who St. Nicholas was, how one becomes a saint (in the official sense), where St. Nicholas lived (Asia Minor/Turkey), what he is patron of (lots of things, but especially children), and some of the customs that surround St. Nicholas.

We even did a little math- discussing what century (4th) St. Nicholas was born vs. what years he lived. We drew a timeline on the board so that the kids could see the relationship between the centuries and the years. This can be confusing for children. Also, subtraction to figure out how many years ago St. Nicholas lived.

I used the following resources for our discussions as well:

St. Nicholas at Domestic-Church

St. Nicholas Article by Amy Welborn @ St. Nicholas Center

St. Nicholas: Love in Action by Lois Rock @ St. Nicholas Center

On to Craft Time (completed projects in first picture):

THEN:

Surprise, surprise- when Mark went in the house (from the school room) he found that St. Nicholas had visited and left treats in every one's shoes!

Thanks to Shower of Roses for these great coin covers- how cool is that? The bags filled and ready for shoes with Holy Cards printed from St. Nicholas Center.

Break Time:

With treat bags in hand, the kids settled down to watch Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa.

The Rest of Our Day: 

Kids finished crafts while I read The Miracle of Saint Nicholas by Gloria Whelan.

We played a few rounds of Roll for Saint Nicholas! A fun game- you have to draw what St. Nicholas part (miter, robe...) the dice says (each part has a number). If you roll the same thing for a second time, you miss that turn. The first to draw a "St. Nicholas" wins. It is pretty funny- one player might only have an "eye" while the other the "miter" and a "beard". We enjoyed this.

 Had a drawing lesson on how to draw Saint Nicholas. 

Ate lunch and watched (instant watch Netflix)  VeggieTales: St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving. The younger kids love this movie, but the thing that cracks me up is how appealing the humor is to older kids- even I had a chuckle or two!

Whew!! The day is done. Almost. We do still need to set our "St. Nicholas table" for tonight.

Year One "Christmas Study"

Christmas in Mexico/Los Posadas

Year Two "Christmas Study"

Christmas in Sweden/St. Lucia