st. nick's day

I've been having a hard time deciding what to do about Santa in our house.  On one hand, Santa is fun and full of tradition.  I remember waking up on Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs for my dad to turn on the lights and music and then trying to beat my brother down the stairs to find the one unwrapped present that he left for me.  This was always our "big" present.  I remember a cabbage patch play pen, and well, that's actually the only one that I remember.  On the other hand, I don't know how to find the balance between celebrating the birth of Jesus vs. a big jolly elf living in the north pole.  I don't think I ever questioned "doing" Santa until my sister-in-law said that her family didn't do it.  I guess I never thought it was an option.  Now that I know she grew up happy and Santa free it really made me question separating the focus from Jesus and turning it to Santa.  I think the final kicker, besides the fact that my husband looked at me like I was completely nuts when asking what he thought, was that I don't want my kid to be the one telling everyone else that Santa is just a legend.

My answer, was to start a new family tradition on Dec. 6.  Dec. 6 is actually St. Nick's day, celebrated because it was the day that St. Nick passed away.  The original Santa was the son of a bishop and a minister himself.  There are several stories of his secret generosity and its impact on the lives of others. In one story, St. Nick gave bags of gold to a home with 3 daughters.  The father was unable to provide dowries for his girls narrowing their options for husbands and probably leading them into lives of slavery.  The gold landed in their stockings (hence the stockings and old traditions of giving oranges to represent gold). 

So, we had our favorite neighbors over for a St. Nicks party.  We made a dinner of pork and potatoes and cookies found at www.stnicholascenter.org, read a book about him, and gave out gold coins and chocolate.  I would have put them in shoes at the door as the tradition says but our dogs don't really care about tradition. I know that A and our neighbor G.  didn't really get it now, but as time goes on, maybe they will understand the generosity vs. consumerism that is becoming Christmas.  I loved it!