Our First St. Nicholas' Day

St Nicholas is the Christian Advent Saint of kindness and giving. He is also known as a protector of children. He was born in what is present day Turkey to wealthy parents who died while Nicholas was young. He took his inheritance and used it throughout his life to help others and especially children in need. "He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships" (www.stnicholascenter.org).  He died 06 December AD 343 but his generosity lives on.
St Nicholas Eve and Day is celebrated with games, gift giving, treats, poems and more. Learn more at www.stnicholascenter.org

Our son is three years old. I thought it would be special to bring some Dutch kids fun into our own family traditions. We did not know how to celebrate St Nicholas' Day. I read about St Nicholas and a few different Dutch family traditions for the day and we made our own fun day.
This year St. Nicholas, who recently learned of our Dutch family research, decided to take the long boat ride to the Puget Sound. He and his horse made their way from the nearest shore, up the hills and winding through the streets to our home. We told our son a couple stories of St Nicholas and Zwarte Piet (and that they would probably be pretty tired from the long boat ride). Our son left a glass of milk and wheat crackers (we didn't get a chance to make cookies or bread because our oven has been broken!) for St Nicholas and Zwarte Piet. For his horse - carrots and a bowl of water.

Our son left a glass of milk and wheat crackers
for St Nicholas and Zwarte Piet... carrots for their horse.

We left our shoes and refreshments on the porch and a bit after dinner, we heard the doorbell ring! When we opened the door, St Nicholas, Zwarte Piet and their horse had already eaten their snacks and left special treats for everyone! They left ginger snap cookies, Wilhelmina Peppermints, Kinder Bueno candy, meat sticks, Gold Coins, Pistachios, etc. They even left treats for our dogs!
We taught our son a bit about the fun of giving to others and exchanged small gifts. Candy Land, the board game, was our gift to our son. We spent most of the evening playing the game after all the excitement.

St Nicholas left treats!

 Our son loved it. It was fun for us also but I've already had some better ideas to do for next year!
I had hoped to find some Dutch kids books to give our son to help him (and us) learn some more Dutch words. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any yet. Maybe I can find some before Christmas.

If you celebrate or have celebrated St Nicholas' Day, please share your traditions in the comments below! We'd love to hear of more traditions!