Celebrating St. Nicholas Day

When our children were born, we were thrust into the debate within Evangelical Christianity about Santa Claus.  Was it acceptable to include Santa Claus in the celebration of Christ's birth?  Wasn't it  basically just lying to your kids?  How could they ever believe anything you said when they found out Santa was a scam?  And, more importantly, wasn't it focusing on bags of presents and not celebrating the true meaning of Christmas? 

Aside from the fact that Christmas was originally attached to a pagan winter celebration, the intent of Christmas certainly was to celebrate the birth of Christ. Wanting to be perfect parents, and believing that every decision we made, no matter how minor, could have lasting repercussions for our children requiring years of therapy, we also wrestled with the evil Santa stigma.

Our children were 21 months apart, so the first few Christmases were "no big deal" because they didn't know what the heck was going on anyway.  However, when the Boy was approaching the age of three, we calmly explained the classic account of jolly Santa, the merry present-bringer. The Boy made the decision for us right then and there. Terrified. Period. He was wide-eyed freaked at the thought of a strange man sneaking into our house at night wearing a strange costume, regardless of what he was bringing in that bag on his back. It is kind of creepy when you think of it like that.

So from that point on, Santa Claus was spoken of to our children as he truthfully was -- a story, a legend, a great representation of wholesomeness by our friends at Coca-Cola.  We opened gifts on Christmas morning and for a few years retained the traditional American Christmas morning stockings. But at the same time, it was important to us as believers to celebrate Christ's birth in meaningful ways.  We just weren't there.  The overwhelming gifts buried the goal. How do we as Christ followers, as Americans, and as cultural participants surrounded by holiday Santa images, bridge the gap?  So we jumped into the Santa story more deeply as very naive ecumenical historians.  We took Santa back to his origins and to our surprise found Christ beyond the red suit.  It was wonderful and so very meaningful. We were also encouraged by the fact that in many European countries, St. Nicholas Day is the primary gift-giving day.  Husband and I took action and embraced the true St. Nicholas.  Simply, we would participate in a rich faith history and celebrate this saint who was the forerunner of our modern Santa Claus.

If you're not familiar with the account of St. Nicholas, it is basically this.  In the third century, Nicholas was a young priest of the church. As a young man, his service and faith elevated him to the role of church Bishop.  His area of service spread from Myra in southern coast of Turkey to surrounding areas. He was persecuted for his faith and suffered a lengthy imprisonment. After release from prison, he was numbered as a participant in the historic Council of Nicaea in AD325.  Nicholas was born into wealth but the accounts speak of him investing his inheritances into helping the poor, the sick, and the needy.  Nicholas  was known specifically for his generosity and kindness to children.  The most popular story is of Nicholas rescuing three girls from prostitution by paying their dowry for marriage. Seeking to remain anonymous, he tossed gold coins or gold bars through the window or down the chimney (different versions) which landed in stockings hung by the fire to dry. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, died on December 6, AD343.  He was a beloved champion of the faith and a key leader of the church in ministry to the less fortunate.  The early church elected Nicholas to sainthood and honored him annually on the date of his death as as St. Nicholas Day.

13th Century St. Nicholas Icon - Syria

Truthfully, there is historic debate as to whether St. Nicholas was in fact a real person.  Accounts differ, but many modern scholars and historians find the evidence convincing that St. Nicholas did indeed serve the church of Christ in southern Turkey.

So we welcomed the Bishop of Myra into our annual family Christmas celebrations and never turned back.  But why would a Protestant family choose to honor an ecumenical observance?  First of all, the church is the church "eternal" and "historical."  Secondly, it simply made real sense to our hearts.  Here are some great benefits we discovered as we began celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6:

• It's something fun to look forward to at the beginning of December.
• It was usually the first weekend after we had decorated (Thanksgiving) so Christmas was in full swing.
• Since St. Nicholas is a religious figure, it was easy to bridge to the story of Jesus.  Nicholas was a Jesus follower!  Everything fit together.
• Because we focused on St. Nicholas, Santa Claus became relegated to just another Christmas movie theme.  There were no big expectations Christmas morning for those extra big-ticket presents courtesy of a chimney invasion. Gifts given on Christmas morning were clearly to honor friends and family.
• We kept Christmas gifts to a minimum and focused on bigger gift celebrations for our children's birthdays.
• It allowed us to also jump from St. Nicholas Day to Christmas via family Advent celebrations taking a Christ focus from Thanksgiving all the way through the season.
• While all the other kids were in stressful "waiting" mode for December 25, our kids entered the month enjoying some early gifting.

Starting December with a celebration reminding our kids of the history of this wonderful, kind-hearted, giving person helped us to transition to a more healthy mindset of being giving persons ourselves.

 What did the celebration of St. Nicholas Day look like for our family? 

• The stockings were generally like any other stockings, except we always included in the stocking a few things that are traditionally associated with St. Nicholas -- a bag of gold-wrapped chocolate coins, something wooden, gingerbread.
• Each stocking included a special tree ornament picked out to represent something memorable from that child's experiences that year. The ornament would then be added to the family tree as a new decoration to enjoy through the holiday.
• We had a special breakfast -- a bit tricky when St. Nicholas Day fell on a school morning, but it always worked out.
• We tried to have some sort of charitable or special donation as part of our celebration.  For example, we would pack Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes, or help with the Angel Tree party at church for children of prisoners.
• We would read Christmas books together each night, starting with the funny ones at the beginning of the month and moving into the more serious books about Christ's birth as we got closer to Christmas.
• The now-empty stocking would remain on the mantle through the holiday just as decoration and a reminder of giving, not as another thing to expect more "stuff" on Christmas morning.

Although the Boy and Girl are no longer home for St. Nicholas Day, we still try to get something special to them each December 6.  We secretly think they look forward to that surprise box from UPS. This year we will come full circle and do stockings on Christmas morning again, because that's when we're together.  And although we're not together to do a charitable project, we now include in their stockings a charitable gift in their name.

For us, St. Nicholas Day was a way to help make the Christmas season everything we desired for our family.  It wasn't always perfect, but it helped us focus on the reason for the season.

For more information on St. Nicholas, click here.