Church Calendar: St. Nicholas Day
- Lily Liberto
- Dec 6, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 22, 2024
Happy Feast Day of St Nicholas!
With Christmas right around the corner, it became clear we'd need to decide how we wanted to approach Santa with our kids! (Ages 3 and 1, at the time of writing this.)
What family culture did we want to set?
What traditions felt right for us?
What rich history & traditions have been lost on us in our hurried, commercialized, post-christian culture?
In observing a liturgical church calendar as a family this year for the first time, I noticed St Nicholas Feast Day was approaching! What a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids about the REAL Saint Nicholas and remember all the great things he was remembered for! Even in a culture that says they have no desire for the biblical narrative, we can see that it's adoption of Santa Clause blatantly exemplifies that people are hungry for real, true, beautiful stories of good people. But Santa is simply unnecessary for a magical Christmas. If we profess Christ and believe that Jesus is the true "reason for the season" we want to spend our energy on elevating that message.
Christmastime is SO short. Our kids are only this young & impressionable for a short time. We've chosen to present them with truth & beauty- their heritage of faith and all the Godly men & women who came before us! All of their stories whisper Jesus' name, as we hope our own life does too!
Avoiding Santa altogether was not an option for our family, as we live with our in-laws who love him and literally have an inflatable Santa on the roof! Ha! Santa is the culturally accepted norm, he's everywhere, and as such, we wanted him to be a teaching moment where we could highlight for our kids the legacy of a true man of God!
It is worth noting that the name "Santa Clause" is just the German name for Saint Nicholas! (Ni...claus) So Santa isn't a banned word! Santa, or Saint Nicholas, was a real, catholic, man born in the third century in what is now Turkey. He was a Bishop. A man after God's heart. We use his various names interchangeably.
This year, we left shoes on the hearth in "hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there..." but really we just explained that mommy & daddy left goodies in everyone's shoes as a way to commemorate the generosity, kindness, and humility of St. Nick. We read some good stories, that I'll share below. We decorated with oranges, a common symbol of Christmas, gold, generosity and hope! We will be looking for ways that we can anonymously bless a family in need this Advent season, just like He did, as unto the Lord. We did some festive baking, and a few crafts! Oh, what fun!
I'll leave you with a few more fabulous resources for further discernment and education!
"St. Nicholas: The Man, The Myth, The Legend" post by Danielle Hitchen of Catechesis Books
"5 Ways to Celebrate St. Nicholas Day" by Alissa Case of Little Way Chapel
"Saint Nicholas" by Julie Stiegemeyer, Youtube read-aloud
Tell me, how did you do Santa, growing up? What traditions have you chosen to uphold with your own children? What are some of your favorite resources for learning about Saint Nicholas?
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