Contemplating.

Contemplating.
Wayzata, Minnesota

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

Happy St. Nicholas Day - if you are one who celebrates *

and if you do, 
last night
you put your shoes outside your bedroom door 



or maybe at the bottom of your stairs.

*  *  *  *  

Then off to bed you went



for a magical mystery
sleepy-time
adventure while you were sleeping.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


and all through the house not a creature was stirring


except for old St. Nick!






and by morning you shall know 





if you've been good





or!



Naughty!




...and don't even think you can stay up all night long keeping watch for old Saint Nicholas


because you'll never ever see his visit
or even know that he's been by


until morning and you look into your shoes!


This long time tradition (celebrated in many countries across the world) has happily been a part of my own family for many generations, and it's still being practiced!



If this tradition is new to you I've enclosed a link for you to learn all about the different ways and places this is practiced!


10 comments:

Jenny Woolf said...

We used to keep this tradition when I was a kid in Germany. I wasn't that keen on the idea of sweets in my shoes though, I preferred the idea of long socks. Maybe because kids don't have very large feet :)

21 Wits said...

Jenny- I know every family a bit different it seems (those that do it) it seemed St. Nick liked leaving us a candy cane and piece of chocolate or two and a small special gift!

Peter said...

We do celebrate Saint Nicholas in Holland! And despite all other tales you may have heard, he is Dutch! :-) I wrote a post about him, please see http://www.patmcast.blogspot.nl/2012/12/sinterklaas-en-piet.html but it is nowhere near as complete as yours! I loved reading it.

21 Wits said...

Peter- Thanks, I'll hop on over and catch up on your celebrations. He's always been a big deal in my life!

Peter said...

Thanks Karen! To facilitate all true believers I mentioned your post in mine as well :-)

darlin said...

Karen this is so cool, I've never heard of this tradition before and I like it! One wee problem here though, Abbie (my dog) would have all those treats cleaned up by morning! lol She wouldn't go after the shoes, just the treats.

Have a wonderful weekend!

FilipBlog said...

It is like a ferytale that becomes real every year.

Greetings,
Fiilip

Galen Pearl said...

Loved learning about this tradition!

JJ said...

We celebrated the tradition when we lived in Europe. Since then, I have only been naughty. Last night, I couldn't find my shoes, but I love this time of year!

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

thanks karen, for sharing your family tradition!! NICE!! (well, nice, as long as you don't get a shoe full of coal!) =)