When my husband was seven he lived in the Netherlands (Holland). And while his family lived there for several years he experienced a tradition that most Americans don’t practice. Saint Nicholas’ Eve.
On the evening of December 5th-young children put their shoes in front of the chimneys, or outside their door and sing songs to Santa Claus, who they call Sinterklaas. Often they put a carrot or some hay in the shoes, as a gift to St. Nicholas’ horse. The next morning they will find a small present in their shoes, ranging from sweets to marbles or some other small toy.
This tradition is practiced in slightly different ways in different countries including-The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and all over central Europe. And some countries celebrate the day on December 6th instead.
In order to bring some of her daddy’s childhood traditions into our Christmas season- we will put our daughters shoes outside our door tonight along with her great grandfathers traditional wooden shoes he bought in Holland!
It’s not too late to bring a little European flair to your Christmas season by trying this tradition out!
Is your family celebrating in a way that honors your heritage or another countries traditions? I’d love to know!
About Shannon SchmidShannon traded in her sensible NYC TV producer shoes (they were best for taking the subway), for a pair of Texas Cowboy boots when she married her best friend! He's at fault for making this Yankee a Texan! Shannon writes about all things that make a house a home. Her chief blogging inspiration is being the proud & slightly neurotic mom of a preschool age daughter.
You can find Shannon on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and her new favorite place to hang out, Google+.
How fun to pass on this tradition to your daughter — love the pink shoes!
I had never participated in this custom either until going to college. One of my suitemates had always done this, and her mom bought treats for all of us and had my friend fill our shoes. So fun! Thank you for reminding me of that happy time.
This is so sweet. I remember this very fondly. We would put our wooden shoes (yes, we had them) outside the door at night with carrots for Sinterklaas’ horse. He rode a big grey horse and was accompanied by their version of an elf, Zwarte Piet .I swore one night that I saw Zwarte Piets cape flash past the window before opening the door to find goodies in our shoes. Of course it was my father, but still it was magical.
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This is such a fun tradition to practice Shan! I love it! Very cool that they are her great granddad’s shoes too! 🙂 We’re practicing the holiday with putting up our tree with lights, we put up a real wreath so we can smell the pine, and some other holiday decorations, and celebrating with dinner on Christmas eve (which is Stef’s bday but also a tradition with Italians to have a big dinner w/fish etc which we’ve been doing as long as I can remember) and then traveling all over Jersey to visit, bring gifts and eat with family (thats kind of a tradition we’ve created lol. maybe its the generation of divorced parents tradition!) and celebrate food and warmth and love of family in the cold winter. We have this great decoration from my Gram, they are Santas from all different countries with different years on them, so you can see what the Santa looks like from different places. They are cool to look at. Martin and his parents are Norweigen, his grandpop was from Norway, and I know we have a typical Norweigen ornament on the tree but I don’t think we do anything else relating to Norweigen traditions around the holiday. Miss you! Love ya!
I remember this tradition from my time living in Germany. I always thought it to be a quite unique way to celebrate. So glad that you are importing this into the little one’s world! I am sure it is a tradition that she will carry with her for many years to come.
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Awww, I love that I can see your feetsies in the one picture!!!
We don’t have any cultural-like traditions I don’t think. Kevin and I went to midnight mass last year and that was pretty sweet.
This year we put the tree up before thanksgiving and while Kev wasn’t stoked about it being up, it only had lights for like two weeks. So this weekend we put the ornaments and now its totally Christmas! I think we might make THAT a tradition.. so we have a few weeks of lights only and then the ornaments.
We also hang our Christmas cards over a doorway, I’m not sure where that came from, if it was just a mom-thing, but its fun to look at them as we pass by, and this year (cause of our other chain) we have them on a blank door to smile as we leave the house.
I once heard about a German tradition of ‘hiding the pickle’.. which sounds phallic but I guess there is something about a pickle being hid (I think its in a jar or a special pickle ornament) in the christmas tree and the first kid to find it gets some prize. 🙂
Okay I just looked it up its a myth,, but I like it anyway….
http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth11.htm
There appears to be a “freshen your breath” theme to those wooden shoes. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing, I just love learning about tradtions of other countries.
We celebrate Chanukah and to ommemorate the miracle of oil that burned for 8 days, we eat “oily” foods on Chanukah, like fried potato pancakes called “Latkes” and deep-fried doughnuts called “Sufganiyot.
It’s tradition every year for us to make the latkes as a family. We usually double or triple the recipe so we have lots and since we do it’s very time consuming to make, so lots of help is a good thing.
Playing dreidel is also big at Chanukah time, and especially fun when you win lots of gelt.
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What a cute idea. I would totally do it if my kids were still young. Actually, we would have to put our shoes on the back patio because if we put our shoes on the front porch I am affraid they would get stollen…. times sure have changed. I think what your doing is a great idea to teach your daughter.
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We never did this when I was a child. But I have friends who follow this tradition with their children and really enjoy it. Love the wooden shoes in your pic!
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cute idea. we put out tree up either on thanksgiving day or the day after. the outside lights are what i really get excited about. rose
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What a great idea. How exciting to wake up and find all those goodies.
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Shannon, I was so thrilled to see that you posted about Saint Nicholas Day! A close friend, who is a teacher at the school where I work has shared so many traditions from her childhood with me. Putting shoes out for Saint Nicholas is my very favorite tradition of all! I did it with the girls for a few years, but missed it last year, and this year too. December 6th comes way too fast. The girls remember having put their shoes out in the past, and my eldest was insistent that we resurrect the tradition. Unfortunately, it was December 7. Goodness, I’m rambling. Suffice to say I’m very grateful for your post. You’ve re-inspired me!
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I plan on doing this tradition with our daughter once she’s old enough. I love the idea of incorporating traditions from other countries and cultures. I LOVE the great-grandfather’s shoes! What a special keepsake to have! I wish I had something like this that belonged to my great-grandmother from Italy, but sadly we didn’t get to keep anything after she passed.
Stopping by from the blog frog discussion.
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We always celebrated St. Nicholas Night when I was growing up. We didn’t put shoes out on the front porch. Just socks out on the coffee table. Then the next morning we couldn’t wait to see what they were stuffed with. Usually orange, candy, small toys like in your picture. When I found out that lots of kids didn’t practice this I was really surprised. I thought everyone did. Stopped over from the blogfrog.
We started this tradition with our son and one of his shoes always held a new ornament for our tree. We continued the tradidtion when we adopted his sister from Russia when she was 5 years old. She was SO excited to find candy in her shoes that she set her snow boots by our fireplace the next night!