Children at my house found the following in their shoes this morning:- Gold coins (The gold-colored dollar coins now minted serve the double purpose of providing a little Christmas spending money and reinforcing the gold coin aspect of St. Nicholas' story.)
- The first candy canes of the season (I know, they've been available in stores since early October, but we wait until today.)
- Chocolates (Because chocolate makes life just a little nicer.)
- A small gift. A Christmas-themed book is a nice choice and we've amassed quite a collection over the years.
- When I'm organized, each child also gets an ornament that represents something our family has done together in the past year. A seashell from a visit to the ocean, a small toy from a museum gift shop, etc. Be sure to date it (a fine-tipped Sharpie or paint pen works well) and add some way to hang it from your tree.
- When I was growing up, my sisters and I always put our stockings out for Santa to fill on Christmas Eve and I continued that tradition with my own children. Eventually, as I grew in my knowledge of the Saints and love of the Church, we added the celebration of St. Nicholas' feastday. If I had it to do over again, I'd skip the Christmas morning stocking, and just celebrate St. Nicholas Day. (Moral of the story - choose your traditions wisely. You'll be stuck with them for a long time.)
5 comments:
I can sometimes get stressed out by trying to choose all our traditions wisely. It's like I want everything to be right immediately. Santa doesn't fill stockings in our family, but we still fill them on Christmas and St Nick fills shoes on his Feast. (Although I've heard my kids ask Nana if Santa comes to her house since we'll be living here for Christmas. I heard her say yes and I still have to address that....) For a few years, though, we'd go back and forth each holiday about what to do with this or that holiday and finally we decided to just do the best we could for the time and be open to tweaking a tradition if we felt later that it was necessary.
Now if I could just get SOMEONE to take the life-sized karaoke Santa, given to my children by my dear father, off my hands....I tried to donate it to Salvation Army and they told me to come back in December so I put the darn thing in storage and now it's un-reachable. That thing is a curse that won't go away. (C'mon church ladies, you know you want it.)
My father-in-law acquired a motion-activated life-size singing Santa bear that he would set up around the house to scare people who were home alone. He boxed it up and hid it among the boxes when my sister-in-law moved.... I'm sure it'll turn up any day now.
SO no... this Church Lady passes on the karaoke Santa.
Molly, I can't believe that didn't sell at your garage sale! I say you do something creative with it. Leave it in a bathroom stall at church. (or better yet, just set him up next to the giving tree. I'm sure Rick won't mind.)
I really tried to sell it at the garage sale. Some people were interested, but it was 80 degrees outside so I think people had a hard time thinking forward. Evan said he might take it to secretly set up in Fr Cozzen's office, but he has yet to do it. Somehow, I think it would be a better joke played at the seminary than in Fr Jon's office.
There is other singing paraphernalia in the office lunch room. Santa may just fit in nicely! (Our office ladies have a quirky sense of humor.)
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