Thursday, December 6, 2007

nikolaustag

yup, even though we've moved to singapore, we're keeping the german christmas traditions jan grew up with. like the nikolaus tag.

In Germany, Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot, called Nikolaus-Stiefel, outside the front door on the night of December 5 to December 6. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (rute) in their boots instead. Sometimes, a disguised Nikolaus also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they "have been good" (sometimes ostensibly checking a book for their record), handing out presents on a per-behaviour basis. This has become more lenient in recent decades.


this year, jan got the usual fillers: apples, oranges, chocolates. and a laser sword.

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