ADVENT CALENDAR December 6th - Saint Nicholas

On the 6^th of December all German children pop right out of bed and rush to see what Saint Nicholas has put into their shoes. There may be apples, tangerines, candy, gingerbread men, chocolate, lebkuchen, cookies, nuts... Perhaps there is even a pretty plate next to the shoes with more goodies, if they didn't all fit in the shoes.

Saint Nicholas may also visit the Kindergarten or school, bringing a big sack with good things for all the children. Sometimes he is in a hurry and leaves the sack in front of the door after knocking. Then the children will not see him, but they know he has thought of them. Sometimes he has a little more time and comes in. He will have the Golden Book with him. Everything the children have done or not done in the course of the year is written in this book. Whether they were naughty, whether they were good... and Saint Nicholas will speak to each child and remind it to be just as good as ever possible in the next year. Then there will be little gifts for all, usually edible once more.

There are also some very lucky children who actually get a visit at home from Saint Nicholas. Often this will be later in the afternoon of the 6^th, and the Golden Book will be in his hand. The children may have learned a little poem for Nikolaus, and recite it when he comes. He will speak with each one, and again there will be little gifts. If Saint Nicholas actually comes to a child's home there may even be toys or other goodies besides sweets and fruit.

In the olden days he was always accompanied by his helper, Knecht Ruprecht. Ruprecht would carry the sack, but he also meted out the punishment if a child had been truly naughty during the year. There are even stories of Ruprecht bundling very naughty children into his sack and taking them away to punish them somewhere else. Nowadays all that is left of the punishment is a little bundle of twigs, sometimes painted gold, to remind a child of the switching it would get from Ruprecht if it was too naughty!

Let's see what is in the Advent Calendar for today. Here is the number 6!

And there you see Nikolaus who has come to visit the children who live in this house. He is wearing a blue coat and carrying a sack full of good things. Some of them are falling out. I wonder if the sack has a hole?