A Fine Feast Day

We love St. Nicholas' feast day.  Don't ask me why, none of our children (yet) is named Nicholas and we have no family ancestry tying us to Lycia or Turkey.  We just like him.  He is a saint after all...what's not to like?  Maybe it's because we want to focus more on St. Nicholas and less on the commercialized Santa Claus.  Here is how the two stack up against one another.

Anyway, every year we celebrate this day in a special way: I bake cookies and the kids leave out their slippers the night before and in the morning they find goodies in their slippers along with a personal note from St. Nicholas himself. There is also a gift wrapped in plain fabric from St. Nicholas for all the kids to share.

I make these coins every year.  I buy chocolate coins and paste vintage/traditional images of St. Nicholas on them. They look so cute! (I get the images from the Shower of Roses blog)

I put the coins in their slippers along with a candy cane, a clementine and a personalized note from St. Nicholas.

And in the package, the kids found this book.  A family favorite! I just found out that this book was Hilda van Stockum's first picture book ...how very talented she was.  It is perfectly charming as a read aloud.

Included in the little package was this Saints Stained Glass Coloring Book: a great way to showcase your kids' coloring abilities and evangelize the world;)  They look lovely on the windows!

Last but not least a game for the whole family to play.  

These took way too long to make.  I'll probably never make them again unless someone pays me a LOT of money or the Queen of England herself makes a request and seeing as how she is Protestant, I think it is highly unlikely.  

They sure do look cute though and they tasted delicious!!  St. Nicholas, pray for us.