One of our family traditions is the celebration of the Feast of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a Bishop who served God by giving his wealth away to people in need. If you want to read more about his story, I recommend this website: "St. Nicholas, discovering the truth about Santa Claus".
Since this is only our 3rd year celebrating the Feast of Saint Nicholas, I managed to get my dates mixed up. Saint Nicholas Day is December 6th. Our family is honoring Saint Nicholas on December 9th this year.
We celebrate Saint Nicholas Day for a couple of reasons. When I heard the story of Saint Nicholas, I was thrilled to know that Santa Claus is derived from a real man who served God by giving gifts. I want my children to know the story of Saint Nicholas, just as they will know all about Santa Claus. The second reason we celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, is so we can wrap up and give Christmas Pajamas and Christmas Dresses to our girls before Christmas.
This year I wanted to present the story of Saint Nicholas in a way that would be entertaining to my children. I wrote down one of the stories of Saint Nicholas in a format they would like and created a makeshift book for our story time tonight. It was a big hit. I would like to share my creation.
The Story of St. Nicholas
A long time ago there
lived a boy named
Nicholas.
When he was young
his parents became
very sick and died.
Nicholas' parents left him with
more money then he could ever
spend.
But, he missed them very much
and felt sad.
Nicholas obeyed Jesus'
words to "sell what you
own and give the money
to the poor."
Nicholas felt happy when
he gave his money away.
Nicholas grew up
to be a Bishop.
This means he
worked at the
church and
served God.
Nicholas heard about
a very poor man with
three daughters.
The poor man wanted
his daughters to get
married, but he didn't
have any money for
a wedding.
One night Nicholas went
to the poor man's house
and tossed three bags of
Gold through an open
window.
The bags of gold landed
on the shoes that were
drying by the fireplace.
The next morning
when the daughters
awoke they found a
bag of gold in each of
their shoes.
The daughters were
very happy. They now
had enough money to
get married.
Tonight we celebrate
"The Feast of Saint Nicholas"
in honor of a man who
served God by giving gifts
to people in need.
All images were obtained from various websites using Google Images search.
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Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Feast of Saint Nicholas
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8 comments:
Happy Saint Nicholas Day!
I taught 1st - 3rd grade catechism for three years and I can tell you the kids loved to learn about the saints and their feast days. To personalized it, we looked up the children's birthdays and made a big deal about it. We didn't tell them that the feast day is typically celebrated on the saints' death date.
Loved your simplicity and accuracy. That is a great way to reach the kids.
We took the kids to see Fred Claus and it show Saint Nicholas living in a quaint, little hut out in the woods. My kids picked up on that right away. At least in the movie, they mentioned he was made a saint for doing nice things for others. That's more than most movies.
Did you leave your shoes out by the door?
Just My Type- thanks for your feedback. Not being Catholic, I wasn't sure if I got all the details close enough.
We do leave our shoes by the door. After reading the story the kids went to their shoes where I had placed wrapped presents. Maybe I will write more about that tomorrow.
I only have learned more about Saint Nicholas through blogging this year - I love that you have started this as a tradition in your family. I plan to show my kids this information that you have provided so they will begin to understand wherer the idea of Santa came from as well. Thanks and I hope you had a good weekend. BTW, you have such a beautiful family. See you soon. Kellan
That's a great idea. Currently, Maddie thinks God and Santa are basically one and the same, and that's NOT what we've been trying to teach her.
Wow, that's alot of stuff I didn't know. :) Thanks for posting. What a fun read.
Thanks for commenting on my blog. Have a fun week!
<3, Amy in AZ
Thanks for stopping by.
We celebrated last week and the kids loved their gold coins. It is such a nice tradition. Anytime the kiddos get "schooled" on a tradition/holiday is a good for me.
I love your version. Very nicely done.
We are still working on how to explain everything to our little darlings. We use Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas, but Santa is a no-no.
Kellan - I'm glad my story can be used to spread the story of St. Nicholas to other kids!
PJ in a bowl - Oh, sweet Maddie, it can be confusing. "He sees you when your sleeping, knows when your awake.." Yep, Santa is just like God only Santa is CREEPY.
OhMommy - Next year I will have to do coins too.
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