Saturday, December 06, 2008

Learning other's traditions - Froehliche Weihnachten

My friend Uli stopped by the house today to pick up some things. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, she is a sweet gal from Germany who has been living here about 2 months or so.
She told me of a tradition in Germany and left some sweets for the boys.
I was very excited for the boys to get home from shopping with Brent so I could share this with them and give them their sweets.
Here is the story Uli told me:
On the Eve of Dec. 6th, little children in Germany shine their shoes, and in the morning they will find a special treat.
This sounded like such fun I had to google this and find out more. Below is what I found:
On the eve of Dec. 6th children place a shoe or boot by the fireplace. During the night, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, hops from house to house carrying a book of sins in which all of the misdeeds of the children are written. If they have been good, he fills the shoe or boot with delicious holiday edibles. If they have not been good, their shoe is filled with twigs.
There are some more traditions
here that I found interesting and can't wait to share with the boys.


Uli, thanks for opening my eyes to some new and exciting ways to celebrate the season with my boys!!

Above: The boys with their treats from Uli. Below: Mandatory picture my mother makes me take of the boys. She's taken their picture with Santa Hats every Christmas since they were born, and since we are so far, I have to take the photo and send to her. Love this picture. Just might go in the holiday cards this year.

7 comments:

Sonya said...

I love that picture. They have grown so much!

Gigi said...

What a sweet holiday picture! Are they counting down the days?

Anonymous said...

The boys are so handsome. That's a neat tradition in it's self, taking yearly pictures in their hats.

Gina House said...

What a nice tradition! I wish Uli was coming to MY house! LOL....did she bring the baby???

Loretta (Lora's Mom) said...

Love the haircuts!!! Some of the teachers at school do St. Nicholas Day with their classes. It is a lot of fun. When I worked with Michele, she did that. I love the picture of the boys in the Santa hats. That one will go in their scrapbook.

Anonymous said...

The pictures of the boys are so cute! I am looking forward to when Johann polishes his shoes for the first time and I get to put something sweet in them.

knitseashore said...

What a fun tradition! It is so nice to have meaningful activities for a family to share, isn't it? I don't have small children but we do have rituals we do every year to make things special.