{"id":193,"date":"2011-12-06T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=193"},"modified":"2018-03-12T21:28:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T21:28:39","slug":"st-nicholas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/st-nicholas\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting St. Nicholas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boots<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes discovering the traditions and customs of your new country can lead to a lot of questions (and accusing glares) from the two Small People in our house…\u00a0 Like why on earth hasn’t St. Nicholas<\/a> ever visited before??<\/p>\n

They found out about this Patron Saint<\/a> of around a million things (including thieves, sailors and children) thanks to friends at school, and of course found the fact that he brings sweets and presents to fill the boots or shoes of good children rather appealing! Luckily they believed my explanation about him not having time to visit Denmark and England, so his friend Father Christmas brings extra presents instead on Christmas Day (or on Christmas Eve in Denmark) to make up for it!<\/p>\n

Funnily enough they weren’t quite as keen on a visit when we read that they must first clean their boots or shoes themselves before putting them outside (you will note from the photograph below that not a lot of effort was put in to this part, Small Boy even chose his wellies as a very easy option!).<\/p>\n

Both also looked vaguely worried about the description of\u00a0 Krampus<\/a> (I kept the pictures to myself as he is actually quite petrifying, I certainly wouldn’t want to bump into him on a dark night!) who accompanies Saint Nicholas in these parts, dishing out coal and birch twigs instead of nice presents to those that have been bad.\u00a0\u00a0 However, both decided to go ahead anyway out of fear of missing out!<\/p>\n

We also discovered that the house must be cleaned thoroughly the night before, which I didn’t actually think was very fair as St Nicholas doesn’t even actually need to come inside, and I cannot find any references to presents for the Mother.<\/p>\n

However despite all the work\u00a0 <\/del>this particular visitor does actually have some very good points… Having both carefully placed their (not very clean) boots outside, they both went straight to bed without issuing so much as a peep, in case he heard that they weren’t asleep and decided not to bother leaving anything!<\/p>\n

He also writes each child a letter praising their strengths and any exceptionally good behaviour, but always signs off by pointing out what can be improved upon the following year before his next visit!!\u00a0\u00a0 As any parent of young children will probably tell you, any help in that respect is a bonus, and with the added extra of them getting an early night,\u00a0 Saint Nicholas is definitely more than welcome to visit our house next December too!<\/p>\n

What awaited the very excited Small People this morning!\u00a0 You will note that Saint Nicholas resisted the urge to include a couple of twigs as well, which was probably just in case Small Boy actually thought they were part of his present, he’s always been partial to lugging them around!<\/p>\n

They will actually meet him at school today which they are very excited about.\u00a0 I just hope he’s left Krampus<\/a> behind…<\/p>\n

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