{"id":7163,"date":"2013-12-06T10:36:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T10:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=7163"},"modified":"2014-12-23T20:43:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T20:43:00","slug":"saint-nicholas-and-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/saint-nicholas-and-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Nicholas and Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1570\"<\/a>Saint Nicholas visited last tonight…. An event eagerly awaited by the Small People, who look forward to it almost as much as Christmas Day itself – thanks of course to the gifts he leaves if they have been good!!\u00a0\u00a0 I have a Dutch grandmother so this isn’t a new tradition for me, but it’s something that we really started when we moved here so that the Small People didn’t feel like they were missing out..<\/p>\n

I find myself treasuring these occasions even more now as they get older and begin to question things, but they currently still believe…\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is no mean feat in our multi-cultural school environment where doubts can be placed in little minds by friends from far off places.\u00a0 Thankfully a wise international school parent once told me how she dealt with it – she told her children that if they stopped believing, the magic would finish and therefore so would the presents – and that so far seems to have done the trick!<\/p>\n

I am sure I have mentioned before <\/a>that in these parts Saint Nicholas travels with a friend called Krampus.\u00a0\u00a0 A friend whose job it is to dole out the not so desirable gifts if you haven’t perhaps been so well-behaved throughout the year, and who in past times must have proved most useful in parental blackmailing tactics as he is in fact quite petrifying (although at his worst he only leaves twigs and clanks chains about).\u00a0 Depictions of him vary from quite demonic to huge Wild Thing like beast<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Looking forward to the visit a few days ago, the Six Year old confidently told me that he knew he would only be getting nice things from Saint Nicholas, as so far Krampus hasn’t left him a thing, so that must mean that he is actually really really good all of the time!!… \u00a0 That comment might have been the deciding factor in Saint Nicholas’s helper (me!) purchasing these yesterday (although Granny actually found them so I will blame it on her!).\u00a0 The gingerbread might smell delicious, but the picture on the front is not so…\u00a0 Into the carefully placed boots they went however, along with a little note from Saint Nick himself, and a scrawled signature from Krampus underneath (together with a kiss to show he is quite friendly for good measure).<\/p>\n

And this morning, the absolute best bit for the pair of them?\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that Krampus had actually visited too, and that his handwriting is terrible apparently.\u00a0 I am now not so sure as to what to expect behaviour wise for the next 365 days!…<\/p>\n

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