We had such a nice St. Nick's day this year. I made the 'Santa cookies' and we decorated them.  The cookie cutter we use comes from here (it's the small one) and is such a simple design that it is very low stress to decorate. Using these decorators, it was easy even for Boyo to decorate.  So, the cookies started out looking like this:

to looking like this:

The children had a great time decorating.

After we decorated (and ate)cookies and made our 'Santa plate,' we adjourned to the living room, lit our Advent candles, and read "The Secret of Saint Nicholas" by Mary Anne Kamols. This book gently addresses the truth of Saint Nicholas. We had quite a nice discussion of how Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus, and our discussion of course included Clement Moore's famous poem and how commercial advertising cemented the Santa Claus image in the minds of Americans.

Early the next morning the children came down to the living room to open their stockings.

You can see the 'snowy footprints' on the carpet, and the empty plate. My husband and I enjoyed the last of the cookies while he used a stencil and some powdered sugar to create the footprints. We use powdered sugar instead of flour because someone always wants to taste North Pole snow...

The stockings contain pretty much the same thing every year: chocolate coins, because that's what Saint Nicholas left; non-pareils, because they remind us of happy family times; toothbrushes, because those were in my husband's stockings when he was a child; scented soap, because that's our tradition; a flashlight, because Jesus is the Light of the World; and a lump of coal candy. 

This year, as a reminder of the vast differences between the real Saint Nicholas and today's Santa Claus, I got glass bottles of 'real' coke (sugar instead of hfcs) for us to enjoy.

We had a wonderful Saint Nicholas Day!