Today (December 6th) is St. Nicholas Day here in Germany. If you’re a little kid – or a not so little kid – it’s quite an exciting day.

After all, in the wee hours of the morning when St. Nicholas arrived at your house today, arriving in his sleigh pulled by one reindeer, he filled your carefully polished boots (that you’d left in front of your door) with chocolates, mandarin oranges, nuts, and maybe a small gift or two.

Well, he did that if you were a good little boy or girl, of course. He has noted down in his golden book whether you were good or bad, so you’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, and all that.

If you weren’t so nice, then your boot was filled with coal.  You also probably got a visit from Ruprecht, St. Nicholas’ mischievous companion, who might hit you with his little club. That’s supposed to inspire you do better next time, so that you’ll get in on the chocolate, fruit and gifts next year.

Now, that may be an oversimplification, but in a nutshell it’s the story of St. Nicholas Day that I got in my German class this morning. St. Nicholas was a real Catholic bishop who was kind to children, and so he’s the basis for many a tale around this time of year. Including both the story of Santa Claus in North America, and the one  of St. Nicholas here in Germany. Note that today was not a holiday per se in Germany – schools were in session, stores were open, etc. But if you’re a kid in Germany, you want to get a visit from St. Nicholas to fill your boots.

I like that in each country the story of St. Nicholas is just a little different. In my mind, it also explains how Santa Claus, aka St. Nick, gets around to houses of all the children in the world in one night. I used to worry about that as a kid, you see. 😉 But now that I’ve lived in different countries I suddenly understand it and the explanation is  really quite simple. St. Nicholas doesn’t have to visit all the children in a single night. Instead, he’s got different nights scheduled in different countries, so he doesn’t have to get everyone in a single trip.

Well, that just makes sense. Why didn’t I think of that before?

Of course, it doesn’t explain how he winds up with those 9 reindeer in North America, and only one here in Germany. Now, we do need to consider that his home base here in Europe is in Lapland, so perhaps that’s the difference. You don’t really need 8 or 9 reindeer to get to Germany from Lapland. 😉 But for those long haul trips —  i.e. to his North American headquarters at the North Pole —  that’s when he needs more horse- … err … reindeer power. I guess.  😉

Anyway, the Germany St. Nicholas also dresses a bit differently here than he does in North America, what with the long red hooded cape he sports in all the pictures. However, his flowing white beard is a constant, even if he seems to gain weight before December 25.  While I didn’t manage to get a photo of him when he made his rounds last night, here’s an artist’s rendition of the little chocolate gift he left each of my classmates in my German course this morning:

a chocolate St. Nicholas

Happy St. Nicolas Day!