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St Nicholas’ Day

December 6, 2013 by · Comments Off on St Nicholas’ Day 

St Nicholas’ Day, Many people have been shopping for a holiday tradition that has special meaning to many in Northeast Wisconsin.

St. Nicholas Day is Friday, and the night before, many stockings are hung by the mantle, or in some cultural traditions, shoes will be put out, waiting for a visit from St. Nick.

At the Hazelwood Historic Home in Green Bay, Jeanette Murray remembers St. Nicholas Day well.

“We had a stocking on December 6. The stocking was out, we had long stockings, then and they were always filled,” said Jeanette Murray, Madison.

Murray toured the museum Thursday.

“If you’re good, you get it full of good stuff. And if you’re not, it’s full of black coal. Were you good? I never got black coal,” said Murray.

The holiday dates to the 4th century saint known for his generosity. Stockings were hung to catch coins Nicholas is said to have dropped down people’s chimneys.

Other traditions involve shoes, placing them outside bedroom doors, or by the fireplace, hoping to garner gifts in the morning.

St. Nick Day has roots in Northern European culture, and Wisconsin as well. At Shopko in Ashwaubenon, candy and ready-made gifts were selling quickly.

“St. Nick comes to everybody’s house. What do the kids think. They love it, like I said, more gifts,” said Robert Bubb, Sheboygan Falls.

“We always used to do it in school, so we just keep going every year with it. And now we’re having kids, and we’re going to be doing it for them too,” said Catherine Temple, Green Bay.

And while the candy canes may have modernized, people we talked to say tradition stays the same.

“I got a brand new great-grand baby, and she’s only eight months old. So she’ll probably get a stocking,” said Murray.

St. Nick Day is celebrated in some twenty countries around the world.

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