On the eve of St. Nicholas Feast Day (6 December) many children across Central Europe put out their shoes to be filledwith fruit, nuts, chocolate and biscuits. On the actual day, St. Nicholas,dressed as a bishop, may arrive on a white horse in villages and towns to visitschools, markets etc and hand out gold covered chocolate coins.
There are many stories around Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, wholived in the 4th Century in Asia Minor. He was particularly knownfor his acts of kindness - in particular of how he acted when he heard of theplight of a father who could not provide a dowry for his daughters. He isreputed to have thrown a handful of gold coins down the chimney they landedin the stockings of one of the girls which were hanging on the mantelpiece todry. He repeated this three times so each girl could marry.
Year 3 pupils from Foley Park Primary Academy in Kidderminster came to Holy Innocents' Church to find out about St. Nicholas and how our Christmas traditions evolvedduring the reign of Queen Victoria who was born 200 years ago this year. Theiractivities included:
- The history ofChristmas Stockings - trying to guess the contents of a stocking and why.
- Making a Christmas Cracker and thinking about the environmental issues around them.
- Decorating gingerbread biscuits while learning about themedicinal properties of spices and the importance of healthy eating.
- Designing a Christmas stamp - Kidderminsters Rowland Hillintroduced the Penny Black. Learning about how some wealthy Victorians werephilanthropists and provided homes and food for those in need.
- Playing a game of St. Nic like Beetle focusing on thewords mitre and crozier. Some people think the Candy Cane represents St.Nicholas crozier
At the end of each activity pupils placed their creation intheir St. Nicholas bag. We all had great fun with much laughterand joy creating some of the magic of the season. Singing to the organ was aspecial highlight.
Holy Innocents Church will give thanks for the life of Saint Nicholas with a kneelerwith his name, date and gold coins to remind us of his kindness blessed on Sunday, 8 December.
Prayerto Saint Nicholas
God ofjoy and cheer,
Wethank you for your servant,
Thegood bishop Nicholas.
Inloving the poor,
Heshowed us your kindness;
Incaring for your children,
Herevealed your love.
Makeus thoughtful
Withoutneed of reward
Sothat we, too, may be good followers of Jesus
From:All through the Day, All Through the year by David B. Batchelder
