When thinking about your gluten free Christmas you may not have even thought about St Nicholas’s Day!
It is a day celebrated in Germany on December 6th. I lived in Germany as a child, so we celebrated it, and I now carry on the tradition with my children (and they love it!)
The story goes that many years ago, a kindly saint, by the name of St Nicholas, who was very fond of children used to go around the houses of the poorer children in his village – the ones who were unlikely to get many presents at Christmas – and leave little presents in their shoes, which were often left outside the houses. Today, German children (and at least two English children) still leave out their shoes in the hopes that St Nicholas will come and fill them with sweets (although the modern day St Nicholas may, if he finds the child to be naughty, place coal in them instead!
I have wonderful memories of December 6th as a child: the stores would all have someone dressed up as St Nicholas (who bears a striking resemblance to Santa Claus – and in many countries is known as St Nicholas) and they would put sweets or little oranges in the hoods of children’s coats as we passed.
My kids, of course, are in it for the sweets. And there is no reason to change the tradition just because it’s our first gluten free Christmas. I know which sweets he can have (and I won’t list them because they’ll be different all around the world) so I just read the labels carefully.
So if you want to add an international flavor to your gluten free Christmas, get your kids to put their shoes out tonight! Enjoy!
