The popular cultural representation of St. Nicholas as Father Christmas, though drawing on a number of such legends, was based primarily on the Dutch custom of giving children presents - slipping fruits, nuts, and little toys into shoes or stockings drying along the warm hearthside on his feast day, December 6 (that's today).
Throughout the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages, that day was marked by festively decrating homes and by a sumptuous feast that interrupted the general fasting of Advent. (I'm going to find some good recipes for us to have a feast today!)
In Scandinavia it was celebrated as a day of visitation, whe the elders of all the remote country churches would bundle themselves in their thick furs and drive their sleighs laden with gift pastries, through the snowy landscape to every home within the parish.
Kerry
Christian Homeschool Curriculum
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