St. Nikolaus Day

Last night, everyone cleaned out a pair of shoes and left them by the door.

In Germany, children put a boot called Nikolaus-Stiefel (Nikolaus boot) outside the front door on the night of December 5. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (Rute) in their boots instead.

We must have all been very good this last year. The kids got packages of Kinder Schokolade (a very creamy brand of chocolates for kids) and St. Nikolaus left David a Christmas salami in a St. Nikolaus tube. We also got a few DVDs. We can't wait to watch Elf and the Otto DVD. Otto is a very well known German comedian whom we got to know when one of his stage shows was broadcast on TV. It was hilarious. Copy and paste the link below if you have 5 minutes and want to see our favorite tidbit -- Otto as a conductor. He speaks some German in the clip, but most of the humor is non-verbal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8akkBNLMnE

During the afternoon and evening, Liederbach had its own little Christmas market. It's just a shame that it was raining.

We bought mugs of Glühwein, hot mulled wine, from this vendor.

People were chatting as they drank their Glühwein and munched on sausages and potato fritters.

Our Glühwein was served in a mug that said "Liederbach," so we did not return the mugs for a deposit back. Knowing this is our last year here, we're gathering up as many souvenirs as we can.

After Mass, our church had a St. Nikolaus Day gathering. There was pizza and cake, and a visit from St. Nikolaus himself.  Here, Becca is being questioned about her behavior over the last year.

All the kids there today were lucky. Nikolaus is often accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht (Servant Ruprecht), one of his helpers. The legend goes that children who had behaved badly over the year would be beaten soundly by Servant Ruprecht, and those who performed well were given a gift or some treats. Those who performed badly enough or had committed other misdeeds throughout the year were put into Ruprecht's sack and taken away, either to Ruprecht’s home in the Black Forest to be consumed later, or to be tossed into a river.

St. Nikolaus and Knecht Ruprecht show up at holiday gatherings, at schools or even at people's homes. St. Nikolaus reads aloud from his book specific examples of a certain child's good deeds, but focuses on the misdeeds, and the terrified (or as is often the case, the amused) child will promise to do better in the future so that Knecht Ruprecht would not take them away.

Becca with St. Nikolaus

Em and Bex must have been good as they each got a treat. Becca looks ready to bite his head off.

Enjoying the cake with the....

...green frosting. Then it was time for the raffle. The church was raffling off two items. One was a basket full of Christmas cooking products you can't find in a typical German store (baking soda, canned yams, cranberry sauce, etc) and the other was a case of A&W rootbeer (you don't find rootbeer in stores here). When the girl working the raffle table said, "Gee, no one is trying for the rootbeer," I put all three of our tickets in the rootbeer raffle bag. And guess what?

Emilie won! She had the winning ticket! One of the church ladies made a point of telling me that when a case of A&W rootbeer was auctioned off at another church activity, it went for 60 Euros! That's about $88.

Emilie with her windfall. Her mouth was still frosting-green the following day.