It is my understanding that somewhere in the world, children put out their shoes before they go to bed St. Nicholas leaves treats in them if the children have been good. Am I correct in this?
You sure are!!!
This is how it went in our house: Starting about a week before December
5th, we set our shoes near the hearth, together with a plate with a
carrot 'for the horse'. The next morning we would find a cookie or a
candy, never very much - and only if we'd been good. If we'd been bad
(misbehaving) it would be a lump of coal instead. The last time we set
our shoes was on December 4th to find a sweet on the morning of December
5th.
Then in the evening about the time the supperdishes were cleared away,
the tension rose - till suddenly there was loud banging on the door. We
ran to open the door, tripping over each other (there were six of us
;-)) and always found a large bag full of presents outside the door.
Usually the honour of handing them out fell to my Dad.
Once my Dad's youngest brother and his then fiancée played the roles of
St Nicholas and Black Peter, and brought the presents to our home, and
once Dad had a bit of a windfall in November and Mom and Dad hired
someone to come to hand out the presents.
It took me many years to figure out that it was our next-door neighbor
placing the bag at the door and doing the banging, and the thing was
timed very well, because while we were busy cleaning up the
supperdishes, Dad would do the same thing next-door, where they had had
supper a bit earlier than us. Oh, and BTW, this happened in Holland, we
were living in the city of Rotterdam then.
Greetings from Beautiful British Columbia
Esther Perry
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