St Nicholas Day
Feast Day Celebrated December 6
Saint Nicholas Day is a super fun feast day to celebrate and is a great way to bring the life of the Church into your homes! In the Orthodox Church, we celebrate Saints on their feast day, and St Nicholas’ feast day is December 6th. If you’re new to celebrating feast days as a family, this one is a great one to start with! I love seeing my children’s eyes light up when they discover the connections between the Saint Nicholas Bishop of Myra and our present-day Santa Claus. Making this connection has provided so many opportunities to talk about saints and their roles in our lives.
In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St Nicholas with your kids - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, and additional information so you can share his story so together you can grow to love him even more!
Scroll down for more suggestions on how to celebrate this feast with your family!
Real Story of St Nicholas - Probably one of the most well-known and beloved saints celebrated throughout the world is St Nicholas of Myra. We see remnants of his legacy in the Western world, often referring to him as “St Nick” or the character that has developed as “Santa” bringing children gifts the evening before Christmas. These traditions have developed over the centuries, but did you know that these legends and stories all stem from a REAL Christian Bishop who lived in the 4th Century? Here is the real of St Nicholas!
Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra was born in the city of Patara in the region of Lycia (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula), and as the fruit of the prayer of his childless parents, his parents Theophanes and Nonna, vowed to dedicate him to God. He was known from a very young age to be pious and wholeheartedly dedicated to the Lord. As a child, his parents died, leaving him under the care of his uncle, Bishop of Myra. Having inherited his parents' estate, he became known for his generous gifts to those in need, but always kept it a secret so as to not earn praise for his giving from people but only from God.
One famous story is when St Nicholas saved 3 maidens from slavery. There was a man with 3 daughters that didn’t have enough money to feed them, let alone enough money to provide a dowry for them to marry, so he considered selling them into slavery to spare their lives. When St Nicholas learned this, he visited their home but waited until they fell asleep and secretly threw a small sack with 3 gold coins through the window. The next morning, the three girls woke up and discovered the gold coins on the floor. With the money, the oldest daughter was able to get married. A short time later, St Nicholas threw another sack of gold coins into the house of the poor family. Soon, the second daughter was able to marry. Another month passed and St Nicholas again returned to the home a third time, but this time, when he threw in the sack of gold coins, the father was awake and caught him. He wanted to find out who was helping him and his family. St Nicholas tried to escape, but he was caught. He asked the father not to reveal to anyone who had given the gitfs to his daughters. The poor man was able to arrange a marriage for his youngest daughter.
News of the story of how St Nicholas saved this family spread along with his fame. He later become Bishop of Myra after his uncle’s passing, and he was known for performing many miracles in his lifetime and even after his death. You can read his full story HERE. In his memory, children throughout the world are given gold foiled covered coins on his feast day.
Here are some ways to celebrate St Nicholas Day:
1. Attend a Church Service
The best way to celebrate this feast is by attending a Divine Liturgy (as you are able).
2. Read the story of the life of Saint Nicholas of Myra
One of my favorite ways to share about a feast day with my kids is through story books. Thankfully there are a number of great options available for St Nicholas. You can also find the story of his life online and print it (click here). I wanted to highlight a few books we own and love for St Nicholas Day:
Saint Nicholas & the Nine Gold Coins by Jim Forest
Last year we bought this book from SVS Press which tells the infamous tale of St Nicholas and the story behind the gold coins. As a young man, Nicholas hears about the misfortune of a family with 3 daughters who are too poor for a dowry order to get married. Nicholas secretly gives bags of coins from his own inheritance on 3 separate occasions by throwing bags of gold coins through an open window in order to save the young girls from any misfortune. The illustrations in this book are brilliant and resemble Byzantine iconography and my children love making the connection between the gold coins they receive on St Nicholas Day and the story of the 9 gold coins.
You can find it at SVS Press
The Miracle of Saint Nicholas by Gloria Whelan
We love the story of The Miracle of Saint Nicholas from Ancient Faith Bookstore. Each year I give my children an Orthodox book and a small gift for St Nicholas Day, so when my friend shared this book with me, I knew we needed this book this year! The story is about the shut down of churches in Russia in the 20th Century and through the piety of a young boy and the miracle of St Nicholas, the church is opened up and filled to the brim on Christmas morning. I can’t read it without tearing up at the end. I highly recommend this book as it is an endearing story of a child’s faith and the miracle workings of the Saints in our lives. It’s also the perfect Christmas book!
You can find it at Ancient Faith Bookstore
Saint Nicholas by Potamitis Publishing
This pocket size book tells the story of St Nicholas and the gold coins as well, and is the perfect size to throw into a church bag or stocking stuffer. In fact, this book came in a gift set from Paidea Classics along with a bag of chocolate gold coins, which was a fun package for the girls to open along with their St Nicholas gifts!
You can find the book gift set at Paidea Classics along with chocolate gold coins
3. Special Traditions on St Nicholas Day
There is a tradition surrounding St Nicholas Day that is widely practiced all around the world, where children lay out their shoes the night before (on December 5th) in hopes that St Nicholas will pay them a visit. On December 6th, children will awake to find that St Nicholas has come and secretly left chocolate gold coins for them! The giving of a small gift and oranges are sometimes associated with this feast day too! You can read all about the variations of how this feast is celebrated throughout the world here.
Our family tradition: I prepare my girls for the feast by reading the story of St Nicholas and the gold coins before they go to sleep on December 5th (the day before St Nicholas Day). We talk about how he helped the poor in secret because he loved God and he didn’t want others to know it was him who was delivering the coins. We also talk about the roles of saints in our lives, how we can ask them to help us and pray for us. The girls then set out their shoes before bed. While they slept, I set up our piano with a St Nicholas feast day scene: I put out our icon of St Nicholas, our St Nicholas books, a St Nicholas prayer print from Emilia’s Post, chocolate gold coins from Paidea Classics, and their small gifts (Snuggly Dolls from Draw Near Designs). They awoke in the morning in their festive jammies and darted to the piano to see if St Nicholas paid us a visit, and sure enough he had. They were so delighted to find all the new treats and gifts and couldn’t wait to read the stories about St Nicholas again. Watching their eyes light up as these stories come alive before them and making these connection in a fun way made all the effort worth it. You can likely see from their expressions that this will be a fond memory from their childhood and it’s a feast they look forward to year after year.
St Nicholas Day Cookies and Treats
There are some ideas on Pinterest for St Nicholas cookies and treats that would be fun to make as a family, so linking those here as well:
4. Songs and Prayers
Another way to celebrate the feast of St Nicholas is by singing songs and praying together as a family. We display an icon of St Nicholas in a prominent place in our home and at family prayers, we say a prayer to St Nicholas. A simple prayer to a saint can look like “O Holy Saint Nicholas, pray unto God for us.” We also have this beautiful print of a prayer to St Nicholas (click here) from Emilia’s Post called “O Glorious Saint Nicholas” which we use and display year after year on his feast day.
You can find the 5X7 prayer print on her website
Here are some additional songs for St Nicholas:
St Nicholas of Myra Hymn Troparion* on YouTube : Click Here
*This would be the song sung at church during Liturgy on his feast day
St Nicholas the Saintly (along with piano music to sing along to): Click Here
St Nicholas the Saintly (sung by a choir on YouTube) : Click Here
Words/Sheet music to St Nicholas the Saintly : Click Here
5. Additional Resources/Products
Check out my Amazon Storefront for St Nicholas Day
Gold Coins
This year we received our coins from Paidea Classics and I’m so pleased with them! They are stamped with ‘St. Nicholas of Myra’ on one side which makes them really unique. They are available in small kits or in bulk in 3 different flavor options: Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate (dairy free), and Mint Chocolate. You can purchase them here.
St Nicholas Snuggly Doll
As I mentioned above, we gifted the girls snuggly dolls from Draw Near Designs: one of St Nicholas and one of The Theotokos. These are super soft, squishy and cuddly and a great gift for St Nicholas Day or even as a stocking stuffer for Christmas! They are available ready made (stuffed and sewn) or as a DIY kit to sew yourself. You can purchase them on their website here.
Lesson Plans and Coloring Pages
Orthodox Pebbles : Free Printables, hand puppets, lesson plan, and activities for St Nicholas of Myra
Final Thoughts
Lastly, as a reminder, none of these items I mentioned above are necessary. We have collected items over the years and each year we add one new thing to our collection. My hope is to provide you with many ideas and ways to participate in this special feast day, finding what works best for your family. However, keeping our focus on prayer and attending services as we live the life of the church is what’s most important. Everything else is icing on the cake.
Be sure to follow along on Instagram for more Feast Day resources and Nativity activities! I pray you have a joyous and fruitful Nativity!
Kh Destinie
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Have you ever heard of St Lucia of Syracuse? She was a young martyr who lived in the 4th century in Italy and is celebrated in many Scandinavian countries on her feast day, December 13th. Each year on her feast day, children dress up in all white, wear a crown of candles and bake St Lucia buns to share with their loved ones and friends. Many churches also host a St Lucia Procession where both boys and girls process while singing a hymn to St Lucia. She is a wonderful saint, especially for children to look to because of her acts of mercy to the poor and her boldness and bravery as she faced persecution and eventually martyrdom for the sake of Christ.
In this guide you will find more about the many Scandinavian traditions surrounding this feast, the story of her life and martyrdom, and additional resources to help you create feast day traditions with your families for years to come!