Saint Nikolaus Has Been to Our House!

" Let me see if I've got this Santa business straight. You say he wears a beard, has no descernible source of income and flies to cities all over the world under cover of darkness? You sure this guy isn't laundering illegal drug money?"

 -Tom Armstrong

Our kids' German teacher, Frau Andrae, sent a flyer home suggesting to celebrate German kids' most favorite holiday - St. Nikolaus' Day. Saint Nikolaus was a bishop who lived in Turkey and brought gifts to poor families. (I actually learned that from Caillou. I know, I know, that's the kind of stuff I regularly watch these days.)

Nikolaus and Santa Claus are relatives, no doubt about that. In fact, Santa evolved from Nikolaus, turning a serious bishop dude into a jolly fella. It's funny that in America it's believed that Santa brings presents to everybody in the world the night before Christmas. Thus, the need to occupy the North Pole, I presume. It is a neutral ground after all, not easily reached, giving Santa advantages in running his toy production smoothly and without political conflicts. But let me assure you that in this part of the world he is not the one in charge of goodies and toys. Whatever the reason for Santa's globalization attempt though, I grew to love him over the years. He is cute, just look at him!

Saint Nikolaus, however, we were suspicious of. The night of Dec 5th he was supposed to come into town and leave treats in childrens' shoes put right outside the front door. But only in shoes of good children. We looked up on internet for what to expect from the Nikolaus and it turned out that he walks in the company of Knecht Ruprecht, or Farmhand Rupert. Ruprecht is a name, often used in German literature for Devil. Indeed, Ruprecht is a maleficent creature in a ragged robe, who carried the large sack where he put all of the bad children and (brace yourselves) took them to the river to drown. As time went by, he became a little better, by just beating poor bad munchkins. And later, he became even more liberal by leaving a stick in a bad kid's shoe, so the parents can carry out the beating at their convinience. Today, he just leaves twigs, coal and potatoes (phew! I was getting worried for some of my offsprings.) The uneasy thing is that St. Nikolaus still approves of Ruprecht's behavior and even directs him towards bad kids' homes, cause he's got this book with all kids' names and their deeds. Look at them, don't they look like a couple of criminals on the loose?

So, we were not sure, if we wanted to give these two a chance, especially, with Scott out of town.

Sunday night, the 5th of Dec, my kids were doing a service for me (as part of our Advent calendar adventure). They were cleaning the kitchen. David, scrubbing the kitchen floor with the soapy sponge happened to have a meltdown, because soap got into his eyes and mouth. He was complaining about his hard life, but was hesitant to drop everything and leave for his room. Perhaps, he felt that he owed me something since my service for him the night before consisted of cleaning his room inside and out for 4 hours straight. So, he kept on working, whining miserably, ruining our Christmas cheer. Nadia and I started talking about Nikolaus who might come by that night, and guess, who's being bad?!... Poor David has been told so many times recently, that Santa is bringing him nothing (or coal) for his difficult attitude recently, that he was not even getting upset any more. In fact, when Scott asked Dave, what present he'd like to get if it's only one present, David said: "Either a lego ship or a jar of coal." So, this kid was preparing for the worst and he was even getting curious about coal. But when we mentioned that Nikolaus had a different personality AND evil Ruprecht by his side, David stopped whining and finished mopping his floors.

I guess, it was only fair to celebrate Nikolaus, since we had nothing to be afraid of any more.

I don't think we mind St. Nikolaus after all.