Some St. Nicholas Day Crafty Fun

December 6 is when many in the world celebrate and commemorate the man we base our modern-day "Santa Clause" stories on. St. Nicholas was a bishop in Smyrna (in Turkey). In our church we do a fun party in his honor each year, where the kids get to do a few crafts and "St. Nicholas" puts a goodie bag in their shoes, which were placed by the door of the church before going in for evening prayers. The bags always include an orange, a small apple, a candy cane, some gold (chocolate) coins, and maybe a little fun item like wikkie stix or a small prayer bracelet. Each of these items has a connection to a story about St. Nicholas and the ways he gave to, loved, and served his community.


This year, we had the party on Dec 4, the closest Saturday to his day of commemoration. We made these cute St. Nicholas men out of colored paper or colored foam, with shiny foam for his stole, and cotton balls for his beard. As you see, some of the kids got fancy by adding a staff or a sword. 

At the cookie station, we had homemade sugar cookies and frosting to decorate.
 

Here at home, we waited for St. Nicholas day to open a small present each, find another goodie bag in our waiting shoes (set out before bed the night before), and do a little santa's sleigh craft. The kids got to draw straws for whose sleigh was made with the NingXia Red packet. I only had enough on hand for one! 

Here is another made with a candy bar - Take a look below for the supplies we used. And a few more pictures, just for fun. 

Supplies:
candy canes

NingXia Red packets or full size flat candy bar (we used Reese's)

Small snack size candy bars

St. Nicholas chocolate man

Snack size reese's cup or hershey's kiss for a lantern

Glue or double sided tape to hold it on

We also used packing tape for some stability

All the supplies laid out and ready to go

Using double-sided tape to put the runners in place. We put a piece of clear packing tape over the top of the runners to help keep them still too.

Using double sided tape for putting on our stack of "presents"

St. Nicholas goes in front

Take a little time to make it fly - we put double sided tape across the front of the runners to put the light in front. 

Some creative liberty was taken with extra pieces. I love how their personalities shine through here!

And, of course, when playtime is done, we get to eat the supplies!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!