Adults only reading (Santa's watching)

I have to admit that it's hard to keep the Santa Claus story straight and find answers to all the questions. "How does he make it around the world in one night?" "How does he eat all those cookies?" and "How do the reindeer really fly?" Fortunately, the boys are still at an age that they often believe a simple answer: it's magic.

Then along come St. Nikolaus, Sinterklaas, Samichlaus and Niggi-Näggi. (Who?) All of these names represent St. Nicholas. Many families celebrate his feast on December 6. Children put out their shoes at night and receive goodies in them from St. Nicholas. He will also visit children to learn about how well they have behaved this year. St. Nicholas has a helper named Schmüzli here in German-speaking areas of Switzerland -- he is St. Nicholas' helper who will punish children who misbehave. The American Santa Claus seems to be a combination of St. Nicholas and Schmüzli. He is always watching this time of year to make sure that children behave -- who is naughty and who is nice.

Christmas artwork by Willem

Although we haven't started celebrating St. Nicholas (the kids get a visit from him at school), we have started other traditions in our house. We have an "Elf on the Shelf" named Twiggles that moves into our house at the end of November. We light candles on an Advent wreath at home, and we love to open Advent calendars each day in December. I like to focus on the season of Christmas all December, rather than putting all of the emphasis on Christmas Day.

Landon and Willem put on a fabulous Christmas concert at school last night. Landon's kindergarten class performed a play about finding the star of Bethlehem. It was all in German, and Landon made sure to say his line loud and clear. Both boys then sang songs together with the joined classes. There were 8 songs in all, including "O Tannenbaum", "Go Tell it on the Mountain", "Jingle Bell Rock", "Stille Nacht" and "Rudolph". This was Willem's first school performance, and he did really well with the singing!

Enjoy counting down the rest of the holiday season...

Christmas in Alsace, France