When I was a little girl, celebrating St. Nicholas Day was one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. At the Lutheran school I attended, on Dec. 5th, we would line up our boots outside the classroom door before we left and when we returned in the morning, they would be full of little treats and prizes! St. Nicholas had visited and left them for us.

I always wanted to keep up the tradition, but until Anne was born never had the chance (it seems kind of suspect to put candy in your own shoes when you're an official adult). This year A.'s finally old enough to understand and get excited by little things like this, so we'll be leaving our shoes out tonight for St. Nicholas to stop by. (We also telephoned ahead to tell her friends to leave their shoes out too -- St. Nick is planning on dropping by their houses as well).

If you'd like to play along at home, you can! This is the easiest of easy holiday activities -- all you need is a handful of small toys or treats (leftover Hannukah gelt works well for this) and a pair of shoes. Although if you are feeling extra ambitious, you can try your hand at making some speculaas (and then send some to me!)

By the way, just in case you're wondering how this tradition got started, the most popular legend has it that once there was a very poor man who couldn't afford a dowry for his daughter so the was going to have to turn to a life of prostitution to support herself. St. Nicholas obviously wanted to save her from this fate so one night, he noticed her shoes sitting outside on the doorstep and left a bag of gold in them.

I'm not sure I was expecting a story in which prostitution played a major role but any excuse for candy, right? Happy St. Nicholas Day!