St Nicholas' Day Shoes

To celebrate St. Nicholas’ feast in the traditional way, why not encourage your children to switch from a Christmas stocking to a shoe this year? For young children, creating a ‘wooden’ shoe out of felt or foam can be an easy-to-assemble craft project.

To start, draw and cut out for them a three-part outline of a wooden shoe: two mirror-image sides and a base. A length of seven or eight inches is a good size.

Tack the pieces together with thread or yarn; joined together, they should form an upright shoe that bulges a bit in the middle.       

Have your kids decorate the shoe with paints, glitter, foam pieces, bells, ribbons, beads, etc. And advise them to set it out on December 5 in anticipation of St. Nicholas’ arrival.

Your final job is to fill it with chocolate coins, cookies, fruit, nuts, or small toys.