Holiday Tradition and a Story of Holiday Kindness

Day 11: Tradition

I cannot believe it’s already DAY 11 of Blogmas!! Today’s prompt is holiday traditions. We have so many traditions. I think you I shared quite a bit of our traditions in my Holiday Bucket List post. But there is one thing I didn’t cover that is a tradition of ours that I love. (I’m also re-sharing an older post within this post.)

Saint Nicholas Day

Saint Nicholas Day is a day my kids look forward to every year. On the night of December 5th the kids leave out their boots in hopes that St. Nick will bring them some goodies. If he does, that usually means there will be a visit on the 25th. 🙂 This tradition is near and dear to us, because it’s a tradition my husband is carrying on from his German roots. My mother-in-law is 1st generation German-American, so keeping German customs alive is big for her.

I just want to bottle up all these memories and keep them forever. ✨ Boots were filled. 🙌🏽

A photo posted by Dean 👌🏽 (@mrs_aok) on Dec 6, 2016 at 9:51pm PST

Of course I support carrying on family tradition. And if you read Thursday’s post you know I lived in Germany when I was younger, so I already had the great pleasure of having my boot filled by St. Nick. I’m glad we started leaving boots out for St. Nick once my husband and I became parents. St. Nick has visited every year since. 🙂

Happy #StNicholasDay!

A video posted by Dean 👌🏽 (@mrs_aok) on Dec 6, 2014 at 6:45am PST

We didn’t always have “special Christmas boots” for each of our children. My oldest daughter uses my husband’s old Christmas boot from when he was a kid, my youngest daughter has her own boot that I found by chance when she was a baby, but our boy didn’t have one. He went a few Christmases with using his shoe (which is totally traditional). Here’s a story about the day we found a boot for him…

The Christmas Boot

It was a few Christmases ago, I was with my babies shopping at Target.  The holiday spirit was dampened by the devastating news of what happened in Connecticut at an elementary school.  In spite of that horrific situation, I was trying to remain jubilant.  We strolled down the Holiday aisles of Target, seeing the kids smile and get excited for Santa’s visit was SO uplifting to me.  I needed it.

While we were at Target looking at all the Christmas decorations I saw a boot.  Not, like a boot, boot, but a mug-like boot.  I picked it up and showed the kids.  The kids and I had been on the lookout for a boot for St. Nicholas day.

 

Out of nowhere this sweet older woman with a Sox jacket came up to me and asked me about the boot.  I told her how my girls both have boots for St. Nicholas day, but my son did not have one.  He was using a shoe for St. Nicholas day, while the girls both had pretty ceramic boots to set out for St. Nick each year. I was debating if I should get this plastic mug boot because it wasn’t as nice as the girls.  The lady smiled and said you should get him the boot.  🙂

Mrs. Claus

She kept looking at the babies with such endearing eyes.  She made small talk with the kiddos and then we wished each other a good day.  I thought that was it, but our paths crossed again in the store.  The sweet woman came up to me and said Merry Christmas buy something for the babies and proceeded to place money in MY pocket!

 

(I’m crying now thinking about that day.)  I remember feeling so thankful for that.  The spirit of the holidays was there in that sweet woman.  I needed that.  Not the money, but I needed to know people were good.  I needed my kids to know the same.  The littles asked half jokingly, “What if she is Mrs. Claus?”  At that moment she was.  This woman gave me a present, she restored my faith in humanity if just for a few.  I had been crying myself to sleep those days thinking of the families who wouldn’t have the holidays with their babies or loved ones.

Needless to say, I went back to the plastic Santa boot mug and purchased it for my boy.  It may not be as fancy as my girls’ ceramic boots but it has such a lovely story behind it, I had to have it.

Have you ever had a stranger do something kind for you?