Nikolaustag — Have you been naughty or nice?

Today is Nikolaustag (Day of St. Nick) in Germany. St. Nick often gets confused wrongfully with Santa Claus. But Santa Claus (German: Weihnachtsmann) is not the same as St. Nick (German: Nikolaus).

In Germany St. Nick is coming today. He has a book where all actions of everybody are recorded (I guess some secret service members would pay quite much to have a copy of that book). On December 6th he is riding from house to house on his white horse. He's carrying a huge sack full of small gifts as a reward for all children that have been nice. He's a nice and heavenly creature. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, there's also Knecht Ruprecht, his menial. But Knecht Ruprecht is a dark creature. Some say it's the devil himself. If the book says that you've been naughty, St. Nick won't give you any gift, instead you'll get a painful spanking from Knecht Ruprecht that you won't forget for the next year. "Just wait until Ruprecht comes" is still a common threat in German homes. So either way, chocolate or spanking, it sounds like fun, huh? Just kidding, And just for the records: I'm not into spanking at all. Far from it!

Each area has a slightly different Tradition. It's also very common to put your boots in front of your door during the night, and when you wake up on the morning of December 6th they're filled with little gifts like chocolates, nuts and oranges.

So, in my area it's a small gift in the boots, and a bigger gift from St. Nick himself in the evening. He usually wants to hear a poem or a song before he's willing to hand over the gifts. Although there are no reports of children that really got spanked during the last years, Nikolaus is still commanding respect. When I was about 3 or 4 years old I was afraid of Nikolaus, although I've always been nice.