Oh, how cute is that!

vow,

in our family, if you put more than one boot out, you didn't get any gifts but sticks.... ("Ruten") -- because Nikolaus has his assistant, Knecht Ruprecht, who makes sure all the kids have been good, and he hands out the sticks, while Nikolaus hands out the goodies. Of course no one ever got any sticks, but it kept us from putting out more than one boot. However, we picked the biggest boot we had... usually our leather skiing boots...

of course my son was the only child who had his boot out here in this part of Paris...

My children used to put their shoes out, as we did as children, and lorded it over the kids at school who didn't! Not such good Christmas spirit, eh? :O) Happy St. Nikolas Day!

We do a tradition similar to this, but from Iceland. It is the Yule Lads, who come every night between December 12th and the 24th. They leave little gifts for children who put their shoes in the windows at night..but beware of the Yule Cat!! My children love this tradition. I too have a wee one with a wee shoe! My children love this tradition.

Kinder Sorpresa! My favorite!!!

Didn't realise you had a German background! You probably know we do the same in Holland: http://stitchoneknittoo.blogspot.com/2007/12/hibernation.html
and this morning I had a phone call from my two very excited children, telling me Sinterklaas had visited during the night!

Wow, I must say that's an awful lot of stuff the Nikolaus left at your house :-o

Our Nikolaus was a bit more stingy, just one small present and of course some chocolate, gingerbread and cookies for every child :o)

Aww, so cute!

My mum's Austrian, and in her family, you put out plates instead of boots. Now that my sister and I are adults, Nikolaus doesn't come anymore, but we've started giving each other little Nikolaus surprises... last year, I knit her a little drawstring sack and filled it with nuts, oranges, and chocolates. She loved it.

The wee booties are way too cute!

Awww!
thanks, alison
in a third degree of separation kind of way, i feel so honored to have those little booties meet st. nikolaus, himself!

I feel cheated, man. I'm half German! Where were my boots when I was a kid? In my closet. I've never heard of this tradition - it's awful cute.

Are those Kinder Eggs? I love those and with i could get them here. every time my friend in the military goes overseas, she brings me some.

St. Nick wasn't quite as generous at our house as he was at yours!

Did you know that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of Children...and brides? I got the best St. Nick gift 15 years ago today...my engagement ring. Yep, I got engaged on St. Nicholas day. I think that St. Nick watches over us to this day. :)

Happy St. Nikolaus Day! Nice booties and booty. What are the roundish things sitting atop each of S's and B's boots? To me they sorta look like very small hams, which can't be right (unless there's more to the tradition of presents or coal than I know).

I love Kinder Eggs (if my eyes aren't deceiving me). It's always nice to get a little surprise!

Mini-hams - hah! That's a good one, Ina! They are German Kinder Eggs, which are hollow chocolate eggs with a toy inside. I'm guessing they haven't ever really caught on here because of the whole chocking-hazard-lawsuit-oriented society we've got. The boys love 'em (heck, so do I!) Sometimes they get little cars to build or little alien figures. We've got a whole collection of Spongebob Squarepants figures (that's Spongebob Schwammkopf in German!) from Kindereggs from last year.

OMG I forgot it was St. Nikolaus day...

I'm really going to have to be more with it when I have kids, aren't I?!?

He's a lot more generous at your house than I've ever seen, too! Mmmm, Kindereier...

I see KinderEggs!! My family loves them!!! Too bad we live in the US.

Oh Gee... thanks for reminding me. My husband (and grown children) thought I was nuts, but I started St. Nicholas day eve shoe offerings a while back. And I almost forgot. I have to go out this evening, so it will probably mostly be peanut M&M's for DH... the kids, living across country will have to manage with virtual treasures.

That is soooo adorable!!

Oh, we hang stockings rather than shoes--and St. Nicholas has run out of presents by the time he gets to our house. He leaves peanuts in the shell, pistachios, Christmas candy and some small little presents--such as snowflake earrings for my daughter, tea for my other daughter and this year--for the first time--St. Nick left something for me!!! A Willie Nelson CD!! My first husband called St Nicholas Day a "test of faith for Christmas"!! Sweet little booties for the little one!

Being very British Isles on both sides of the family Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English -- I was always trying to talk my parents into this tradition (as a fairly young child). Sometimes they would go for it other years it fell by the wayside. I may have to revive it in some form... well I guess I have to wait until next year, now

Thanks for the explanation of Kinder Eggs - that's pretty nifty. Can we see what prizes are inside? (Not to get in deeper, but I thought the sorpresa mentioned by another commenter might be some kind of holiday antipasto for children, a German version of sopressa. Never mind.)

Adorable! And what a fun tradition.