In Switzerland, Samichlaus visits on Dec. 6. He looks like an old-fashioned St. Nick and brings "goodies"for kids that have been good. Goodies in Switzerland, though, mean clementine oranges, peanuts in the shell, lebkuchen and chocolates. Toys get delivered by a different fellow (Christkind) but not until Dec. 25 . Anyways, we went on a little hike to visit Samichlaus at his hut in the woods. He was there with his "Schmutzlis" - his helpers that are dressed like monks (and look pretty scary in my opinion!) and also his donkeys that help him deliver the goodies. Surprisingly, Lukas wasn't scared of either Samichlaus, the Schmutzlis or his donkeys. We went into the hut where Samichlaus told us a little story while we sat around his woodstove. Afterwards, Lukas did get some peanuts which he was as excited about as if they were M&Ms.
Of course, to further confuse things for Lukas, we also follow a Dutch tradition in which we put our slippers out the night before (Dec. 5) and St. Nick comes and puts some treats in them. This year he brought Lukas some playdough.
. 
Finally, we celebrated Christmas this year in Chicago with the Lapsins family. Lukas was really into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and watched the video about 25 times. Santa came and spoiled him as expected. Lukas asked a few times about St. Nick, schmutzlis, donkeys, etc. but as long as the goodies kept coming I don't think he was too worried about the details ---yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment