St. Nicholas Day
A few of my favorite resources to celebrate St. Nicholas Day in my French classes
St. Nicholas Day has become a favorite holiday tradition for my students. Each year we take a day on or around December 6 to spread some holiday cheer, while introducing students to a beloved French folk figure. We share and compare our own cultural celebrations, participate in a well-known French custom, and even use the opportunity to promote the world language program within our school! St. Nicholas can do it all!
My goals for this lesson are:
To develop cultural knowledge about the French-speaking world
To better understand the historical roots of American holiday traditions
To understand how French & American traditions differ
To raise awareness and recruit students for my French program!
St. Nicholas: A Real Historical Figure
“Nicolas used his riches to benefit the poor and needy, and his generosity became legendary.”
Typically, students have heard of St. Nicholas and are aware that he is loosely connected to Santa Claus. Students may not realize, however, that St. Nicholas was a real historical figure. We know that St. Nicholas was born in the 3rd century near Myra (present day Turkey). He was a Greek Orthodox bishop, was imprisoned for his faith by the Emperor Diocletian, and later attended the influential Council of Nicea in 325 AD.
Nicholas’ parents died in a plague when he was a young man, and he inherited their considerable wealth. He used his riches to benefit the poor and needy, and his generosity became legendary. One of the most famous legends involves a poor widower with three daughters; because he did not have money for the girls’ dowry, the girls were destined to be sold into slavery. Tradition holds that Nicholas intervened by tossing coins down the family’s chimney in the night; the coins landed in the girls’ shoes (or stockings) which were left beside the fire to dry. This story is the root of many traditions surrounding St. Nicholas and Santa Claus today. There are many other legends of Nicholas’ good deeds; you can read about them at www.stnicholascenter.org
St. Nicholas Day in France
St. Nicholas Day is typically celebrated on December 6, the anniversary of Nicholas’ death. In France, St. Nicholas Day is the unofficial kickoff to the Christmas season. Unlike American Santa Claus, in the French imagination St. Nicolas is dressed in bishop’s robes and carries a bishop’s miter. He leads a donkey, packed with bags of gifts and candy, through the streets by night. On the evening of December 5, French children eagerly leave their shoes outside the door, filled with a carrot or some hay for St. Nicholas’ donkey. In the morning, good children find their shoes filled with treats.
“In France, St. Nicholas Day is the unofficial kickoff to the Christmas Season”
My students are always interested to learn about Père Fouettard, St. Nicholas’ terrifying counterpart, who leaves switches in the shoes of naughty children. Sometimes St. Nicholas visits French preschools and delivers gifts to the children; this despite France’s strong value of ‘laïcité' (secularism) in schools. Evidently, even the French government will make an exception for the beloved St. Nicolas!
Launching Your Lesson: Ask Students to Share
I like to begin this lesson by asking students to share about their own knowledge and experience with St. Nicholas or with Santa Claus. Some families incorporate Santa a lot into Christmas, some not much, and of course some families don’t observe Christmas at all. Students who are newcomers to the US may have very little knowledge of the American Santa tradition, and this discussion is a way to share a bit of cultural literacy while inviting them to share their own family traditions.
Occasionally, a student in my classroom celebrates St. Nicholas Day in their family and is willing to share their experience. This discussion is a nice opportunity to build background knowledge, to establish a frame of reference for cultural comparison, and to highlight the diversity of family traditions within our own classroom.
“This discussion is a way to share a bit of cultural literacy while inviting students to share their own family traditions.”
Compare St. Nicholas and Santa Claus
Next, I like students to investigate the similarities and differences between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. They aren’t the same! I want students to recognize that St. Nicholas was a real person and how his role in European Christmas celebrations differs from Santa’s role in the U.S.
For lower-level students I like to share this video about a family St. Nicholas Day celebration.
The second video (linked below) shows St. Nicholas Day festivities in southern France. This video is wonderful for cultural comparison; how does the French celebration compare to celebrations in students’ cultures? Students may see activities they enjoy outside of the Christmas season!
As students watch they complete this cultural comparison, which provides a framework for subsequent classroom discussion.
Click here to copy an editable Google Doc of this worksheet! And thanks to Renée Foisy Kleiner for sharing her bilingual version of the questions!
Research French Traditions
In upper level classes, I send students to Mon Grand-Est website to research in French about St. Nicholas and other French Christmas Traditions. Choose the “Noel” header to see a wide assortment of resources. The photos are beautiful, and the site includes embedded links to French videos and podcasts.
Students can choose one blog post to research, and then share their findings with classmates in a jigsaw format, discussion, or by creating an informational poster or electronic post.
Make and Share St. Nicholas Day Shoes
The St. Nicholas Center has a collection of free St. Nicholas themed crafts and activities. My favorite is making paper shoes from this PDF. I reduce the shoes to 25% to fit 4 on a page, then have my students each create 2 shoes which we fill with a few pieces of candy donated by parents.
These activities also work well for a sub!
To wrap up our St. Nicholas Day unit, we visit another classroom, sing a quick French Christmas carol, and then distribute the shoes to students in that class. I choose the classroom we visit strategically; I pick a class of kids one year younger than my entry level class in hopes of sparking interest in joining French. I even have my students add a note to their shoes with the message:
Joyeux Fête de St. Nicholas!
Le 6 décembre, en France, St. Nicholas
donne des cadeaux aux bons enfants.
To learn more, sign up for French!
This activity creates some positive buzz around French class, and has become a favorite annual tradition for my students. It also gives many students a deeper understanding of the history and cultural diversity within their own holiday traditions.
Do you have a great St. Nicholas Day activity? Share below!
