Tonight is the eve of St. Nicholas Day. Nicholas was born in Lycia, which is now part of Turkey. Legend says he was a kind and generous man, who protected the poor and did many great deeds.
In Holland St. Nicholas is called Sinter Klaas (he is the original Santa Claus). Children in Holland leave their shoes by the fireplace on this night, and in the morning they are filled with marzipan and small toys. The Dutch give simple gifts tonight, but they are often accompanied with riddles, or wrapped in deceiving ways, such as a small box nested inside larger boxes, or something hollowed out with a gift inside.
Agenda today:
1. Joy of Giving meditation
2. Journal queries
3. Days of passion
4. Donate to Toys for Tots
5. Make small gifts
6. Make pfeffernüsse
7. Deliver gifts
1. Joy of Giving meditation:
Science shows that the act of giving increases neurochemical levels in the brain; the more we give, the happier we feel. And unlike other kinds of happiness, the joy of giving just keeps growing.
Today I will prepare my heart for this season of generosity and giving.
- Center, and open your heart.
- Bring a picture to mind of all that I have to offer - my time, attention, muscles, love, skills, information and wisdom, patience, smiles, and the things I make with your hands.
- When I feel rich with blessings, breathe out my gifts to the universe.
- As I breathe in, feel the joy of giving fill me in return.
2. Journal queries:
How can I determine the right gift, the perfect gift, for each person (and for the earth)?How can I get all the right gifts, and still retain the peace and lightness I want for myself this season?
3. Days of Passion:
On Fridays I make a plan for Nature-Culture flow and writing through the next week. My Nature-Culture theme this month is life and death, animals, and preparing for winter.
- Writing: Awareness of self as animal, tough love for rats, Sanctuary for urban animals; Give Back: Plastics advocacy and education; I'm also working on my vision of how we can face the climate and biodiversity crisis like heroes.
- Creativity: Plastic tags; recycled plastic bags project
- Garden: Remove ornamental iris and trees from 2nd street bed; Remove English ivy in hedge
- Community: Write EC agenda, lead a meeting (discuss big questions), plan worship sharing on Earth queries
4. Donate to Toys for Tots:
Any small, secret kindness is a gift from St. Nicholas.
Earlier this week I bought a squishy soft cat pillow to donate (and forgot to take a photo), and felt again the gentle joy of offering my love to an anonymous child.
Any small, secret kindness is a gift from St. Nicholas.
Earlier this week I bought a squishy soft cat pillow to donate (and forgot to take a photo), and felt again the gentle joy of offering my love to an anonymous child.
5. Make small gifts:
This is a good time to start stock-piling small gifts to hand out to friends and loved ones. I like to choose a handwork project that I can work on during my evening tv-viewing time.This year, I'm planning to try my hand at plastic bag crochet - I'll let you know how it goes.
In Holland children get pfeffernüsse on St. Nicholas eve, but when I was young we always got them closer to Christmas, from our German neighbor Bill Rueter. Bill brought us a small bowl of these spicy cookies every Christmas when I was a child.
1- Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
2- Mix together all the ingredients, and add flour until the dough is very, very stiff. Grandma Ott said, “When you are sure it’s stiff enough, add some more.” When you can’t stir any more in, use your hands to kneed it in.
3- Form the dough into logs, and then roll one log into a thin rope. Break the rope into small bits and roll these into balls about 1/2-inch thick. (If they are too large, they will be hard to suck on.)
4- Place the balls close together but not touching on a greased cookie sheet. You should be able to easily fill two pans.
When my children were younger, we read stories about St. Nicholas, and celebrated with the shoes and gifts because- well, why not?? Any excuse for giving gifts and eating chocolate is a good one!
6. Make pfeffernüsse:
 |
| One full batch- 150 small cookies. |
Pfeffernüsse means “pepper nuts”, and they are supposed to be as hard as nuts! To eat them you need to suck on them until they soften. They improve with age- they get harder- so make them well in advance.
This recipe comes from Bill Rueter's Grandma Ott.
Ingredients:
- 1 c. dark Karo corn syrup
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. vegetable oil
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1/2-Tbsp. anise oil
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. each of cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper
- many cups of flour
1- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. 2- Mix together all the ingredients, and add flour until the dough is very, very stiff. Grandma Ott said, “When you are sure it’s stiff enough, add some more.” When you can’t stir any more in, use your hands to kneed it in.
3- Form the dough into logs, and then roll one log into a thin rope. Break the rope into small bits and roll these into balls about 1/2-inch thick. (If they are too large, they will be hard to suck on.)4- Place the balls close together but not touching on a greased cookie sheet. You should be able to easily fill two pans.
5- Bake 10-12 minutes- the cookies should be cooked through and lightly browned. If you added enough flour, they will be soft at first, but get hard pretty quickly.
Check out this story about St. Nicholas’ donkey and the pfeffernusse.
7. Deliver gifts:
Even though my children are grown, and have left home, I have a few small gifts to leave at their doors. This year I'll follow the Swiss custom of bundling all the gifts for each family together into a bag.
The most traditional St. Nicholas gifts are:
- Chocolate gold coins, symbolic of the coins Nicholas dropped down a chimney for three poor women.
- Oranges, another symbol of gold
- Candy canes- really candy croziers- bishop's staffs- like St. Nicholas holds.
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