St Nicolas' Day Pictures

Can the real Santa please stand up!

I’ll be straight with you. I love Christmas and I’m secretly still sad that Santa does not exist. I have fun memories of putting our biscuits and Bashew cooldrinks(yes, the african way) out for Father Christmas to refuel, after he had sneaked into our house and filled our pillow cases at the foot of our beds with all the presents he miraculously knew we wanted. Father Christmas had to get through the window because we had no chimney:) At least, that’s what my parents told me.

So here I am a couple of decades or so later, with two of my own little squirrels, Kristen and Jesse longing to re-invent this magical world of Father Christmas, his reindeer and the mass of presents he wants to leave them as he goes on his way, getting fatter and fatter as he eats all the biscuits and drinks all the Bashew drinks imaginable. But I know I owe them more than that.

So the point of this blog is to help us parents walk upstream during this season of crazy opulence, over-indulgence and myth around that pot-bellied, jolly old man called Father Christmas, on the eve of St Nicholas’ day, 6 December.

So here enters the real Santa.....St Nicholas. St Nicholas was born in a town called Myra, now known as Turkey in the Mediterranean. He was raised by his Christian family as he lost both his parents at a quite a young age. St Nicholas was driven by the christian values instilled in him at a young age and there are many testimonies of him living a life of servitude, generosity, mercy and justice. One such story and my favorite, is when he secretly placed gold coins through the window of a friends’ daughter who was to be sold into slavery because her father could not afford her dowry. Another story goes that he employed a wood carver to make wooden toys for poor children in his community, and another story goes that he generously fed the poor and clothed them. He eventually became a Bishop and his sainted remains now lie in the Port City of Bari in Italy, which strangely enough I have been to.

St Nicholas was a Jesus follower, a dedicated follower of the Light of the world and his life reflected it. A bit of a far cry from the Coke drinking jolly fellow we now know and love (I speak for myself on this point:)). Which brings me to the following point, the image of St Nicholas has evolved over centuries as different groupings and companies have added little touches here and there as a marketing gimmick. So to the Coca-Cola company’s credit, they are not the only ones guilty of tainting St Nicholas’s image.

So on 6 December this year, I will be celebrating the life of St Nicholas with my family and will attempt to use symbols of St Nicholas’ life, which I hope will help challenge our views of the silly season, and inculcate a message of generosity and not of getting stuff, a message of justice and not of adding to the greater divide between the rich and poor, and a message of mercy and not of being wrapped up in our own bubble as we see the poor all around us. So here are the symbols which will be incorporated into the meal. The aim is to keep the little “gifts” as simple as possible....after all we don’t want to perpetuate the cycle of “stuff” over this time:

• A Sock: represents the sock or shoe into which the gold coins fell when he paid for the young lady’s dowry;
• Chocolate Gold Coins: The money he left in the socks;
• Something Wooden: As a reminder of the gifts the Wood carver made for the poorer children. Maybe fun pencils or little wooden Christmas trimmings will do
• Cloth or clothing: represents the clothes he gave to the poor. In this case I’m thinking new ribbons for Kristen’s hair and a little bandana for Jesse
• Favorite food: This represents his generosity as he sought to feed the poor. I’m thinking of giving Jesse a few strawberries, and Kristen some sweet melon, their favorite fruit.
• Ginger Bread: Symbolises the bread St Nicolas made with exotic spices

So it doesn’t have to cost much. Usually some traditional Mediterranean food is enjoyed as the life of St Nicholas is reflected on.

So what on earth are we to do with Santa this season! For me I’m not ready to give it all up yet. I’ll continue to ask God to challenge me in my thinking and preparation as we await Jesus this advent season, wait for Him to transform our hearts and wait on the same Jesus who affected St Nicholas’ life so deeply. So may the Lord of Love, Generosity, Mercy and Justice walk upstream with us this Christmas season!

Please go to the following link to read a very comprehensive article about the Saint we love so much. I've used Scribd, a site one can upload pdf's for viewing on the net, as I was unable to attach a document to this blog. Hope it works. http://www.scribd.com/doc/74814156/StNicholasDay

I also found the following website really informative

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/who-is-st-nicholas/

Watch this space for some pictures of our time together and examples of what we used during the evening. Love Mauri:)

Creating your own celebrations

Christmas Day and the season of Advent is full of tradition and rituals. The question is, is whose traditions are you following? The joyous thing about being a parent is that you have the authority and freedom to create your own Christmas rituals in your home for your children. It is not always a simple task to create traditions, it does take prayer, thought and some good chats with your spouse.

We all carry with us memories of Christmas from our childhood - some are good, some are hurtful, some inspire, and some keep us in boundage. Mostly these experiences are powerful and emotive. So it takes some careful sifting to work out what do we want to carry forward into our own families, and what do we want to leave behind. We need to recognise that the letting go of some traditions is not a simple task due to the emotional attachment we have with them. We may need pray through and process the "letting go" with a good friend.

Add to this we are in a society that, for some strange reason, goes crazy around Christmas with a startling amount of shopping, sales, decorations, Santa Claus, fir-trees, presents, eating, gatherings, chocolate advent calanders, tinsel and more. Ironically in the midst of this frenzied preparing and feasting, very little of Jesus is reflected. (I  recently tried to purchase a toy nativity set and found that most toy store assistants gave me a blank look, but went on to offer me a handful of Christmas related toys that had a whole lot to do with Santa but very little to do with Jesus). In creating our own celebration of Christmas we need to prayerfully decide what we want to include from our society's traditions, and how to explain to our children why we have chosen not to include the rest.

Shaping our own Christmas is not just about keeping what we like and discard the rest, it is also about creating something brand new. As we push into to understanding more of Jesus, more of His justice and love, we may find we are inspired to add to our Christmas season something that is so Holy Spirit inspired that we don't know of anyone else who is doing it. How exciting - so be open to the new things that may be birthed in your heart. I encourage you to share them with us moms as it will only add to the richness of our celebrations.

Jesus's said that His burden is not heavy and that His yoke is light - this provides us with a great promise to take hold of as we look to mould our family's Christmas celebrations. It does not have to feel like hard work. God wants to show us how.

One mom shared how she and her husband had been praying about their Christmas and had specifically asked God to show them What does God want Christmas to look like in their home? and the also sought God specifically on How they could redeem Christmas in their own lives and home? What an inspiring testimony of how God has been answering them with verses that give guidance, and by dropping inspiring ideas in their hearts and minds. God loves it when we are intentional about Him, and seek to live our lives in line with His best for us. When our hearts are yearning for His way, He does not delay in sharing His thoughts, ideas and strategies with us. And what a joy this is, because His way brings LIFE!

There is no ONE right way to do Christmas, no formula and no script. There is room for you to be Holy Spirit inspired, to use your talents and creative gifts to make this season LIFE giving for your family and to celebrate with your children the wondrous gift of God, Jesus.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
AND REMEMBER:
If you are on Facebook, make sure you join our Moms 4 Justice group where those of us who were at the meeting have committed ourselves to inspiring each other during the Advent Season. Each day one of us will post some reflective thoughts or verses that can help us all focus on the real meaning of Christmas, or inspire us to pursue social justice in this season of festivity, or something that we can say or do with our kids that will help them better understand Jesus and Christmas.


Follow this link to go to the facbook group of Moms4Justice