Traditionally, German's celebrate Christmas on the eve of the 24th. They don't have a Santa Claus that comes down the chimney to fill up your stockings. In Germany the tradition is that on December 5th all of the children have to polish thier boots and leave one of them out on the front porch. They polish the boot to show how well behaved they are, but only put out one boot so as not to seem too greedy. Nikolaus rides around the countryside on a donkey and leaves candy and coins in the boots of the children that were well behaved. The bad children would get coals and switches and depending on how old-school you want to get, sometimes a beating. There is supposedly this little troll guy called Knecht Ruprect that would travel around with St Nikolaus and he was responsible for the bad kids.
Sometimes he would come inside and ask the children how they have been and if they always do thier chores and listen to thier parents. Other times, he might just knock on the window to let you know he was there and then leave. This tradition stems from St Nikolaus who was bishop of Myra (he's from the area of what is now Turkey). He is the patron saint of children, sailors and travelers and was known to leave coins and food in the shoes of the needy and poor.
We did a boot for Tessa this year, although she didn't polish it (that's next year). I also put together little gift bags for the kids in her class and I included a little explanation of the German tradition.
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