Samiclaus is Coming to Town

Samiclaus talking to Lainey, Schmutzli is in the brown robe in the background

Making Lebkuchen (spice cakes) at the mall on Dec. 6th

Aidan's finished product with a "Grusse von Samiclaus" cookie on it (Greetings from Samiclaus)

Last weekend was a big weekend in German holiday culture. Samiclaus and Schmutzli come on December 6th. Samiclaus is much like Santa, only instead of toys he brings chocolate, nuts, and clementines. Schmutzli is Sami's helper. They will ask kids if they have been good, and if they have they get treats and if not Schmutzli hits them with his stick and tosses them in his sack and carries them away. Seriously.

Okay, well not so seriously now but that's what Schmutzli used to do back in the good ol' days before beating and kidnapping children was frowned upon.

Nowadays, kids leave out their shoes at night for Samiclaus to fill. This brings back memories for me, as putting shoes out is also a French tradition, and how Jason and I met during French class my Sophomore year. I had to fill his shoe :0). Aw, and look at us now! But I digress, so the kids were happy to put out their shoes at home and at school. They must have been good this year because they got loads of chocolate, peanuts, and mandarins!

At school, in his German class, Aidan has been learning a lot about Samiclaus and Schmutzli. This year, his teacher is German, so according to him, she got LOTS of stuff in her shoe. He's learned a song in German about Samiclaus too. I love that he's getting some language at school.

Speaking of songs, today is Lainey's Christmas Concert in her class. Jason took the morning off for the festivities! Lainey couldn't be more excited to sing about "the little old Jesus asleep in the hay". I love it!!