Do your children put out their shoes for St. Nick’s Day? It’s a sweet little tradition that originally developed in countries where Santa comes on December 6 instead of December 25. On December 5, the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas (a.k.a. Santa), children put their empty shoes in front of the hearth before they go to bed. In the morning, voilà ! St. Nick has filled the shoes with chocolate coins!
It’s tied to the Christian year. It’s tied to old European customs. It’s tied to the actual story of St. Nicholas secretly providing doweries (in the form of coins) so that some poor young women could afford to marry. It is, again, the sweetest little tradition.
Be forewarned, however: it is also a tradition that is very risky to adopt, because if you’re not careful it can easily just turn into kids getting their stockings filled twice in December instead of once. Only the first time, instead of one stocking, it’s two shoes. You see the problem.
In our family, we’ve sidestepped this threat of treat-and-present overload by making St. Nick’s Day about books. Yes, the kids get some chocolate coins in their shoes; they also get a candy cane and a $5 bill each (to help with their Christmas shopping). But other than that, they only get one thing: a brand new, carefully-chosen book. Less is more, they say, and our children love getting their St. Nick’s book each year. And they love getting books in their eventual Christmas stockings, too.
In case you are looking for books to give to the kids in your life sometime soon, whether for Christmas or St. Nick’s or just because, here are some recommendations of books that kids really seem to love. Some of these are the right size to be shoved into stockings, and others can be leaned up against shoes on December 6 or can be wrapped and put under the tree—or you might ship them off to faraway friends or relatives via reindeer (or USPS). I’ve tried not to repeat recommendations that I’ve made at the Arena before, and I’ve also done my best to leave out obvious choices. Enjoy!
- If the kids’ parents are nerdy HIPs, Carol Ryrie Brink’s Family Grandstand will be a big hit. The Ridgeway kids’ dad, a professor at Midwest college, writes boring papers on Hannibal in his home office while their mom writes exciting detective novels in her tower office. Meanwhile, the kids get up to neighborhood antics and scheme about ways to help the star player on the college football tem.
- Everybody in my family loves Homer Price, who wrangles with an over-producing doughnut machine and solves a crime with the help of his pet skunk, among other adventures.
- My kids love everything by graphic artist Ben Hatke, who lives in the next town over from us. Mighty Jack has been a hit this year (note: the dad has left the main character’s family) and I love the relationship in the books between Jack and his nonverbal sister.
- My preschooler has been asking me to read this evergreen version of The Three Little Pigs a lot lately; I even read it aloud to a whole passel of little kids at her birthday party. And when I asked her what her favorite current book was, she brought me Something Wild, which is one of the books we received through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. I also just have to recommend The Seven Silly Eaters for the zillionth time – parents and kids both just love it so much. Moms and Dads, you will recognize so much within this book!
- For kids who want to do rather than read, I recommend 101 Things for Kids to Do on A Rainy Day, which contains interesting and pleasant projects that kids can do mostly on their own (and mostly without ther parents tearing their hair out).
- The Adventures of Pinocchio. Our 13-year-old is currently reading this for her book club while my husband is also reading it aloud to our 7-year-old. Both kids agree that it is lots of fun and even say it is “way better” than the Disney movie.
- The Railway Children is a book we return to over and over again. An exciting, poignant, and mysterious story, it’s just a whole lot of fun. (Similarly, I remember loving The Wouldbegoods by the same author when I was a kid.) And for another zillionth time recommendation that I just can’t leave out—please consider the wonderful and indeed quite Christmassy orphan story, Nancy and Plum!
- My friend Bethany (14) recommends The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow and her sister Claire (15) recommends Emily of Deep Valley. My daughter Mary (13) recommends Elizabeth Enright’s The Saturdays. You can read their reviews here.
- My husband loves reading George MacDonald stories to our kids and especially recommends the editions illustrated by Maurice Sendak. For example, he recommends this edition of The Light Princess.
- Bonus round! Here is what my own kids will be finding in their shoes this St. Nick’s Day—shhh! Don’t tell! Daughter #1, eighth grade, is getting Mystery in White (I haven’t read this yet, but it comes highly recommended, and my daughter loves Agatha Christie and similar authors). Son #1, fifth grade, will receive The Redwall Cookbook (he loves Redwall and he loves to cook). Son #2, second grade, will be getting either The Magic Treehouse box set or Minnie and Moo: The Case of the Jelly Donut (the other will go in his stocking). Finally, my princess-obsessed Daughter #2, who is almost ready for kindergarten, is going to love Princesses of Heaven.