St. Nicholas Day - December 6th or December 19th

St. Nicholas Day

The legendary figure of St. Nicholas is derived from Nicholas of Myra who officiated as a bishop in 4th century Greece. During his lifetime he developed a reputation for gift-giving by putting coins in other people's shoes, which accounts for many of today's Christmas traditions that involve leaving gifts in shoes or boots.

Having inspired both the figure of the North American Santa Claus and the British Father Christmas, St. Nicholas has in some countries been more recently joined on his visits to children's homes by an evil companion who punishes the naughty ones: in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and northern Italy, this personification of evil is called Krampus, in Germany Knecht Ruprecht, and in the Netherlands Zwarte Piet.

Why Celebrate St. Nicholas Day?

December 6 or December 19 on the Julian Calendar

St. Nicholas, a man of faith who lived his life in devotion to Christ

• To focus on giving more than receiving: St. Nicholas cared for the needy

• To emphasize small treats and family fun: St. Nicholas loved children

• To provide a bit of special festivity early in the waiting weeks of Advent: St. Nicholas points to Jesus, the heart of Christmas

• To offer a spiritual dimension to gift giving

• To tell the story of a Christian saint, whose model life inspires compassion and charity

• To honor St. Nicholas honors the Christ Child who selflessly gave the greatest gift of all—himself

St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6, is one of the highlights of the Advent season. It is on this eve that our children hang their stockings. From babyhood they learn to love the kind bishop with his mitre, staff and bag of gifts--whose name has become parodied as "Santa Claus" and whose memory is tarnished by commercialism.

In addition to the toys received on this feast, the Christ-Child and His angels bring other gifts on Christmas Eve; and the Magi a few more on Epiphany.

Placing less exclusive emphasis on December 25 as the day of presents and also curtailing its gifts somewhat makes it easier to place more emphasis on the religious aspects of that great holy day. 

Do other children think ours are queer? Not at all. If anything, they are a bit envious of children who receive Yule gifts so early and who enjoy such a happy feast as our traditional St. Nicholas Day party. Having an early gift day also makes it possible for the children to give some of these gifts as Christmas presents to other less fortunate children.

Treats of the St. Nicholas party are the exchange of gifts, genuine Dutch cookies and Bishopwyn (bishop's wine). For children the wine is grape juice. But the grownups who face the high December winds along the Hudson River to pick up their children at our house always welcome the mulled Bishopwyn. Its recipe is from our favorite cook book, "Cooking for Christ" by Florence Berger.

                      1 bottle of Claret        6 cloves       4 inches stick cinnamon

Break cinnamon into small pieces. Simmer wine and spices for about five minutes. Strain wine. Serve hot.

The Speculatius, a spice cookie from the Netherlands

The Speculatius, a spice cookie from the Netherlands, like all of Mrs. Berger's recipes, is foolproof.

1 cup butter                       4 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup lard                          1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 cups brown sugar           1/2 tsp. cloves 

1/2 cup sour cream          4-1/2 cups sifted                                                              flour

1/2 tsp. soda                      1/2 cup chopped                                                               nuts

Cream the butter, lard and sugar. Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts. Knead the dough into rolls. Wrap the rolls in wax paper and chill them in the refrigerator overnight. Roll the dough very thin and cut into shapes. Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) for 10 to 15 minutes.

The dough may be cut into St. Nicholas shapes, or into the shape of birds, fish or animals. We also like to cut out stocking shapes and ice them in honor of St. Nicholas, patron of school boys.

During the party we light the Advent wreath candle, and the children sing Advent hymns. All classes at Corpus Christi School have wreaths, but some of the children do not have them at home. We have found that parents, enjoying their Bishopwyn, have become interested in the wreath and have integrated the Advent program of school and home as a result of the St. Nicholas Day party.

Excerpt taken from FAMILY ADVENT CUSTOMS by Helen McLoughlin

https://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/ADVCUST.TXT

Get Kids Thinking of Advent

GIFTS FOR JESUS

On the first Sunday of Advent each child in our family receives an empty manger. An oatmeal box covered with bright paper will do as well. At bedtime the children draw straws for each kind deed performed in honor of Baby Jesus as His birthday surprise. The straws are placed in the child's manger or box daily. It is amazing how much love a child can put into Advent when he is preparing for His Redeemer's coming in grace.

On Christmas each child finds an Infant in his manger, placed on a small table or on a chair beside his bed. Usually it is a tiny doll, beautifully dressed; but one of our children receives a Hummel Infant year after year. This custom, which in no way interferes with the larger manger in the living room, fills the child with a longing in Advent, and gives him an image of his Redeemer as his first happy glance mornings and his last impression at night during the entire Christmas season.

As our youngsters grew older, they added the Hungarian custom of planting a grain of blessed wheat for each Advent sacrifice. They use small flower pots, especially decorated with Christmas symbols. By Christmas the tender green shoots of wheat are growing, each a reminder of some special, and of course secret, offering of love for "Little Jesus" on His birthday. The wheat is placed at the crib and usually lasts until Epiphany.

Excerpt taken from FAMILY ADVENT CUSTOMS by Helen McLoughlin

https://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/ADVCUST.TXT

Christmas Pudding Tradition and Recipes

One of my most favorite Christmas traditions is watching the movie The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (actor Alastair Sim, he's the best Scrooge!)... When I was a child that was the first time I heard about the Christmas pudding.  Since then it has become a favorite dessert to look forward to as well.  

If you have watched the Christmas Carol movie or better yet read the book written by Charles Dickens, you will know that the Christmas pudding was part of the Christmas meal... To read The Christmas Carol by Dickens see http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/carol.htm

An excerpt from the story: 

"Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastry-cook's next door to each other with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered, -- flushed but smiling proudly, -- with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

 

1840s-1843-Charles-Dickens-Christmas Carol

O, a wonderful pudding I Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing."

Christmas pudding is a type of pudding traditionally served as part of the Christmas dinner in Britain, Ireland and in some other countries where it has been brought by British emigrants. It has its origins in medieval England, and is sometimes known as plum pudding or just "pud", though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding involving dried fruit. 

Despite the name "plum pudding," the pudding contains no actual plums due to the pre-Victorian use of the word "plums" as a term for raisins. The pudding is composed of many dried fruits held together by egg and suet, sometimes moistened by treacle or molasses and flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and other spices. The pudding is aged for a month, months, or even a year; the high alcohol content of the pudding prevents it from spoiling during this time.

History of the Christmas Pudding

Medieval Christmas

There is a popular myth that plum pudding's association with Christmas goes back to a custom in medieval England that the "pudding should be made on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, that it be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to west to honour the Magi and their journey in that direction". 

However, recipes for plum puddings appear mainly, if not entirely, in the 17th century and later. Their possible ancestors include savoury puddings such as those in Harleian MS 279, crustades, malaches whyte, creme boiled (a kind of stirred custard), and sippets. 

Various ingredients and methods of these older recipes appear in early plum puddings.

One of the earliest plum pudding recipes is given by Mary Kettilby in her 1714 book A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery.

There is a popular and wholly unsubstantiated myth that in 1714, King George I (sometimes known as the Pudding King) requested that plum pudding be served as part of his royal feast in his first Christmas in England. As techniques for meat preserving improved in the 18th century, the savoury element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. 

People began adding dried fruit and sugar. The mince pie kept its name, though the pottage was increasingly referred to as plum pudding. Although the latter was always a celebratory dish it was originally eaten at the Harvest festival, not Christmas. It was not until the 1830s that the cannonball of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices, all topped with holly, made a definite appearance, becoming more and more associated with Christmas. 

Christmas Pudding

The East Sussex cook Eliza Acton was the first to refer to it as "Christmas Pudding" in her bestselling 1845 book Modern Cookery for Private Families.

The pudding "had the great merit" of not needing to be cooked in an oven, something "most lower class households did not have".

The custom of eating Christmas pudding was carried to many parts of the world by British colonists, and beyond the United Kingdom, became a popular and common a dish in the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Excerpts from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pudding

Stirring the Pudding

On the first Sunday of Advent we bring to the dinner table the "Stir-up" or traditional English plum pudding for family and guests to stir. Each makes a wish, as he or she stirs, and then prays the Collect from the Mass of the day:

"Stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, O Lord; and come so that we may escape through Thy protection and be saved by Thy help from the dangers that threaten us because of our sins. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever."

Afterwards the pudding is steamed and put away until the feast of Christmas. Then warmed brandy or rum is added and set ablaze; and the flaming pudding is brought to the dinner table to be served as soon as the flame burns out. Actually the pudding is prepared on the Saturday before "Stir-up" Sunday. Filled with the good things of the world, the pudding is supposed to represent Christ who will bring with Him on His birthday all the good things of heaven. Children love to work on the pudding, and the busy mother finds extra hands a great help in dicing, grating and juicing the fruits.

We use a recipe from "Jubilee," November 1953. The ingredients cost about three dollars and will make five pounds of pudding. Adolph Paganuzzi, chef of a well-known Greenwich Village, New York, pastry shop, reduced his famous recipe to family proportions for "Jubilee." With his kind permission we give it here:

               1/2 lb. beef suet, chopped                        1/4 lb. diced candied citron

               1/2 lb. all-purpose flour, sifted                1/4 lb. diced candied orange peels

               1/4 lb. bread crumbs                                1/4 lb. diced candied lemon peels

               3/4 lb. brown sugar                                  8 eggs, beaten

               2 teaspoons ground cinnamon                 2 lemons--grated rind and their juice

               1 teaspoon ground allspice                      2 oranges--grated rind and their juice

               1 teaspoon ground ginger                        1/2 pt. Sherry or Port wine

               1-1/4 lbs. raisins--any kind         

Into a bowl mix and work together all the ingredients one at a time, in the order in which they are listed above. 

When they have been well mixed, pour the mixture into a well-greased mold or can. Cover, and seal tight. Steam in large, covered kettle, roaster or similar utensil and let simmer for at least five hours. 

When done, the pudding can be stored away until Christmas. It may be kept a year and will improve with age. It may be served with any sauce desired, such as fruit, rum, brandy, raisin, vanilla or any other kind. Liquid sauces are better than semi-liquid.

               Rum Sauce

         1 pt. Sherry wine                                1 small stick cinnamon

         1/2 lb. brown sugar                            Rind of 1/2 orange

         2 bay leaves                                       1/2 pt. rum

Place all the ingredients in a glass jar and let stand together for a few days. Bring to a boil, strain and serve over the pudding.

Excerpt taken from FAMILY ADVENT CUSTOMS by Helen McLoughlin

https://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/ADVCUST.TXT

Recipe for Christmas Plum-Pudding from Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861.

Taken from Mimi Matthews.com AUTHENTIC VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS PUDDING

https://mimimatthews.com/2015/12/21/authentic-victorian-christmas-pudding/

The Custom of the Advent Wreath

Advent Wreath preparing for Christmas

Most popular of the Advent customs handed down to us is the Advent wreath made of evergreens, bound to a circle of wire.

German in origin--it was taken, so we are told, from the pagan fire wheel--the wreath represents the cycle of thousands of years from Adam to Christ during which the world awaited the coming of a Redeemer. 

It also represents the cycle of years since then that bears four candles, equally spaced, three purple ones to be lighted on the "penitential" Sundays, and a rose-colored one for Gaudete, the joyful Sunday in Advent. Candles may be placed inside or outside the wreath.

Any kind of Christmas wreath such as those hung in windows may be used. It may be set on a kitchen or dining room table, on an end table in the living room, or in a child's bedroom. However, it is most appealing when suspended by four purple ribbons from a light fixture in the ceiling.

When our children were small we bought a large, permanently preserved pine wreath and used it year after year. Now that they are going to school they help to make a new one each Advent. Inexpensive and easy to assemble is the wreath we make from a bunch or two of laurel leaves bound to a circle of wire from coat hangers. The evergreens are secured by fine wire to the circle. Candles and ribbons are added as the wreath is put together. Laurel is practical because it does not shed when suspended over the dining room table. Moreover, laurel is a symbol of victory, and thus reminds us that Christ's coming means victory over sin and death. Loveliest of wreaths and fragrant, too, is one of fresh princess pine. When we use that type, we hang it in the living room and add a single silver star to it each evening in Advent when the candles are lighted for prayers. Stars are cut from metallic paper.

City dwellers may make an attractive wreath of fireproof green paper, while country folks will find a metal barrel hoop ideal as a frame for whatever evergreens are at hand. In our children's classrooms in Corpus Christi School, New York City, Advent greens are sometimes kept fresh in inexpensive plastic rings.

The home ceremony for use of the Advent wreath is simple. It consists of Collects, hymns and prayers proper to the Advent season.

We have put it together as follows. 

On the first Sunday of Advent, our family gathers for the blessing of the wreath by father, who begins:

Father: Our help is in the Name of the Lord.

All answer: Who made heaven and earth.

Father: Let us pray. O God, by whose word all things are sanctified, pour forth Thy blessing upon this wreath, and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from Thee abundant graces. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

He sprinkles the wreath with holy water. Then Myles, our youngest child, lights the first candle, and the prayer for the first week is said.

Father: Let us pray. Stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, O Lord, and come, so that we may escape through Thy protection and be saved by Thy help from the dangers that threaten us because of our sins. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

All: Amen.

During the first week one candle is left burning during the evening meal, at prayers or at bedtime.

Two candles are lighted on the second Sunday and allowed to burn as before. The prayer for the week is:

Father: Let us pray. O Lord, stir up our hearts that we may prepare for Thy only begotten Son, that through His coming we may be made worthy to serve Thee with pure souls. Through the same Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Three candles, including the rose candle, are lighted on Gaudete, the third Sunday, and during that week. The following prayer is said:

Father: Let us pray. We humbly beg Thee, O Lord, to listen to our prayers; and by the grace of Thy coming bring light into our darkened minds. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

All: Amen.

All four candles are lighted on the fourth Sunday and allowed to burn as before. The prayer said the fourth week is:

Father: Let us pray. Stir up Thy might, we pray Thee, O Lord, and come; rescue us through Thy great strength so that salvation, which has been hindered by our sins, may be hastened by the grace of Thy gentle mercy. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

All: Amen.

At the end of Advent, candles and ribbons are changed to white, evergreens renewed if necessary, and tiny Christmas balls added to decorate the wreath. We hang ours in the entrance hall where it adds a festive note to the house and gives us a chance to explain the wreath to neighbors and tradespeople who have not seen it previously. The wreath, unless it sheds, is kept until Epiphany.

Excerpt taken from FAMILY ADVENT CUSTOMS by Helen McLoughlin

https://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/ADVCUST.TXT

Advent is Here!! Come Lord Jesus!

Sound the trumpets in Zion, 

summon the nations; 

call the people together and tell them the good news: 

Our God and our Saviour 

is coming!

St. Charles Borromeo

The Season of Advent

From a pastoral letter from St. Charles Borromeo, bishop

Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation.  The great season of Advent.  

This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoice at last to see.  This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity.  

We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery.  In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Every year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us.  This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all.  We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again.  When we removed all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.

In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice and ritual, used by the Holy Spirit.  She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world.  The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament.

Lord, help me welcome You once again 

and make room for You in my daily life, 

that You may make Your home in my heart.

Advent is the beginning of the new liturgical year. 

It is a season of spiritual preparation, 

marked by eager longing for the

coming of the Saviour 

through grace at Christmas, 

and for His second and final coming.