Category Archives: St. Nicholas

Dec 05 2021
3 Comments
Krampus, Midwinter, St. Nicholas, The Gift Bearers

St. Nick & the Midwinter Gift Bearers

The nights grow longer and darker on our approach to the solstice of Midwinter, and in these final few weeks of night expanding, the first of the midwinter gift bearers, magical beings that they are, begin their journeys in the lands where they are known and loved. The first of them comes tonight, for tomorrow is St. Nicholas’ Day, and in these overnight hours, on its eve, the old Bishop of Myra makes his way through places like Germany and the Netherlands, Austria and Northern Italy. I’m afraid that by the time most of you read this, it will already be the Sixth of December, St. Nicholas’ Day, and you may be left wondering how your shoes came to be filled with nuts and sweets and other small presents overnight. Well, now you know. (Book of Days subscribers: I apologize for my belatedness; ’tis a busy time of year for your Convivio Bookworks guys.)

This St. Nick is an older version of the jolly fellow we know so well here in the States. The Old World version is not so portly, and he wears the long robes and miter of a bishop, for St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in the fourth century. He was known in that distant land for bestowing gifts upon those who most needed them. As a saint, the Dutch sailors implored his protection during storms as they sailed the high seas, and he is a patron saint of Bari, the Italian homeland of my father’s family.

If you awake on the Sixth to find small gifts in your shoes but also scratching your head, wondering what was up with those bad dreams you had, this may have to do with the presence of St. Nicholas’ dark companion. The companion goes by many names, depending on the region––Knecht Ruprecht, Black Peter, Pelznickel… but he is best known as Krampus: half man, half goat, horned and furry, with an astonishingly long tongue. St. Nicholas concerns himself with the good children. Krampus deals with the naughty ones. Krampus carries chains or birch switches and oftentimes a sack, in which he gathers up the bad children who deserve nothing more than to be carried away. It’s a bit terrifying, but also good fun––especially in the Krampusnacht parades that feature both St. Nicholas and Krampus.

Our local Krampusnacht will take place a bit belatedly (you may be spotting a pattern, though I have nothing to do with the belated date of this one): the American German Club in suburban Lake Worth will be hosting its inaugural Krampusnacht celebration this Friday from 7 to 11 PM. We’ll be there that night and all the weekend that follows with our largest ever pop-up shop, and you can shop our traditional artisan goods for Christmas and everyday, too (including Millie’s Tea Towels), as the somewhat scary Krampusnacht on Friday night evolves into the lovely Christkindlmarkt Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are required, and I’ve just found out that Christkindlmarkt tickets are already sold out, but Krampusnacht tickets are still be available (click here). The folks at the club are telling us that this Krampusnacht is for the adults, not the kids. Take that to mean whatever you’d like. Krampusnacht and Christkindlmarkt are most likely our last public pop-up events for this Yuletide season before Seth and I, too, shift into resting a bit and making our own house as fair as we are able for Christmastime.

St. Nicholas may be the first of the midwinter gift bearers, but there is a long line of others to come over the course of these long dark nights, all depending on the lands in which you live. He and Krampus will be followed over the next few weeks by the Christkindl in Germany, by Sankta Lucia in Sweden, by Father Christmas and Santa Claus, by los Tres Reyes (the Three Kings) in Latin America, and a kind old witch named Befana who travels through Italy sweeping away the remnants of the Christmas season in early January. Ah, but that is far away or long ago, depending on your perspective, and for now, we wish you all good things this St. Nicholas’ Eve. May Krampus keep his distance. Sweet dreams!

CHRISTMAS STOCK-UP SALE
For those of you not around here (or who don’t want to be scared by furry goat creatures on Friday night), there’s the Convivio Bookworks Christmas Stock-Up Sale. Spend $75 on anything and everything in our catalog, and save $10 plus get free domestic shipping: a total savings of $19.50. Just use discount code STREETFAIR at checkout. Click here to shop! We always offer free domestic shipping when you spend $60 –– no discount code is required for that. I think you’ll be amazed at all you’ll find that’s new at our website, especially if you haven’t visited in a while! Locals, you can choose Free Local Delivery at checkout no matter how much you spend… I’ll deliver on my vintage Raleigh bicycle in the 33460 zip code.

Image: “Nikolaus und Krampus,” from a vintage penny postcard produced in Austria, circa early 20th century. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. These two seem pretty happy to be pals. Darkness & Light?

 

Dec 02 2021
Advent, Book of Days Calendar, Krampus, Midwinter, St. Nicholas, The Gift Bearers

Gathering the Holly, or Your December Book of Days

Two days into the last month of the year, and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for December. Last night, we lit our daily Advent candle for the first time, and opened the first window of our Advent calendar. The decorations in our house still revolve around leaves and pumpkins and Indian corn, but we will soon be bringing in the evergreens like fir and holly. Hence our cover star for this month: a watercolor from 1901 called Christmas Eve, which, in those days and for centuries before, was the day to first bring in those festive decorations. We rather like that slow approach, and that building of anticipation. The painting is by Carlton Alfred Smith, who, no doubt, appreciated these things, as well.

We are on the approach to Christmas and to the solstice of midwinter: the nights grow darker and longer, just as they’ve been doing since the solstice of midsummer in June, but now we are approaching the zenith, and the longest night of the year. The midwinter gift bearers will soon be making their appearances in their traditional lands, beginning with St. Nicholas on the night of the 5th, who is accompanied in some of those places by dark companions like the Krampus, who we are about to meet in person. You can, too, if you are local and come see us on Krampusnacht at the American German Club west of town on Lantana Road. Here’s a list of the outdoor pop-up markets where you’ll find us these next couple of weeks before Christmas. If you come, please do say hello and introduce yourself. We have one job this time of year: to dispel the night. We do that with candlelight and with the lights of the season, and we do it with the light from within. A friendly hello is the essential first step.

HOLIDAY NIGHT MARKET & FESTIVAL at SOCIAL HOUSE
Saturday December 4 from 6 to 10 PM at 512 Lucerne Avenue in Downtown Lake Worth Beach. Inspired by traditional European Christmas markets. We’ll be in the outdoor courtyard with a large selection of our Advent and Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas, and some of our textiles from Kei & Molly Designs and Millie’s Tea Towels.

KRAMPUSNACHT at the AMERICAN GERMAN CLUB
Friday December 10 from 7 to 11 PM at 5111 Lantana Road in suburban Lake Worth. Tickets required. It’s the night before Christkindlmarkt and you should get a babysitter, because this one is for the adults. What once was meant to frighten youngsters into good behavior, Krampusnacht in Europe has taken a twist over the decades and become a fun night of mischief and dancing, as the Krampus of German legend rules the scene. Expect to see many Krampuses at this inaugural Krampusnacht celebration! Our largest pop-up shop ever, which will carry over into Christkindlmarkt the following two days, will include Advent candles and calendars, Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas and soaps, Millie’s Tea Towels, our new line of tea towels and reusable bags from Kei & Molly Designs, market bags from Mexico, and more.

CHRISTKINDLMARKT at the AMERICAN GERMAN CLUB
Saturday December 11 from 2 to 10 PM and Sunday December 12 from Noon to 8 PM at 5111 Lantana Road in suburban Lake Worth. A traditional German Christmas market. Tickets required. Our largest pop-up shop ever will include Advent candles and calendars, Christmas artisan goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, Shaker culinary herbs and herbal teas and soaps, Millie’s Tea Towels, our new line of tea towels and reusable bags from Kei & Molly Designs, market bags from Mexico, and more.

CHRISTMAS STOCK-UP SALE
For everyone else, there’s the Convivio Bookworks Christmas Stock-Up Sale. Spend $75 on anything and everything in our catalog, and save $10 plus get free domestic shipping: a total savings of $19.50. Just use discount code STREETFAIR at checkout. Click here to shop! We always offer free domestic shipping when you spend $60 –– no discount code is required for that. I think you’ll be amazed at all you’ll find that’s new at our website, especially if you haven’t visited in a while! Locals, you can choose Free Local Delivery at checkout no matter how much you spend… I’ll deliver on my vintage Raleigh bicycle in the 33460 zip code.

Image: “Christmas Eve” by Clayton Alfred Smith. Watercolor on paper, 1901 [Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

Dec 05 2020
2 Comments
Krampus, St. Nicholas, The Gift Bearers

Greetings from Krampus & St. Nicholas

The 6th of December brings St. Nicholas’ Day, but the 5th brings the Eve of St. Nicholas, the traditional night when St. Nick delivers presents to children in the lands where he is loved… especially Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, and the Netherlands. He is the first of the midwinter gift bearers, wending his way through these darkest nights.

On the Eve of St. Nicholas, the old bishop will make his rounds. Wise children will place their shoes by the chimney before going to bed in hopes that St. Nicholas will fill them with gifts. They’ll set out carrots and hay for his donkey. If they’ve been good, they might wake up on St. Nicholas’ Day to find their shoes filled with fruits and nuts and sweets and small toys. But St. Nicholas does not wander alone; he travels tonight with a dark companion. The companion goes by many names, depending on the region––Knecht Ruprecht, Black Peter, Pelznickel… but he is best known as Krampus: half man, half goat, horned and furry, with an astonishingly long tongue. St. Nicholas, dressed in his bishop’s robes and hat, concerns himself with the good children. Krampus deals with the naughty ones. He carries chains or birch switches and oftentimes a sack, in which he gathers up the bad children who deserve nothing more than to be carried away. It’s a bit terrifying, but also good fun––especially in the Krampusnacht parades that feature both St. Nick and Krampus.

I love the time of the Midwinter gift bearers. Such a beautiful way to make these darkest nights somewhat less dark (despite Krampus). St. Nicholas will be followed over the next few weeks by the Christkindl, by Santa Lucia, by Father Christmas and Santa Claus, by los Tres Reyes (the Three Kings) and a kind old witch named Befana who will sweep away the remnants of the Christmas season in early January.

But that’s all a long ways away. For us tonight here in this little old house in Lake Worth, we will leave our shoes by the bed, which we always do. Our small old home has small old closets, and so we almost always have a couple of pairs of shoes outside the closet––there’s just no place in the closet to put them. I don’t know if St. Nicholas and Krampus will make their way this far from Europe, but chances are good that once we go to bed, Haden the Convivio shop cat will spend some time hunting down her little stuffed animal toys––in particular, Cat in the Hat––carrying them about and making the odd cries that cats make once they have caught their quarry, and maybe tonight she will drop one of them into someone’s shoe, as she is wont to do so many nights. But before those magic overnight hours, we will brew ourselves some tea, or maybe some mulled wine, and we will for sure open a package of Steenstra’s St. Claus cookies, like we do each year on this night. The cookies are speculaas, a type of Dutch cookie made for St. Nicholas’ Eve. They sell them all year long at the Publix bakery in a small cellophane-wrapped package. The cellophane is clear and the box inside is bright orange. The Steenstra family emigrated from the Netherlands to Michigan in 1926, and that’s where the cookies are still made, as they have been for about 90 years now. They taste of almond and warm spices like ginger and clove, and they depict five different scenes about St. Claus (more correctly about St. Nicholas of Myra, the kind fourth century bishop who gave gifts to the poor while they slept). There is St. Claus on a horse (a derivation of that donkey), a boy and a girl (because they like to receive presents from St. Claus), a rooster (because St. Claus starts his day at sunup), an owl (because St. Claus works til sundown), and a windmill (because St. Claus lives in a windmill).

So whether you be visited by St. Nicholas or by Krampus, or by a cat that drops presents in your shoes, tonight something special is bound to happen. Enter the gift bearers onto the midwinter stage––there is good reason to celebrate this night.

Today’s chapter is a reprint of one published on December 5, 2019. It’s been a heck of a week here and the Eve of St. Nicholas has completely snuck up on me. It’s ok; these things happen. I did, however, just check the Publix delivery option for Steenstra’s St. Claus cookies and they did not come up… and so I may have to venture into the store myself to see if they are there. We do have wine, though, and we are stocked up with mulling spices. In fact, we use mulling spices so often during these midwinter nights, you may want to be stocked up with them, too. Here’s a direct link to the Shaker Mulling Spices we sell at our catalog. If you’re local and need some, order using the discount code PICKUP at checkout, which will deduct the $8.50 shipping charge, and I will bring them by to you if you live in the 33460 zip code, or you can come by here for a front porch pick up.

Images: Steenstra’s St. Claus cookies. At the top, a late 19th century or early 20th century Krampusnacht postcard from Germany.

 

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