My lovely wife forgot....so I ended up going to COSTCO and she got me a large chocolate/vanilla swirl soft icecream cone! But, when we got home the mailman arrived and brought a nice registered packet with my last three coins from Roma Auction. So, my wife Judi told me that was my St. Nicholas gift/ problem is I paid for them French have saying for this, "Si la vie" Cucumbor would know.
The French C'est la vie - that's life. But it is used more in English than French with the meaning being the same in both languages.
Gosh, I forgot it was St Nicholas's day. When I was at boarding school in Germany, our shoes would be cleaned and put outside the dormatory at night. In the morning, we would have a small packet of sweets inside each shoe. Provided the shoes were properly cleaned of course. I can say that on the 7th, you wouldn't see dirty shoes withing the whole school.
And since St. Nick was at the Council of Nicaea, I’ll leave a coin of the presider here (just to make this official...) Imperial Rome Constantine I, r. 307-337; Rome Mint, Billon Follis, 20.49mm x 3.3 grams Obv.: IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev.: SOLI INV-I-CTO COMITI, Sol Standing left, holding globe, raising right hand, S left, F right. Mintmark RQ Ref.: SRCV 16098
Some countries in Europe celebrate St. Nick day on Dec.5th. At my house my brother and I would shine/clean our shoes and place them on the window sill after sunset and place a list of some of the gifts we hope to get Christmas morning. After a while we found that the list was gone and some candy and cash were with the shoes. Those were good times. Away from Europe it is mostly a European Catholic tradition.
Its nice to see the more religious aspects. In Germany we also have Christmas as a celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus.