Celebrate at School
 St. Nicholas VisitsMonica Maas, used by permission |
A wealth of resources for teaching about St. Nicholas is available on this site—crafts, stories, poems, and much, much more.
Especially For Teachers
Stories, activities, and ideas for the classroom
ACTIVITIES • CRAFTS • RECIPES • PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES • PLAYS & SCRIPTS • SONGS • STORIES & POEMS
Studies* with young children (ages 4-7) in the Netherlands show that St. Nicholas encourages positive, sharing behavior:
"One may think that traditions like the Dutch Saint Nicholas tradition makes children materialistic, greedy, and less likely to share with others as they are spoiled with gifts and candy. However, our results clearly show that children in The Netherlands still associate Saint Nicholas with "sharing with others" . . . .
"Significant others, such as family members, friends, and Saint Nicholas, are pre-eminently the people that influence us and that teach us what is good, and what is bad, and what the social norms are in our society. . . . Give Dutch children a coloring picture depicting the attributes of Saint Nicholas (a book, miter, and a staff) and they will give away more of their candy."
* "Staff, miter, book, share: How attributes of Saint Nicholas induce normative behavior" by Janneke F. Joly and Diederik A. Stapel, European Journal of Social Psychology, volume 39, pp. 145-153 (2009). Published online 14 January 2008 in Wiley InterScience.
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