Wisconsin families cherish their household St. Nick's Day traditions

Whenever I interview Milwaukee-area parents about St. Nick's Day, they get almost giddy to share their families' rituals and traditions.

They're excited to share the celebrations that they have invented as a family. Although tradition holds that St. Nicholas leaves treats for children on his feast day, Dec. 6, the treats he leaves, the container he leaves them in, even the story behind his journey — those are all household-specific.

Since families celebrate the holiday within their own homes, they can tailor traditions to their household tastes, with no accommodations required to preferences by those outside the household bubble. Incidentally, the insular household holiday also makes St. Nick's Day the perfect pandemic holiday — as there's no need to leave the house.

Parents tell stories of the treats their children have come to expect every year. Merton dad Doug Bertrand's kids look forward to wooden toys and red and green Skittles inside of giant plastic candy canes. Wauwatosa mom Jess Koerner's children find chocolate coins, oranges and ornaments left in shoes — along with a note reminding them to be kind from the legendary figure Koerner describes as "the Robin Hood of saints."

Sometimes parents move on from the traditions they grew up with when it comes time for St. Nick to visit their own kids.

Jackie Melka of Milwaukee said St. Nick was a big tradition in her family when she was growing up. Every Dec. 6, she and her brothers would race to the living room to see what had been left in their hand-sewn stockings.

While Melka's own daughter still gets many of the same things in her stocking — candy, small toys, fruit — one tradition has gone by the wayside.

"We used to get crackers and a can of smoked oysters in our stockings," said Melka. "My mom said it was because of my dad's strange taste in foods and because they fit in the stocking nicely."

In some households, St. Nick is the bringer of the family's Elf on the Shelf. In others, St. Nick kindly accommodates work and school schedules by visiting on a weekend when Dec. 6 falls on a weekday.

In Doug Bertrand's household, the lore goes that St. Nick arrives wearing a green suit and riding a moose — to differentiate from Santa's red suit and reindeer.

Milwaukee-area families also feel  their St. Nick's Day celebrations are special because, as it turns out, the mini-holiday isn't celebrated everywhere.

A story from the Journal Sentinel archives notes, "Like the fish fry and frozen custard, the celebration of St. Nick's Day, though not exclusively a Milwaukee tradition, is especially strong here."

Kathie Devlin, who grew up in West Allis, remembers learning in her childhood Catholic school that US cities with big German populations — like Milwaukee — celebrate St. Nick's Day.

When Heather Grams was a child growing up in southeast Wisconsin, she thought everybody celebrated St. Nick's Day, but she learned differently as an adult when she lived in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. Now, back in Milwaukee, her own child receives gifts from St. Nick.

For some Milwaukee-area families, St. Nick's Day will be unaffected by the pandemic. In a year that has seen many holiday celebrations and traditions altered by quarantines, illness and social distance requirements, a holiday that's already centered around staying at home will be welcome.

However, for other families, the pandemic will affect even the smallest holidays.

Jackie Melka said her daughter's St. Nick's Day "won't be as exciting as usual due to COVID" because they're staying at a friend's house as Melka awaits 14 weeks of unemployment insurance.

Even so, Melka said, "It's definitely not going to be the same, but I'm still determined that she'll have the best St. Nick's possible."

Contact Amy Schwabe at (262) 875-9488 or amy.schwabe@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @WisFamilyJS, Instagram at @wisfamilyjs or Facebook at WisconsinFamily.