When is St. Nick's Day and why do so many in Wisconsin celebrate the holiday?

Every year, on Dec. 6, children all over Milwaukee wake up to find their stockings filled with goodies from St. Nicholas. The holiday is perfect timing for impatient kids excited for Santa, and, although it's not celebrated everywhere, St. Nicholas Day is especially popular in Wisconsin.

When is St. Nicholas Day? And who is St. Nicholas?

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, St. Nicholas Day is the feast day of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop who is also the patron saint of Russia, Greece and children. His feast day is Dec. 6.

Interesting facts about St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas was noted for his generosity, and his legend was kept alive in Holland, where he was referred to as Sinterklaas, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He was thought to bring gifts to good children and lumps of coal to bad children.  

What countries celebrate St. Nicholas Day?

St. Nicholas' legend eventually would be merged with many other nationalities' traditions to become Santa Claus. But in parts of Europe, including Germany and Holland, St. Nicholas Day remains separate from Christmas.

Places in the United States with Dutch traditions, including Holland, Michigan, and areas of Illinois and Iowa, celebrate St. Nicholas Day, according to the St. Nicholas Center. As for the German variation of the tradition, the holiday is celebrated in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis.

How is St. Nicholas Day celebrated?

In Europe, where the St. Nicholas traditions originated, it's customary to leave shoes or stockings for St. Nick to fill with treats such as oranges, chocolate coins and candy canes.

Many families, though, have made the holiday their own, and children look forward to their own traditional gifts on St. Nicholas Day — including handmade ornaments, old-fashioned toys, Christmas-themed candy and the family's Elf on the Shelf.

Milwaukee-area residents also have discovered to their surprise that St. Nicholas Day is not celebrated everywhere. Kathie Devlin, who grew up in West Allis, learned about the legend of St. Nick in grade school at St. Aloysius, including that St. Nick's is celebrated in cities where large populations of German or Dutch people settled.

And, as a child growing up in southeast Wisconsin, Heather Grams thought St. Nick's Day was a holiday every child celebrated. Then she grew up and moved away. She's lived in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia, and the only people she came across who celebrated the mini-holiday were other people who came from the Midwest.

"It's definitely a Midwest thing," Grams said. "When we lived in other states, my daughter would come home confused because she'd ask other kids what they got in their stockings and they didn't know what she was talking about."

How are St. Nicholas and Santa different?

While St. Nick is based on the legend of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus is an amalgamation of several ethnic holiday traditions and became popular in the United States in the 19th century.

Also, in most places, Santa brings gifts on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. In some places, children stay up late to open their gifts on Christmas Eve; in other areas, children wake up Christmas morning to find the gifts Santa has left either in stockings or under the Christmas tree — or both.

Is St. Nicholas Day a Catholic tradition?

According to the St. Nicholas Center, St. Nicholas Day is celebrated in many Catholic churches, as well as Orthodox and Episcopal churches. However, the holiday is not exclusive to those religions.