Saint Nicholas Day

For those of you unfamiliar with Ukraine and Ukrainian traditions,December 19th is Saint Nicholas Day in Ukraine.  This is the main gift giving day rather than Christmas.  Ukraine's Christmas is not until January and from what I read they do not typically give gifts other than maybe receiving an article of clothing.  Today, we had presents for the kids to open that included candy we purchased at a Eastern Ukrainian store in Nashville.  I love that this store is nearby, because we can go there to get food items that our kids might be missing....such as borshch.  They actually make it there and sell it by the cup or bowl..anyway...back to our day.  The kids opened a couple presents before we went to church.  This evening we read "The Spider's Gift" which is a Ukrainian folktale about spider's spinning webs on a Christmas tree and the webs turn into silver.  After reading the book, the kids put tinsel on our Christmas tree.  Then together, we made our own Christmas spiders!  It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed it.  Zhenya said he didn't get presents in Ukraine, only candy.  So, getting a game and a toy along with the candy was exciting for them.  They have been quite hyped up lately with excitement.   It is so much fun to see how much they are enjoying their Christmas season.