A gift from St. Nick in your shoe

Jeff Taylor. Fot. Sławomir Ostrowski

In Poland, the first day of Christmas for every child is St. Nicholas Day. On the night of December 5th and 6th between 11pm and 6am The excitement, the thrill of waiting for St. Nick!

While you’re sleeping, he is actually in your home! No wonder children can’t sleep that night. Usually, the thought of a man sneaking around the house at night would be fucking scary, but Dec 6 is special.

Of course, there are rules to follow for this night if little children want to receive presents. Most importantly, they must be good and polite. No naughtiness and misbehaving. Xmas/St. Nicholas is a pre-religion for children. When they grow up they’ll use the scary negative term “sinning,” which isn’t “plling your sister’s hair” or “not cleaning your room” but instead such activities as “murder”, “lying” or “masturbation.” Adults desire to go to heaven, a concept too difficult for kids to comprehend and they’re just happy to get little presents in their shoes e.g. chocolate, toy cars, Kinder Surprise and other cheap crap.

In order to get this stuff, children must be good as well as clean their shoes before St. Nicholas arrives. On the other hand, those who are naughty or are too lazy to clean their shoes must be punished. Rules are rules. In America Santa Claus only leaves coal in stockings of bad children, but unfortunately over the years Polish children have been told by their parents that Saint Nicholas takes a healthy dump in the shoes of youngsters who don’t deserve presents.

(łw)