Make the season bright with Reindeer Knoll - a joyful guide to Christmas traditions, history, activities, and songs. Discover the origins of beloved Christmas customs like decorating trees, Santa Claus, and gift-giving. Learn fun holiday activities like baking cookies, building snowmen, and Christmas crafts. Sing along to classic Christmas carols and songs the whole family will love.
St. Nicholas was a bishop in the 3rd century who became famous for his charity and generosity, specifically towards children. Celebrations of St. Nicholas throughout Europe drew on and merged with older pagan traditions where kids would leave out gifts for traveling gods, like carrots for horses, in exchange for small presents.
In the past, the Netherlands would celebrate Christmas on Dec. 6, so on Dec. 5 the kids would leave out their shoes and wake up to their shoes being filled with treats. This would change over time and eventually lead to children leaving out cookies and milk for Santa instead.
During The Great Depression was a time when many families struggled, Christmas was a bright spot. The families would ask their children to leave out milk and cookies for Santa to thank him for bringing gifts.
Similar to the Christmas Pickle tradition, a theory mentions that leaving milk and cookies out for Santa was a marketing ploy. The dairy industry was struggling in the early 20th century, so how do you raise sales, well by marketing that Santa drinks milk with his cookies. Milk and cookies aren’t the only foods that are left for Santa, according to History, in the United Kingdom and Australia, sherry and mince pies are left out, in Sweden, rice porridge is left out, in Ireland, a pint of Guinness and cookie are left out, in France, a glass of wine is left out, and in Germany, letters are left out instead of treats.