Happy Saint Nicholas Day - belated, of course!

Saint Nicholas Day, 6 December, was yesterday.  So this greeting is clearly late - but no less heartfelt.  Saint Nicholas Day is quite a popular tradition in Switzerland.  You can find a very interesting overview of customs, with photos, throughout the different linquistic areas of the country here.  Because each commune has its own festival, there is no single tradition, other than that 6 December is a date that small children adore. 

At least, small children adore the date if they have been very GOOD children.  If they have not been good children, they are not rewarded.  Indeed, they are "punished," generally by having lumps of coal or charcoal left in their shoes insteads of the sweets or small toys that they would have received if they had been GOOD.  This is because Saint Nicholas has an Evil Twin.  Just as in France, in the French-speaking regions of Switzerland (la Suisse romande), the Good Saint's Evil Twin is known as "Le Père Fouettard" (the Whipping Father) because he carries ... a whip.   Children who have been naughty receive lumps of coal from him.  Children who have been BAD can even receive - gasp - floggings, although I have it on good authority that the whip is more for effect than use these days!

Because of this "effect," there are NO BAD children in Switzerland.  No one wants to receive a flogging.  But, unfortunately, there are children who are sometimes more naughty than they are nice.  Those misfortunate naughty little ones do receive lumps of coal.  How sad!

I am reminded that my beautiful, sweet and precious Princess Butterfly can sometimes, as Sweet Momma M puts it, put on her "naughty pants" by mistake so that she turns from "Princess Butterfly" into "Princess Naughty Pants."

So, please Princess Butterfly, please never put on those "naughty pants" any time close to Saint Nicholas Day or Christmas Day - at the very least.  Please!  Not unless you want to meet Le Père Fouettard, instead of the Good Saint Nicholas!  I don't want for you to get lumps of coal in your shoes ... or in your stockings either!