St Nicholas gift for a child: gentle ideas for 6 December

A St Nicholas gift for a child doesn't need to be big: the 6 December tradition mostly fills shoes with treats, an orange, some gingerbread, sometimes a little present. A hooded animal onesie slips in easily alongside them: it gets worn that very evening and keeps them warm until the end of winter. Here's where the celebration comes from, what to give at each age, how to choose the size of a Kids' Plush Animal Onesie or a baby kigurumi, and the precautions to keep in mind on the day.

St Nicholas Day, the children's celebration on 6 December

St Nicholas Day is celebrated on 6 December, the saint's feast day in the Catholic calendar: during the night of the 5th to the 6th, St Nicholas calls at homes and leaves treats for good children (Wikipedia (French), "Saint-Nicolas (fête)").

In France, it's mostly alive in the north and east: Lorraine, Alsace, the Ardennes, Hauts-de-France and the north of Franche-Comté, and more quietly elsewhere, according to the same page. There, St Nicholas traditionally hands out an orange and gingerbread or a brioche in his likeness. He travels on a donkey: in the evening, children put out hay, a carrot or some grain for the animal, and find treats in their place in the morning.

Photo: HerzenSterneBrezeln / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The shoe is the other ritual of the day. In Germany, children put out their freshly cleaned shoes on the evening of 5 December and check in the morning whether they hold presents and treats (Wikipedia). In Poland, they leave them at their bedroom door and mostly find sweets and chocolate in them (Herodote.net, "6 décembre : Nicolas").

St Nicholas doesn't come alone: Père Fouettard, a figure dressed in black, walks beside him in the parades of Lorraine and Alsace to scold the children who haven't been good. With little ones he frightens, you can present him as a character from a play, just like the monsters in their stories.

What St Nicholas gift for a child?

The St Nicholas present is generally more modest than the Christmas one: a few treats and something that brings instant joy. There is one exception: according to Wikipedia, in some families in Lorraine, presents are given on St Nicholas Day rather than at Christmas, or even at both.

Photo: Nicolas Herrmann / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

A selection true to tradition, to adapt to the child's age:

• For everyone: an orange or some tangerines, gingerbread, a brioche shaped like a little man (the Alsatian mannele, pictured above).
• For 3 to 6-year-olds: a book about St Nicholas and his donkey, a colouring sheet of the parade, and an animal outfit to play in and warm up.
• For 7 to 11-year-olds: a board game to bring out on winter evenings, or a hooded onesie for the next kids' sleepover.
• For a baby: a soft outfit for those first-winter photos, since the treats aren't for them yet.

A hooded onesie needs no batteries and no assembly.

The animal onesie, a gift worn all winter

For a child of roughly 80 to 140 cm, the Kids' Plush Animal Onesie is an easy St Nicholas gift: a hooded one-piece in thick fleece flannel, chosen to match the child's favourite animal. The product page offers eighteen styles spread across cat, unicorn, shark, panda, penguin, tiger, dinosaur, capybara, cow, bunny and pig, with ears or horns on the hood and a contrasting tummy.

Two practical details matter for a child:

• Two hidden pockets at the sides, for little treasures.
• An opening at the back, so they don't have to take everything off to go to the loo. It fastens with a zip or buttons depending on the style.

For a child who prefers monsters to animals, the Star Monster Kigurumi comes in kids' sizes (100 to 140) as well as adult sizes (S to XL). It's in black fleece, with a red star hood with white spots edged with felt teeth, a zip from collar to waist, a low zip and two pockets on the hips. The same style dresses a parent and their child, which makes for a family photo on the morning of 6 December. Our article on monster pyjamas for kids shows how to turn them into an ally against bedtime monster fears.

One thing to check before you wrap it: the slippers seen in the Kids' Plush Animal Onesie photos aren't included, the product page points out. The gift is the onesie on its own.

St Nicholas gift for a baby: daytime wear

For a baby, the Baby Animal Kigurumi is chosen by age, from 0–6 months to 4 years, and is worn while baby is awake, not for sleeping. It's a soft, light fleece flannel onesie, lined with the same fabric, with the animal's face on the hood (padded snout, appliqué eyes, sewn-on ears or horns), a zip down the front and fold-over cuffs that cover little hands. Among the animals on offer: panda, lion, fox, koala, giraffe, penguin, dinosaur or little dragon.

At night, the rule doesn't change just because it's a celebration. France's national health insurance (Assurance Maladie) recommends putting a baby to sleep on their back, in their own cot, in a suitable baby sleeping bag, with no pillow, duvet, blanket or cot bumper, in a room at 18–20 °C (ameli.fr, "Comment bien coucher un bébé ?"). So the kigurumi is for the photo and the afternoon snack on 6 December, then you change baby before bedtime. Our guide to matching parent-and-baby pyjamas goes through these habits for first celebrations.

What size for a child of 3, 5 or 8?

For kids' onesies, the size is chosen by the child's height, not their age: two 5-year-olds may need two different sizes. Measure the child standing up, barefoot, then check the chart on each product page:

The two charts don't line up exactly: at 105 cm, a child takes a 110 in the plush onesie and a 100 or 110 in the star monster. The Star Monster Kigurumi has a roomy cut, the same across all sizes. If the child is between two sizes, our article kids' kigurumi: what age, what size, what precautions explains how to decide.

The Baby Animal Kigurumi, according to its product page, is true to size: you take the size that matches the age (0–6 months, 6–12 months, 12–18 months, 18–24 months, 3 years, 4 years).

Precautions for 6 December: treats, candles, fireplace

Two risks come up on St Nicholas Day: small hard treats for the youngest, and flames near a fleece onesie.

Nuts wait until age 5. Anses, the French food and health safety agency, points out that nuts, because of their small size, can cause choking and inhalation accidents in young children; in a 2010 opinion on fruit handed out at school, it recommends not offering them, peanuts first and foremost, to children under 5 (Anses, opinion no. 2010-SA-0132). So the walnuts and hazelnuts on the St Nicholas plate are for the older ones, and hard sweets stay out of reach of little brothers and sisters.

A roomy fleece onesie stays well away from flames. The London Fire Brigade reminds us never to place a candle near anything that can catch fire, clothing included, to keep flames out of children's reach, and presents LED candles as a safer alternative (London Fire Brigade, "Candles"). If the shoe is set down in front of the fireplace or the stove, as in the photo above, the child who comes to fetch it in their onesie doesn't go near a lit fire.

Pick up the packaging. Ribbons, plastic bags and little sweet wrappers end up on the floor on the morning of the 6th: tidy them away before the youngest gets hold of them.

In short

The St Nicholas gift for a child remains a small gesture: an orange, some gingerbread and something that brings joy on the day itself. A Kids' Plush Animal Onesie or a Star Monster Kigurumi fits the bill nicely, chosen by the child's height rather than age; for a baby, the Baby Animal Kigurumi is chosen by age and worn while awake. Keep nuts for the over-5s and fleece onesies away from flames. To keep the magic going until 25 December, our ideas for giving pyjamas at Christmas also cover teens and adults, and every style is in the shop, with free delivery.

Cover photo: Sol Octobris / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)