Nicholas? Who was he?

6 December 2014

Well to me, today is Saturday. Small Business Saturday too …. bet many of you didn’t know that! I didn’t until mid-week either. Apparently it exists to support, inspire and promote small businesses on this date and beyond. St Nicholas would have approved, I’m sure. And it’s his feast day today – December 6th – in Western Christian countries. I am not sure what that actually means nowadays but Eastern Christian countries don’t celebrate St Nicholas’ Day until 19th. Perhaps it would have taken him 13 days to get round the other side of the world back then….?

Anyways, the major custom associated with St Nicholas’ Day is children leaving their shoes out in the hope that St Nicholas will place some coins for them overnight. I won £5 on a scratchcard today but I am not sure St Nicholas had a whole lot to do with that….. Come to think of it, I need to check my EuroMillions lottery numbers for last night (clearly, St Nicholas would not have known about such gambling so how he managed to leave coins in children’s shoes across the Western world, heaven knows).

Now, I know about the American Santa Claus, as well as the British Father Christmas but I didn’t know that Santa Claus is derived, in part, from the Dutch Sinterklaas…. I do now! Today, in the offices of FWL, is an exciting day. The tree is down from the loft (or attic, depending on where you live… it’s a loft here) and the decorations are sitting waiting to be unpacked. Unfortunately, the tidying must be completed first before we are allowed to dive in and get festive! Paper to be filed and shredded, books to be re-shelved/re-homed and other ‘de-crapifying’ to be completed. The new 2-in-1 exercise bike and cross-trainer has been constructed so now, there is no excuse for no exercising as there is a mini-gym in the same building!

And with the able assistance of Ma and Pa FWL, the desks and other work surfaces may well be shiny and sparkling before dawn tomorrow. Actually, scratch that…. the task is a little too big even to hope for that!

[Don’t forget to keep an eye out over the course of December for the hidden message in the titles of FWL blogs…. When you think you know, email us so as not to spoil it for others! Lots of good thoughts so far…. but no correct ones!]

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