Overview
- Children set out cleaned shoes on the evening of December 5, which are typically filled on December 6 with sweets, nuts, fruit and small presents.
- Reporting revisits the core legends, including gifts slipped through windows or down chimneys into stockings, and notes an older paper‑ship custom linked to Nikolaus as sailors’ patron that later shifted to shoes.
- Regional companions and related figures feature prominently, with Knecht Ruprecht and Krampus as stern foils to the giver, while Perchten appear during the Rauhnächte and Klausen/Bärbele events cluster around the feast in the Alpine regions.
- Contemporary practice includes community gatherings such as a discussion evening in Wanfried with a deacon portraying Nikolaus, and local accounts of women taking on the role for kindergarten visits and house calls.
- Traditional farmers’ sayings tie Nikolaus weather to the coming winter, and with forecasts pointing to widespread rain in many German cities, outlets note the lore’s appeal but stress meteorologists deem such rules unreliable.