Today is St. Nicholas Day. In certain European countries, children leave their shoes out for St. Nick, who then fills the shoe with goodies (if the child has been good) or coal and switches (if the child has been bad, with the switches meant to provide a spanking tool to parents). The story gets as weird and complicated as that fat guy with reindeer and chimneys. St. Nick travels with one or more black men, who have gone from being slaves to accomplices as times have changed. Some cultures have it that these men come along to beat the bad children. Apparently, this has evolved into them simply frightening the kid.

We always celebrated this in my family. Whether the tradition came from our time in Germany or whether they brought it with them from their midwestern/German heritage I don’t know. I do remember one year finding some switches in my shoe along with some goodies. No, those switches never found any use.

Anyway, that’s Maggie’s boot filled with puppy, and my shoe filled with switches and coal. Frankly, it could have gone the other way, but I’ll take the hit in the name of art. And no, we haven’t got a new puppy, but I’m drawing a dog a day and not a piece of candy a day.

Categorized as: Drawing