If you’re in to the old-fashioned style of Christmas, maybe consider taking up this Dutch tradition on Christmas Eve.
The Netherlands are one of the original places that Saint Nicholas Day was celebrated and they were the first to come up with the whole stocking idea. Except in Holland, the kids all wore little wooden clog shoes, so instead of hanging up their smelly socks along the chimney, they just laid out their wooden clogs.
They would leave their wooden shoes out in the foyer or near the chimney on Christmas Eve, then Sinterklaas would stop by their homes and leave them surprises in their shoes. If they had been naughty little kids, they would get nasty pieces of black coal in their wooden clogs. If they had been good little boys and girls, they would receive wonderful little tiny presents, tucked into their shoes. Pretty cool tradition, right?
If you want to teach your own kids a bit about the history of Christmas, you can grab a simple kids book about Dutch Christmas from the library, then make each of your kids their own little felt clogs for Christmas Eve this year!
These are super easy to make and could be a fun way of occupying your children with arts and crafts, while also keeping their education going, even while they’re on holiday break! Just have them pick out their favorite color of felt, then have them stand on top of it. Trace around their feet with a pencil, then set them to work cutting out their shoe bases.
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IMAGES: REPINY
After they’ve done so, just use those little oblong felt feet to make the sides of the shoe. Lay them next to each other and cut out two more pieces of felt, twice the length of one child-sized foot (or long enough to wrap around the entire outside of the foot piece).
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IMAGES: REPINY
After you have these two strips, pin one strip to the heel and wrap it around to cover the sides and toes. Pin the edges.
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IMAGES: REPINY
Then grab an extra large needle so your kids won’t accidentally hurt themselves, help them thread it with some thick colored yarn, and show them how to carefully sew the edges of their felt clogs together.
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They won’t really be wearing these, so the stitches don’t need to be perfect! How cute are these little felt shoes?!
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