Turning a Chocolate Santa into St Nicholas!!

Each year for part of our St Nicholas traditions i buy these little cheap Santa Chocolates and then convert  them to St Nicholas by cutting out red paper into a Mitre shape and use gold (or other colours if none is available) pipe cleaners for a Bishop's crook. I then stick them on with sticky tape.

This is a seriously quick and easy craft BUT very effective. In fact our little children have not see this 'transformation as I usually do it after they are in bed and so this morning Myffwyn saw the empty boxes I had left out (results of a too tired mummy last night) and was surprised that the picture was of Santa and not St Nicholas as she was telling her brother.

This year of course I could not find any red paper for the mitre at 11pm on the Eve of St Nicholas and so my sweet daughter coloured in some paper for me. I just measure across the front of the head and then make it double length to fold in half. Then I simply shape it to look like a bishops mitre and then draw a cross on it.

Stick it on with some sticky tape by wrapping around the hear . Next measure the length bishops crook you want cut it and bend the pipe cleaner, stick this on with sticky tape too and you have a completed St Nicholas.

These can be done with any size but due to the cost of doing 14 for our family and the availability too, we use small chocolate santa's. In fact I have only seen larger ones at a town about an hours drive from us at $7 each, as opposed to 8 in a pack for $2, which I can handle. The children still get the idea and it does not break the bank.

So there you have it how to turn an santa into a liturgically inspired St Nicholas!!

Blessings to you and your homes,