Belgium has adopted the chocolate letters (at least where I live, close to the B/NL border) but they sure were not part of the sweets when I was a kid, or even when my son was a kid. Chocolate figures, yes! Lots of them and often too pretty to be eaten.

Chocolate letters, figures and coins, speculoos, marzepan...

Belgian shops do the most beautiful chocolate figures, made of good chocolate. If you're in Antwerp go to Chocolate Line on the Meir to see them produced in the kitchen of the former royal palace.

I'm sorry to disappoint everybody, but he won't be coming this year.

St Nicholas was bishop of Myra (now Demre). Because of worries about illegal migrants coming through Turkey, Europe will probably close the border to him.

Clearly time for another visit to wonderful Antwerp :).

There used to be fantastic marzipan figures in the banketbakkers here, for Sinterklaas, but they seem to have fallen out of favour. Personally I don't like marzipan, but the rest of the family do, and I would sometimes buy them an appropriate figure if I could find one.

One year we celebrated Christmas with our oldest son and his (now ex-)wife. Middle son had until then insisted on Turkey for Christmas dinner, but our German DIL had other ideas. She ask a local bakker, who she used a lot for her catering business, to make a marzipan turkey for middle son, so he still had turkey for Christmas. It was so beautifully made it was almost too good to eat.

Haven't seen chocolate letters here, but all other kinds of chocolate figures and marzipan and speculoos are typical Christmas sweet treats. And lebkuchen/ gingerbread, of course.

<< St Nicholas was bishop of Myra (now Demre). Because of worries about illegal migrants coming through Turkey, Europe will probably close the border to him. >>

!!!

Odin, I'm familiar somewhat with the Swedish tradition of Santa Lucia, because there was a Swedish settlement 300 years ago in the part of Pennsylvania where I used to live, and local residents celebrated Santa Lucia.

In Italy, Santa Lucia is pictured with a crown of candles, but I've never heard mention of those candles in the celebration of her feast day. However, I don't live in a part of Italy where these traditions are upheld. She's a very beloved saint in Sicily, and also children in northern Italy expect presents from her. We had a good friend from Umbria whose family got gifts from Santa Lucia, and she continued the tradition with her children. I've never heard of anyone else from Umbria who followed this custom, though. Maybe our friend's family was originally from northern Italy.

With regard to chocolate, the Befana (the good witch I mentioned above) usually brings chocolate coins. (When I was a child in the US, Jewish children often got these chocolate coins for Hanukkah.)

When my husband was a little boy, the Befana brought oranges to children, and not much else. I have a very old recipe from my husband's family for a typical Ephiphany sweet (known only in the region where I live.) This recipe has been up-dated by other families, but I always make the old version every year. I realized a few years ago, that all of the ingredients were things that a peasant family would have in the house without buying anything - except orange peel, and obviously the children's oranges provided that!

bvlenci - I'm sure you'll be OK, as Befana won't be affected.

Sinterklaas has arrived safely, and although the Bishop of Myra, he has long since retired to Spain.

We used to get chocolate coins in our stockings as children, along with an apple and an orange.

I thought I would add a sighting of St. Nicholas in 2010 in Regensburg. It is a little know fact that he drives a red tractor. Gary


https://mcchelsea.smugmug.com/Advent...us%20Tag-M.jpg

This week-end we'll send the list of the desired gifts to Saint-Nicolas.

The gifts are already safely stored in the cellar.

Willit: I hope she's heard that Italy has restricted the airspace over Rome!

I for one would not mind receiving a chocolate letter. Sounds delightful.

I find »speculaas« the most addictive. This is how it should be http://www.weltevreten.nl/wp-content...speculaas6.jpg