Saint Nicholas

First Take Friday - Episode #62
Saint Nicholas
Written by Jonathan Brader

Tale of the Tune:
When I was a kid, St. Nick’s Day was a fun sneak peak of Christmas. I remember getting oranges and maybe pajamas on St. Nicholas Day, but that memory could be from a movie. Not sure. Anyway, I have fond memories of St. Nick’s Day, but you don’t hear too much about it nowadays.
 
For those of you who don’t know, St. Nicholas’ Day is celebrated on December 6th. The night of December 5th, kids can place their shoes by the fireplace, or near the door to ones home. Some traditions include leaving some hay and a carrot for the horse of St. Nick, inside of the shoe. When St. Nick drops by your home, the horse eats the carrot and hay and St. Nick leaves some coins and/or a treat of some kind in the shoes. It makes for a magical morning on the 6th (shout out to Jenny and Lauren – Happy Birthday!)
 
This song started out as an email to a colleague who lives in Vermont. She drove home to a winter wonderland last week – close to 25 inches of fresh powder.  I inquired about the snow in the email. As I was writing the email, I thought I could turn this into a song somehow. This is the result. I imagined a lot more guitar work on this one, but that will come with the studio version.
 
Merry Christmas!
 
Thanks for watching/listening.
 
JB