This week, Humboldt will celebrate St. Nikolaus Tag on December 6. It's a German tradition to celebrate St. Nikolaus, and have him come and visit children and remind them to be good - at least until Christmas.
But it's a day and a celebration that I had never heard of until I moved to Humboldt, and I grew up just an hour away from here.
It's funny how Christmas traditions can vary from place to place, country to country, and even region to region.
For instance, in Canada and England, Christmas Day is often when people hold their holiday feasts and celebrations, and when Christmas presents are opened. But among Icelanders in the Wynyard area, it's Christmas Eve when the big party is held.
Luckily for me, because my father is of Icelandic descent, we celebrated Christmas Eve, and because my mother is of English blood, we celebrated Christmas Day and Boxing Day. That's three whole days of merriment, which was and still is, pretty awesome.
But there's a part of the Icelandic culture of Christmas celebrations that I wasn't really aware of until recently - the Icelandic Christmas Lads or Jólasveinar.
I had heard, vaguely and mostly from in-laws, about these little creatures. Men named Pot-Licker and Sausage Stealer. But just what they were was finally explained to me earlier this year.
The Jólasveinar are the offspring of two trolls named Grýla and Leppalúði. Grýla, possibly the scariest creature I've ever heard tell of, would come down from the mountain she lived on and apparently steal and eat bad children, accompanied by the Yuletide Cat, her pet. If stories like that didn't scare children into being good, I don't know what would.
Anyway, as the story goes, the couple of ogres had 13 children, all boys, who were by all accounts not as brutal as their mother, but far from angelic.
During the Christmas season, one of them comes down from the mountain each night, starting December 12.
First is Sheep-Cote Clod, who harasses sheep. Then Gully-Gawk, who tries to steal milk from the cow shed. Third is Stubby, who is abnormally short, and steals pans to eat the crust left on them. Fourth is Spoon-Licker, who does what his name implies. He is apparently very skinny.
The fifth to visit is Pot-Scraper, who steals leftovers from pots, and he is followed by Bowl-Licker, who hides under beds, waiting for someone to put down their bowl, which he steals.
Seventh in line is Door-Slammer who, you guessed it, likes to slam doors at night. Eighth is Skyr-Gobbler, who likes to eat skyr, an Icelandic dish much like yogurt.
Ninth is Sausage-Stealer, who likes to visit the smokehouse, and he's followed by Window-Peeper, possibly the creepiest of the trolls, who looks in windows for things to steal.
Eleventh is Doorway-Sniffer, who has a big nose he uses to sniff out Icelandic brown bread (which is made with molasses and is quite delicious), and twelfth is Meat-Hook, who uses a hook to steal meat.
Finally, there is Candle-Stealer, who follows around children to steal their tallow candles, which he then eats.
On Christmas Day, the lads return to the mountain and their mother, but not before (at least in modern times) leaving presents in the shoes of good children by the windowsills. If they're bad, they get a potato.
People in Iceland today still leave shoes out, to be filled by the Christmas lads.
That part of the tradition didn't carry on when my family moved to Canada, at least not in the generations born here. But anything that extends the Christmas season to 13 days is fantastic in my books. I might have to put out my shoes this year, and see if they'll make the trip to Canada.
