We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New year!

Živjo! I'm Anja from Slovenia. I'm 6 years old and I visit kindergarten Škratek Svit in Vodice.
I'm so happy because it's December now, that is a month filled with celebrations, gifts, wide
smiles and wishes. At the beginning of December I wrote letter to St Nicholas! Because I don't know how to write yet, my mother helped me. I only drew a picture of me on snow. In the letter I wished for skier's helmet. I would love to learn how to ski but I don’t have a helmet. If I'll be a good girl, St. Nicholas will visit me on the 5th of December and bring helmet! But I won't be able to see him, because he always comes at night with his beautiful angels and with the scary devils. This is St.Nicholas:

Today I’ll help to decorate our house. I made some ornaments-snowflakes. I’ll put them on our Christmas tree in the living room. On the top of the tree there will be a big star. And underneath the tree we will make Christmas cribs with shepards and sheeps next week . I love those cribs, they are really old, my grandfather made them with his father when he was young.This is how they look like:

Christmas is a family holiday in Slovenia. On the 24th of December we go to church with my parents. We go to church earlier than my grandparents; they go to Church at midnight! I sleep at that time but my grandmother told me, that Jesus was born at midnight…Anyway, when we come home from the Church we have Christmas dinner. My mother and grandmother prepare chicken and potatoes and for dessert we have “potica” that is a traditional Slovenian cake made with walnuts. Here is a picture of it:

After dinner we pray and we go around the house with incense. After that I’m very tired so I go to bed and I try to fall asleep fast because Santa Clause visits good children at night and puts presents underneath the Christmas tree. After we open presents we have breakfast and then we go to Church again. We are together all day, sometimes we go out for a walk or we visit friends. But not everybody does that on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Some people don’t go to church, they are not religious so they usually only eat dinner and exchange presents. I think that the important thing is that the whole family is together. Last day we were talking in kindergarten about St. Nicholas, Santa Clause and Father Frost. I don’t know Father Frost very well. But my mother told me that he also is a good man who brings presents in December. We realized that all those men don’t visit all the children in our group. Father Frost visited my parents when they were young, but they didn’t know the Santa Clause… Strange. Anyway! Children are happy if they get presents and it doesn’t matter from whom the get it, we just have to be good. Here is a picture of Father Frost, in case you don't know him:

And than, there is New Year’s eve! I love it because my mother lets me stay up late at night! I help my mother with dinner; we always make something good, things that everybody loves. Than our friends and family visits us we dance and sing, we watch TV, we play games and we laugh a lot! Few minutes before midnight the countdown begins. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We hug each other; we kiss each other and wish for all the best in the New Year. At midnight there are fireworks everywhere usually we go out to watch. But last year I was to tired, I fell asleep in my mother’s lap. Maybe this year will be different (psssst… that was my last year’s New Year’s wish).

Ok! That is why I love December it is a beautiful month!
Hugs and kisses from Slovenia from all the children in our kindergarten