Today is my daughter Niki's name day. May God grant you many, many blessed years to come! I love you with all my heart!!!One of my brother's brought this icon back for Niki from Bari, Italy a few years ago. (The relics of Saint Nicholas were moved to Bari from Myra in 1087.)
One of my favorite websites is the St. Nicholas Center. I visit it every year to re-tell the story of Saint Nicholas to my kids. We explore the website and talk about Niki's patron saint and also the story of Santa Claus. It is an invaluable source.
A tradition in our family is to attend Liturgy on our name days (if offered) and then celebrate with a special dinner, reading/talking about our saint, and eating a special name day cake. Our focus is on the story we tell our children about their saint. How can their saint be a role model for them? How can they emulate their saint today? Why is it important to strive to do God's will and not our own?
One tradition we have unique to Niki's name day is we put up our Christmas tree every year (for about the past 5 or 6 years) on December 6th. Then we take it down on Theophany - January 6th.
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