German Tradition of St Nicholas on the 6th of December

I was born in Germany as my father was in the Army and so I was used to travelling but also embracing different cultures.
On of my fondest happened on the 6th of December..
On the 5th Of December the children in Germany would polish their boots and put them outside their door before going to bed for saint Nicolas to fill during the night, On the morning of the 6th you would wake up early to check your boot. If you was good you would find chocolates, sweets and cakes in your boot but disappointment would come if you were bad as your boot would be filled with twigs and stones... I always got the latter!
Moral of this story is always try to be good or have a parent that doesn't forget to buy the goodies in advance!

You can find more about this tradition on wiki..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas