Hopes and fears special Saint Nicolas day

Description of the tool

Before starting to reveal the programme we would like to have a look at the expectations you brought with you to this training course. What do you want to find, discover and bring in this week. You also may have identified things which should not happen during these days. Please write on the round cards all the hopes you have for the course and on the squared cards all the fears you may have. You have 10 minutes for this exercise. Please do it individually and in silence.

Special version for St Nicolas-day
“Now that you have written your expectations we would like you to recall the story of the socks you were offered last night or this morning. These days little children put their socks in front of their door and the next morning they will find a small surprise in it. And yesterday was the day where the person responsible for all these little gifts passed to see all the little and bigger children. Who are we speaking about? Yeah, St. Nicolas – bishop of Myra (Turkey). A lot of legends exist around his person. The most famous is about socks. A very faithful man had three daughters and he was not able to pay for her dowry. He was so desperate that he did not see any other solution then to send his girls on the street to prostitute them. St. Nicolas heard about this and in order to avoid it he throw one night three clumps of gold in the chimney of the family. The gold fell straight into the socks that hanged there to dry.
For the kids who did not behave well his assistant Knecht Ruprecht has the right punishment. And now we have the great honour that after their hard day of work yesterday we can welcome: St. Nicolas and Knecht Ruprecht who will collect your hopes and fears.”

St Nicolas and Knecht Ruprecht collect the expectations and hang them in the Christmas tree (hopes) and on a pile of branches (fears). After that they will summarize them. And because the participants had such a lot of hopes they will get a small present from St. Nicolas.