Saint Nicholas Day | Creative Small Gifts for Kids

Ever since I was a kid, Saint Nicholas Day has been one of my favorite holidays. I loved setting my shoes out by the door the night before, just to wake up and see them filled with goodies! I remember always searching for the biggest pair of shoes I had in hopes that I would get more small gifts inside them. Now as a parent, I am excited to see my kiddos enjoy this special, feast day celebration! However, finding gifts small enough to fit in their shoes is difficult! So this list is a compilation of the best, most creative small gift ideas for kids that I could come up with!

Related Post: 20 Christmas Gifts for Toddlers Under $20

To make this small gift guide easier, I am going to break it up into categories: food/treats, toys, beauty/grooming, and learning. As a mom, I like to give my kids one thing from each category for Saint Nicholas Day. Of course, I also include the traditional orange as well.

If you are unfamiliar with the tradition of leaving an orange/clementine in the shoe/stocking for St. Nick’s Day, there are a few different beliefs behind it.

1. The orange is representative of the bags of gold that Saint Nicholas would drop down the chimneys of poor families to use as a dowry to find suiters for their daughters.
2. It represents ‘giving’. A orange can be divided into segments so that it is easily shareable.
3. It was a special treat during the Great Depression when people couldn’t afford gifts.
4. Oranges were scarce and receiving one as a gift was something very special.

However, whatever the reasoning is behind it, my girls get one orange and one thing from each of the categories below 🙂

Saint Nicholas Day creative small gift ideas for kids:

(Click on images for price/purchase)

Learning gifts/games:

I love to give learning gifts to my kids! They are doing so much learning products that most are perceived as toys/games by most kids. Because of this, kids actually WANT these things for gifts! As a mom, that makes my heart so happy! I love to watch my girls’ minds work as they learn new things!

However, a lot of learning products are too large to fit inside of a shoe for St. Nick’s Day. But, paperback books are easy to roll and slide into the heel of a shoe! This also creates a tube that you are able to slide more gifts down into to fit into the shoe!

Beauty/grooming gift ideas:

Beauty and grooming gifts for kids are always fun. They are gifts that are not toys or candy, but kids still love to receive them! My little girls love getting new hairbands, nail polish, jewelry, etc… And even little boys like to get grooming products like ‘shaving kits’ and décor for their rooms.

PRO TIP: If you are buying scrunchies, bracelets, or necklaces, you can slide them around the paperback book to leave the book tunnel empty for more gifts!

Small toy gifts:

Finding small or collapsible quality toys that will fit into a shoe (or down a book tunnel) is hard! Here are the best toy options that I could find:

Food/treat gift ideas:

Not all treats have to be candy! If you have read my article, How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy | 5 Nutrition Sneaking Hacks, then you know that I am a huge fan of secretly getting my kids to eat healthier foods! Here are some deceitful treat ideas for your kiddos this Saint Nicholas Day!

I hope that this list of creative small gifts for kids is helpful for you this Saint Nicholas Day! Let me know what you think in the comments!