Will you put your shoes in the window sill tonight?

Most Westerners are surprised to learn that in Hungary, Santa Claus is not really a feature of Christmas proper. Althought the red suited one is a familiar figure to Hungarian children, he takes a back seat to the gift bearing Christ child and his angels on Christmas eve. Indeed, old St Nick is relegated to the early part of December, coming around Hungarian houses only on Mikulas eve. Tonight, December 5, Hungarian children place their shoes on the window sill before going to bed. During the night, the kindly old Saint Mikulas fills their shoes with candy. While this sounds familiar, Mikulas differs markedly from his Western counterpart in that he is helped by a dark side-kick, Krampusz. Krampusz is a horned devil who puts a switch into the shoes of naughty children instead of candy! But this seems to be a very rare occurrence. Indeed, if kids ever get a switch from Krampusz it is spray painted gold and placed among the candy. Chocolates abound on Mikulas day, the most popular being szaloncukor and chocolate Santa figures. Szaloncukor are chocolate covered fondant or jellies, individually wrapped up in decorative gilt foil.