What snack do you leave out for Father Christmas?

[sarah.miller]

Ok, quick international query here. In your part of the world, what snack do you leave for Father Christmas ( aka Santa, aka santa klas, aka St Nicholas) and his reindeer ( or other helpers) on Christmas eve. You know the one that when you were very small you hoped would have been half eaten when you looked in the morning thus proving the exsistance of the Fat Man.
In my house when I was small it was a carrot for the reindeer and a biscuit for the Fat Man, however I believe a mince pie and a small sherry is more traditional round here (in England).
How about in the US, what about Holland? Are mince pies a world wide thing or just a British thing.

SArah

[Gilby]

Milk and cookies is typical here.

[Murde Mental]

Carrots.

[fexnix]

We give him porridge. It´s an old tradition.

[James_Potter]

You guys are weird. All I leave him is a nice cold beer.

[Catboy]

Milk and Cookies, One year i left him a Spam Musubi, and "Father" loved it.

[FatDave]

Irn Bru and a carrot for Rudolph.

[DK]

rat poison in the milk and cookies with razor blades in them

SANTA is SATAn

[munimanpete]

A carrot or two for the Reindeer
A couple of biscuits and a glass of milk to keep the fat man going

[James_Potter]

Originally posted by DK
rat poison in the milk and cookies with razor blades in them

SANTA is SATAn

Yeah, well, he gives me presents, so I care not if he's the devil.

[Murde Mental]

SANTA is SATAn

If you were infront of me at this given time, I sir, would slap you.

[Catboy]

Originally posted by DK
rat poison in the milk and cookies with razor blades in them

SANTA is SATAn

How can you not like Santa!?!?!
If you were infront of me at this given time, I sir, would punch you.

[DK]

da*n! people are getting all upset over santa is satan... we humans use a thing i like to call sarchsam

[Catboy]

Originally posted by DK
we humans use a thing i like to call sarchsam

And we humanoids use a thing called spelling.

[Murde Mental]

I don't

[Klaas Bil]

Originally posted by sarah.miller
what about Holland? We don't leave anything for Santa Claus. He is called Kerstman (literally Christmas Man) over here. We celebrate Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) on 5 December with presents. In the days or weeks before 5 December, children (and some adults) set a shoe inside the house next to the chimney. In the shoe they leave something for the horse (not reindeer) that Sinterklaas rides on atop the roofs. The next morning, they hope to find a little present in the shoe, in which case the 'something' is gone.

OK now the answer to the original question: what they leave in the shoe is usually a carrot, it could be hay as well but most kids cannot find hay. And a bowl of water, also for the horse. Sinterklaas is a saint so that may explain why nothing is left for him.

Klaas Bil
(I share my first name with Sinterklaas)

[DK]

woh neads spealling! i no shur dont

[lleberg]

http://www.guldkorn.com/bilder/gkjul96/gkjul9601_02.jpg
A porridge made from rice and milk, that you eat with cinnamon, sugar and milk, and it tastes sweet. :)

Edit: And this is in sweden.

[Unitik908]

see you gotta go with dough flats and nilk for santa and glitter mised with oatmeal for his reindeer, that what we made in kindergarden. becuase everyone know reinderr like to eat glitter




POW

[JJuggle]

We leave milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. My daughter stopped believing last year, but I insist on it anyway.

[Homerbot]

hmm... the little girl in the commercial shows that cheese is the great equalizer




we leave milk, cookies, and sometimes spread "reindeer food" on the snow outside

[Checkernuts]

When I was a kid we did the milk and cookies with a carrot.

[bugman]

Originally posted by Klaas Bil
We don't leave anything for Santa Claus. He is called Kerstman (literally Christmas Man) over here. We celebrate Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) on 5 December with presents. In the days or weeks before 5 December, children (and some adults) set a shoe inside the house next to the chimney. In the shoe they leave something for the horse (not reindeer) that Sinterklaas rides on atop the roofs. The next morning, they hope to find a little present in the shoe, in which case the 'something' is gone.

OK now the answer to the original question: what they leave in the shoe is usually a carrot, it could be hay as well but most kids cannot find hay. And a bowl of water, also for the horse. Sinterklaas is a saint so that may explain why nothing is left for him.

Klaas Bil
(I share my first name with Sinterklaas)

All this time I thought Santa had to make it around the entire world in one night. Now find out he hasat least 2 nights! That explains everthing. Not only that, but he has horses pulling some of the load, the Reindeer don't have to do all the work. I'm sure some PETA type group were on his butt for overworking the reindeer, so he had to make some consesions.

[bugman]

Originally posted by JJuggle
We leave milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. My daughter stopped believing last year, but I insist on it anyway.

Just explain the "As long as you believe you receive" rule.:D

Being that I come from a long and proud line of Klaus's I still believe.

[munimanpete]

Originally posted by Homerbot
we leave milk, cookies, and sometimes spread "reindeer food" on the snow outside

You have snow on Christmas? Wierdos - Christmas is a great time to go to the beach

Originally posted by JJuggle
My daughter stopped believing last year

Sad moment in time when a child stops believing Santa makes all the presents himself, and comes to realisation that he has elf helpers...

[sarah.miller]

So Mince pies for the Fat Man would seem to be just a UK thing.
Is this because Mince Pies are just a UK thing?

If you don't know what I'm talking about try here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A663626
for a recipe and breif history.

SArah

[wobbling bear]

foie gras for "Père Noël"
foie gras for "Mère Noël"
+ three glasses of Madiran (red wine)

why three glasses?
... well now you know why reiindeer have red noses!
(ask Rudolf)

bear

(note: actually my grand-grandmother's name was "Noëllie" and I really loved that when I was a kid!)

[total uni]

most of the time i leave a trip wire and an alarm for santa. "father" got pissed.

[dubmuni2004]

I leave out an atkins diet bar, and a slim shake. The guy looks like he needs to loose a few pounds. I mean, he has to go down chimneys ya know, you would think he would be skinny.

[Orange]

Originally posted by fexnix
We give him porridge. It´s an old tradition.


Yeah, porridge and a glass of milk I think.

[me7777]

I used to leave a mince pie and milk for the big man, and a carrott for rudolf...

HEY, I think i might do it tonight just for fun.

[GILD]

speaking of mince pies
we have them in SA but that'll be a hold-over from our (british) colonial past
i'm very aware of the tradition that u should never refuse the first mince pie offered to u in the season
only problem this year is that it's Xmas-eve allready and i still haven't been offered one!
:(

[yobaroba]

Ileave mince pies, a glass of warm milk and a gingerbread man. there was a funny chain letter going round that calculated that santa would need something like 220,000 raindeer, and if he drank all the cherries and brandy that people left him he would be dead from too much alcohol. also, if he only has one day to deliver his presants, he would go at sometyhing like 670,000,000 miles per hour, at which speed, he would be nothing but a red fury lump at the back of his sleigh.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[UniBrier]

Milk, cookies, and 8 carrots (9 if its foggy).


Abby got a bag of what looks to be oatmeal and sparkles with the instructions:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home


We're leaving out a unicycle too in case Santa needs a little diversion from his busy night.