SOUL FOOD:

Lost to many in the holiday bustle between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas is the Feast of St. Nicholas. I discovered the feast in Germany a number of years before I took the Christian faith as my own.

It is celebrated in churches Dec. 5, the eve of the feast. And in a more folklore-like fashion, it is celebrated in German homes where children wait with flushed-faced anticipation for the arrival of St. Nicholas.

The saint is remembered for living out the Scripture, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.”

He is esteemed, as Orthodox bishop Nikolai Velimirovic wrote, for being “a father to orphans, a merciful giver to the poor, a comforter to the mourning, a helper to the wronged, [and] a great benefactor to all.” He is also known as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker because of the many miracles associated with him.

For German children, he is the arbitrator of their deeds. Represented in faux bishop’s attire by an uncle or an older cousin, St. Nicholas reads from his ledger the measure of each child’s deeds recorded during the past year.

Bad deeds are met with gentle rebuke. Good deeds are rewarded with candies, nuts, mandarins and trinkets.

In the Bavarian village of Edelsfeld, where I lived for several years, Santa Claus as we know him had no role at all in Christmas. Christmas in Germany is reserved for the Christkind, the Christ child.

It is he who stealthy slips gifts under the Christmas tree. According to a Protestant friend of mine in the village, this notion was the invention of church reformer Martin Luther, whose aim was to edge St. Nicholas out of the picture.

I can’t say I ever saw his point. Whether in the shape of St. Nicholas or the Christkind or the more modern Santa Claus, all traditions that focus on what we who have plenty get seem to fall outside the true spirit of either the Feast of St. Nicholas or the Nativity of Christ, which Christmas remembers.

As Jeremy Seal, the author of “Nicholas: The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus,” remarked in an interview for NPR, “Gifts just for the sake of giving to our loved ones who have enough may not reflect what St. Nicholas was all about.” And it has nothing to do with what the birth and life of Jesus were about.

These days, cherubic figures reminiscent of Precious Moments figurines replete with wings and halos may represent the Christkind. In a travelogue last year, travel guru Rick Steves mistook the Christmas Angel at the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremburg for the Christkind.

A teenage girl is appointed to play the medieval city’s Christmas Angel each year. She wears a massive wig of blond curls, a golden crown and a white robe adorned in gold with immense wing-like pleated sleeves.

An ambassador for the Christkind, she is not him. In her prologue as the Christmas Angel last year, Rebekka Volland implored her audience: “All listen, hear what the Christ child has to say! ... Those who have ev’rything don’t need your presents. It’s the children of this world and poorer folk who’ll tell you what it means to give a present.”

The example of St. Nicholas is not entirely forgotten. Friday night, around the world, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faithful will observe his feast.

I was surprised to find that St. Jude Thaddeus in Old World Village will not. None of the Roman Catholic churches in the city will.

Old World Village will, though, host a parade led by the saint at 5 p.m. Sunday. There will be hot chocolate and other goodies for the children.

St. Barnabas Orthodox Church, the closest Orthodox church to Huntington Beach, will celebrate the feast from 7 to 8:30 p.m Friday. An icon bearing not only the image of St. Nicholas but also a relic of the saint will visit the church.

The church began in Huntington Beach and met in homes and rented facilities in the city for many years. Its priests, Father Wayne Wilson and Father Michael Reagan, and a number of its members still live in the city and some who don’t surf here.

The church moved nearby to Costa Mesa in order to buy property. For more information about the service marking the Feast of St. Nicholas, or about the church, visit www.stbarnabasoc.org, or call (714) 429-0587.

(As a point of transparency and full disclosure, St. Barnabas is my home parish.)

In recent years, the exemplary Christian life of St. Nicholas has experienced a revival. The St. Nicholas Center in Holland, Mich., is devoted to the saint, as is its website, www.st.nicholascenter.org.

A movie, “Nicholas of Myra: The Story of Saint Nicholas” is in production. You can see a trailer and keep an eye on the film’s release by visiting www.nicholasofmyra-movie.com.

Opportunities abound in this pre-Christmas season for us to follow the benevolent example of St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra. Given the current global economy, they will continue throughout the year.

Many veterans of our recent wars, the poor and the homeless, the elderly, and those in nursing homes could benefit from our generosity and thoughtfulness. The VA Medical Center on Seventh Street in Long Beach is right out our back door. Its phone number is (562) 826-8000.

Beach Cities Interfaith Services is at 525 Main St. The phone number for this agency, which provides food and many other services to those who are homeless or financially struggling, is (714) 969-4462.

Residents of nursing homes are all too invisible and forgotten. Every home in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley has residents who will go without visitors and gifts at the holidays unless someone “adopts” them.

You can find the homes in the Yellow Pages or with a Google search online. If not, drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you names and phone numbers.

From the Feast of St. Nicholas until Christmas, then throughout the year, find a way to love your neighbors in need as you love yourself.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.