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I grew up with both, and other than the day there weren't a whole lot of differences. We always got an ornament in our St. Nick's stocking, but not in Xmas stocking. In St. Nick's stocking, there was usually one expensive-ish gift (Jewelry, clothing, video game etc) while nothing in that range was in xmas stocking.

We got candy in both. Little toys etc in both. My mom LOVES gifts and stockings in particular (she's sending both me and my son a St. Nick's stocking and will also stuff a stocking for both of us and my DH for Xmas and has god-knows-how-many gifts for him already.

I'm planning on doing all the X-mas things in St. Nick's stocking - holiday PJ's, holiday book, ornament. 1 toy so I can see him get really excited. Eventually I'll add candy and holiday movie.
X-mas stocking will mostly just be candy (puffs this year, maybe pouches if i need to fill it) and little things I don't feel like wrapping and probably a stuffed animal. Maybe also boring, necessary clothes like socks which are such a bummer to unwrap.

We do both, since I grew up with St. Nick and DH grew up with a stocking on Christmas. There isn't a whole lot of difference between them at this point. He gets some treats and small toys for each holiday. We use the same stocking, just empty it out before Christmas.

I would do a shoe for St. Nick and a stocking for Santa to differentiate.

I'm planning to do St. Nick's as a gift of new shoes, because they're needed (I buy one pair per size until they're worn out, and the current ones are nearly shot), and maybe candy/fruit. I think we'll set out the old shoes and I'll replace them with the new ones overnight.

I hesitate to make St. Nick's about presents because Christmas and birthdays feel kind of nuts even though we look keep them really small in scale. I figure shoes plus some edible treats keeps the 'precedent' low-key!

@LindsayInNY: he's only 3, so distinguishing between the two hasn't really been an issue yet. I'm not quite sure what we'll say.

@LindsayInNY: we had a lot of issues to work out over how we'd celebrate holidays since DH and I grew up doing it completely differently. St. Nick? Presents under the tree before Christmas? Wrap Santa gifts? We just got the plan hashed out, now we can start coming up with explanations

@LindsayInNY: The new shoes are not my idea, I got that from a Catholic blogger. (Carrots for Michaelmas is her site, if you want other liturgical year-type ideas.)

My LO is 5, and explaining the differences is easy because we don't technically "do" Santa. (But I'm not a killjoy, I swear!) St. Nicholas was a real person, so we read his biography and celebrate with Speculoos cookies on his feast day (we're going to try making them this year, but I'm not above buying them from TJ's!), and Santa is a fictional character that we read about in picture books. We do have stockings, but we fill them for each other on Christmas Eve. I do LO's after he goes to bed so it's still a surprise in the morning.

I figure if I make the saint's days/big feast days fun and festive, I can safely ignore Santa and LO will never feel deprived of holiday magic. There are plenty of fun things to do with small children in Advent--we've got an Advent wreath (electric candles, so LO "lights" the appropriate candle(s) each night at dinner) and I let him add an element to our creche every day. St. Lucia's feast day is when we'll put up our lights. And we'll keep celebrating Christmas for a while after Christmas Eve/Day, too--I think we'll do a "Twelfth Night" party this year, although I still have to figure out what we're doing besides eating cake! I guess that sounds kind of involved when I write it out, but really, it's maybe a few minutes every day for the wreath/creche (and he really looks forward to these things, so it's a fun few minutes!), and we'd put up our lights and make cookies anyhow. The calendar simply gives those activities more meaning and provides all the explanations for me. Anyhow, I think your LO is still a baby, but maybe these are some things you might like to do in the future!

@T.H.O.U.: December 5, the feast day of St. Nicholas is December 6.

@LindsayInNY: I really don't recall an explanation for the difference between St Nick and Santa. But we only got our stockings from St Nick. We always got a huge apple and orange along with some candy and trinkets.

I really like the idea of new shoes and an ornament. Unfortunately, I don't have any shoes I want LO to get rid of right now I need better planning. She does however need some new "dress" shoes. We've done her stocking in the past from St Nick, but I'm really trying to think how I can make this shoe thing work and save the stocking for Christmas. I also really like the holiday PJ from St Nick - but LO needs hers for Friday for a school field trip

We skipped stockings this year and got new shoes and ornaments along with a few other things. DH was really not on board this year.

St. Nicholas left a set of nativity window clings, religious Christmas stickers, some gingerbread men peeps and a candy cane in LO's shoes. We read a little story and look at a St. Nicholas prayer card. We treat Santa and St. Nick as separate. She still gets a regular filled stocking on Christmas. It's difficult for me to reign it in, but I just wanted a few little treats for today. There's so much going on this time of year for us. I think as she gets older we'll just do the oranges and candy kinda thing.