St Nicholas Day December 6: Activities & Traditions?

Today December 6, 2010, is St Nicholas Day. It is a holiday that is celebrated mostly in some countries in Europe.
St. Nicholas is the basis of the mythical holiday figure of Santa Claus in the United States. The name Santa Claus is derived from Sinterklaas a traditional Winter holiday figure.

What are the activities and traditions you normally do on St Nicholas Day?
Is this holiday celebrated in the United States or is it just a Europe thing?

To give and not to expect anything in return is the meaning of Saint Nicholas Day. Children especially look forward to the morning of December 6th as they can find sweets and fruits in their boots that they carefully polish the evening before and then place under the window.

When I was a kid, we always celebrated St. Nicholas day on December 6th morning by having our holiday stockings filled with candy and small toys. I liven in Wisconsin back then.

We would get a few sweets and some small wooden toys that my grandfather had made.

The modern Santa Claus is a composite character made up from the merging of two quite separate figures:
The first of these is Saint Nicholas and the second character is Father Christmas, which remains the British name for Santa Claus.

St Nicholas was a real person. He was the bishop of Myra, a town in what is now Turkey. He had the reputation of being very generous, and would secretly give monetary gifts to those in need.