Sinterklaas!

[Hert123]

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share with you this awesome Dutch holiday: Sinterklaas! It's a national holiday, originally intended for children so they would behave. Santa Claus was actually based of Sint Nicolaas (Sinterklaas)!

 

Short introduction to Sinterklaas:

 

Sinterklaas is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop's alb and sometimes red stola, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold-coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top.

 

He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands, the horse is called Amerigo, and in Belgium, it is named Slecht Weer Vandaag, meaning "Bad Weather Today".[2]

 

Sinterklaas carries a big, red book, called The Book of Sinterklaas, in which is written whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

 

 

We celebrate Sinterklaas every year on December 5th. I usually celebrate it with my entire family from my mothers side but this year we decided to keep it small and keep it between my parents, my sister and I. We got each other gifts and the unwrapping party could begin. Who doesn't love getting presents?

 

I got the first book of a Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin (in English!), a chocolate letter, a set of drawers for my IKEA closet, chocolate to make chocolate milk from, a pair of socks, a perforator and stapler (including staples), a new game for the Wii and new batteries for the controllers of the Wii and sensor bar for the Wii. I'm really happy with all this stuff, especially with the book as I'm in love with Game of Thrones and have been wanting the books for quite some time now and with the Wii stuff as it has been collecting dust for over a year now. Maybe that will change now that it actually works properly now! :D

 

If you're Dutch, do you celebrate Sinterklaas? If you're not Dutch, have you ever heard of Sinterklaas and what's do you think of it? Do you celebrate Christmas instead? (We have that here too, but we don't do presents then, we just have a jolly time at a restaurant :) )

 

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Tess

[sonderlust]

That was really interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[butterflybaby8628]

I am not Dutch but I have heard of Sinterklaas before! I didn't really know any details but my favorite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street. Not sure if you've seen it but in the beginning a little Dutch girl goes to see Santa Claus and her mother explains she's adopted, doesn't know any English but she insisted she had to see Santa Claus at Macy's. Then Santa and she sing a song about Sinterklaas. I have no idea what the song is exactly because I don't speak Dutch but I watched that movie so many times that my younger sister and I used to run around the house singing it incessantly.  :happydance:  Fond memories... Thank you for sharing your holiday traditions. It's nice to learn more about Sinterklaas, although now I'm wondering why since the invention of the internet I never thought to look more into it! SMH 

[WhiteWolf]

While I'm not Dutch, I enjoy learning about the holidays of other places. I haven't heard of Sinterklaas until now, so thank you for sharing! I celebrate Christmas, and our holidays sound very similar.

 

For any readers who Jewish, Happy Hannukah!

[faerie1811]

I've heard of Sinterklass before but didn't know a whole lot, so thanks for sharing! When I was taking German in high school, we celebrated a day (which I don't remember what it's called but I think the it's on the 6th) when we left our shoes in the hallway and Santa would leave candy in them. My family usually opens presents on Christmas Eve and get Santa's gifts Christmas morning. Then we go to my grandparents' house and play a gift exchange game with the extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) and eat a lot. My mom's side of the family stopped giving presents all year (birthdays and Christmas) a few years ago and we take turns hosting/planning events/vacations instead. 

[pulpfreeoj]

After reading your thread and looking up Sinterklaas more, I wished a Dutch friend of mine a happy one and they said that it's on the fifth (I had asked if I was too late) and that it's "a holiday for kids but thanks anyway!" 

 

But they're a bit of a year-round Grinch anyway, haha.

[Marae19]

Yeah, I love Sinterklaas! And you missed out on sharing the best part. I mean, 'Het Sinterklaasjournaal' is just a classic!

Het Sinterklaasjournaal is litterally a (week-)daily newsshow all about what Sinterklaas is getting up to (literal translation is 'The SinterklaasNews'. Like the Big book of Sinterklaas gets stolen, and oh no, will we still get pakjesavond (= present night, basically the 5th of december when all the presents are there) now that the big book has been stolen. Or maybe the big steamboat (yes, he enters Holland through a steamboat, called Pakjesboot 12 (present boat 12, I have no clue what happened to the first eleven...) with all the presents on it went back to Spain, and now nobody will get presents, how will we ever save pakjesavond? (Basically, every year the plot is something along the lines of 'we might not get presents, oh no! Oh, it's the fifth now and everything turned out just a-okay c: )

And of course the chocolate letters. That's litterally a bar of chocolate in the form of a letter in the alphabet. You usually get the letter corresponding to the intial of your first name (in my case the M). Once the plot of Het Sinterklaasjournaal was that the bad guy hated Sinterklaas, because his name started with an I, and that's the smallest letter! (though it's a lot thicker than the M to give it the same amount of chocolate, but this is a recurring debate... -.-)

 

Anyways, I always celebrate it twice, once with my mum and brother (and sometimes his girlfriend, but she's in Indonesia now), and once with my dad and brother (and sometimes girlfriend). Before my parents got a divorce, we'd celebrate it around the fifth (on a Saturday, because then we'd be able to play with our presents on Sunday without actually having to go to school), but now they're divorced I usually celebrate it with one parent in a weekend around the fifth, and with the other around Christmas, so that it's not too busy in one weekend. This year, however, my brother will leave for Indonesia on the 17th, so he won't be here on Christmas. Which resulted in celebrating with my dad on the 4th, and with my mum on the 6th.

 

Now, for the presents:

With dad: A set of pans, a roasting tin, a cake-cooing rack and a chocolate letter M.

With mum: A rolling pin (which is fancy, it's made of olive wood, so pretty!), the book 'Things Explainer' by the guy who makes XKCD, a cute mug with the text 'Shut up, I'm writing!', and a chocolate letter Z (they were out of M's).

[.Brianna.]

I actually just learned about Sinterklaas this year! I live in the US so we celebrate Christmas, but a good friend grew up in The Netherlands and she introduced all of us to the tradition this year and played some of the children's songs for us.

 

It sounds like you had a lovely holiday though! Enjoy the book - one of my favorites!

[Hert123]

That was really interesting! Thank you for sharing!

No problem! I love to "teach" people the traditions of our small country!

 

I am not Dutch but I have heard of Sinterklaas before! I didn't really know any details but my favorite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street. Not sure if you've seen it but in the beginning a little Dutch girl goes to see Santa Claus and her mother explains she's adopted, doesn't know any English but she insisted she had to see Santa Claus at Macy's. Then Santa and she sing a song about Sinterklaas. I have no idea what the song is exactly because I don't speak Dutch but I watched that movie so many times that my younger sister and I used to run around the house singing it incessantly.  :happydance:  Fond memories... Thank you for sharing your holiday traditions. It's nice to learn more about Sinterklaas, although now I'm wondering why since the invention of the internet I never thought to look more into it! SMH 

 

I've looked it up and I actually do know the movie (and the song ofcourse!) - The movie isn't really representative for Sinterklaas but you kinda get an idea. We actually have quite some Sinterklaas movies, one of them being 'Het Paard van Sinterklaas' which roughly translates to 'Sinterklaas' Horse' and is about a little Chinese girl moving to the Netherlands and learning about Sinterklaas!

While I'm not Dutch, I enjoy learning about the holidays of other places. I haven't heard of Sinterklaas until now, so thank you for sharing! I celebrate Christmas, and our holidays sound very similar.

 

You should look up more about Sinterklaas if you'd like to learn because what I said is really really basic, there's so much more to Sinterklaas! Just read Marae19's post about the Sinterklaasjournaal and about all the songs they've written over the past years! It's amazing!

 

I've heard of Sinterklass before but didn't know a whole lot, so thanks for sharing! When I was taking German in high school, we celebrated a day (which I don't remember what it's called but I think the it's on the 6th) when we left our shoes in the hallway and Santa would leave candy in them. My family usually opens presents on Christmas Eve and get Santa's gifts Christmas morning. Then we go to my grandparents' house and play a gift exchange game with the extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) and eat a lot. My mom's side of the family stopped giving presents all year (birthdays and Christmas) a few years ago and we take turns hosting/planning events/vacations instead. 

Leaving your shoe out in the hallway is indeed part of Sinterklaas! It's called 'schoentje zetten' which basically means you put out your shoe in the hallway, sing a few songs to make Sinterklaas come and then Sinterklaas will fill your shoe with pepernoten and a small present, leading up to the days that it is Pakjesavond (presents eve)

After reading your thread and looking up Sinterklaas more, I wished a Dutch friend of mine a happy one and they said that it's on the fifth (I had asked if I was too late) and that it's "a holiday for kids but thanks anyway!" 

 

But they're a bit of a year-round Grinch anyway, haha.

Sinterklaas is celebrated on the 5th of December traditionally, but some  people celebrate it earlier or later. I, for instance, celebrate Sinterklaas with my friends on the 19th as it is between the official holiday with family and Christmas. Some people stop celebrating Sinterklaas after they (or their children) discover Sinterklaas isn't a real bearded old man but just the parents buying their kids presents, but I think that's not enough to catch the meaning of Sinterklaas :)

 

Yeah, I love Sinterklaas! And you missed out on sharing the best part. I mean, 'Het Sinterklaasjournaal' is just a classic!

Het Sinterklaasjournaal is litterally a (week-)daily newsshow all about what Sinterklaas is getting up to (literal translation is 'The SinterklaasNews'. Like the Big book of Sinterklaas gets stolen, and oh no, will we still get pakjesavond (= present night, basically the 5th of december when all the presents are there) now that the big book has been stolen. Or maybe the big steamboat (yes, he enters Holland through a steamboat, called Pakjesboot 12 (present boat 12, I have no clue what happened to the first eleven...) with all the presents on it went back to Spain, and now nobody will get presents, how will we ever save pakjesavond? (Basically, every year the plot is something along the lines of 'we might not get presents, oh no! Oh, it's the fifth now and everything turned out just a-okay c: )

And of course the chocolate letters. That's litterally a bar of chocolate in the form of a letter in the alphabet. You usually get the letter corresponding to the intial of your first name (in my case the M). Once the plot of Het Sinterklaasjournaal was that the bad guy hated Sinterklaas, because his name started with an I, and that's the smallest letter! (though it's a lot thicker than the M to give it the same amount of chocolate, but this is a recurring debate... -.-)

 

Yay for a fellow Dutchie celebrating Sinterklaas! I indeed "forgot" to mention the Sinterklaasjournaal and all other stuffs, it was just a really short introduction with a link to the Wikipedia page for the people who wanted to read more about it. Your information is also very good! I rememeber watching the Sinterklaasjournaal every day before Sinterklaas, it was lovely.

 

I actually just learned about Sinterklaas this year! I live in the US so we celebrate Christmas, but a good friend grew up in The Netherlands and she introduced all of us to the tradition this year and played some of the children's songs for us.

 

It sounds like you had a lovely holiday though! Enjoy the book - one of my favorites!

When I move to another country (preferably England!) I will definitely introduce everyone I meet to Sinterklaas. It's just a lovely holiday. Who doesn't love getting presents for other people and receiving them? 

 

Thank you! I've read about half of it already because I downloaded the ebook but I enjoy holding a real book (and supporting the author by buying the books, plus it looks nice on a bookshelf!)

 

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Thanks everybody for the kind reactions :D