Sinter Klaas

This year we participated in a Dutch tradition that my sister-in-law does with her family for Christmas...

On St. Nicholas Eve, (5th December) children leave clogs or shoes out to be filled with presents. They also believe that if they leave some sugar cubes and carrots in their shoes for Sinter Klaas's horse, they will be left some sweets. Children are told that Black Peter keeps a record of all the things they have done in the past year in a book and that good children will get presents from Sinter Klaas, but bad children will get chased by Black Peter with a stick!! Dutch tradition says that he lives in Madrid, Spain and every year he chooses a different harbour to arrive in Holland, so as many children as possible get a chance to see him. Every town in Holland has a few Sinter Klaas helpers, dressed the same as Sinter Klaas who help give the presents out.

We had the whole family over for dinner, we sang Christmas carols and told the kids about Sinter Klaas then they each took their shoes outside placed a carrot and a sugar cube in them (for his white horse) and we watched Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer while we waiting for Sinter Klaas to come. Then each of them took turns going out to see what he left for them in their shoes. It was a lot of fun!