Sinterklaas: The pre-Christmas celebration

The Christmas lights have all been switched on. Christmas trees are making their reappearance in living rooms, town squares and shopping malls. Societies are starting to plan Christmas dinners, and the Christmas adverts are making their way back on TV. In the supermarkets, it’s Christmas decorations, presents, cards and flyers to order stuffed turkeys galore.

Not in the Netherlands. Not before the 7^th of December.

That might sound like a slightly arbitrary date, but the reason for it is the man who ‘arrived’ by steamboat last week: Sinterklaas, or St. Nicholas. Not to be confused with Coca-Cola’s Santa Claus. The old patron saint of children gets his own birthday party in various cultures, on December 6^th. In the Netherlands and Belgium, this is Sinterklaas.

The premise is simple: the old saint walks over the roofs with his horse and his (currently controversial) helpers, who climb down chimneys and unlock doors to deliver presents to children’s shoes that have been left by doors, fireplaces and sometimes radiators.

In exchange, the children leave carrots for the horse, a letter for the saint (and sometimes a beer for his helper), and pray that Zwarte Piet hasn’t found out about that time they broke their mother’s vase and blamed it on a younger sibling, put them in his sack and take them back to Spain. Or won’t give them presents.

For the children who have yet to have their parents disillusion them that it was them leaving the presents, not Sinterklaas, the official line is that the guy on TV is really just an actor with a red cape and a beard, and Zwarte Piet isn’t black with chimney soot but face paint.

But fear not: to make up for it, tradition provides a secret-santa-esque solution: the surprise. Except it takes a tiny bit more effort than simply buying someone a present and hiding it from them. After all, it has to make up for a man on a horse jumping from roof to roof and another crawling down every chimney in the Netherlands, Belgium and everywhere else there are Dutch children.

If your art classes seemed a complete waste of time to you, this is the one time of the year where you wish you had paid better attention. Because not only do you have to buy a present and hide it: you are required to create a personalised present container.

Friend likes skating? Build a cardboard skateboard and stick the present to the top. Artsy? A giant paintbrush with the present hidden in the handle it is. Did I mention you have to write a poem with it as well?

Of course, it’s the thought that counts. Mostly, Sinterklaas is about being with family and friends, eating food and singing silly songs about horses on roofs and knocks on doors. And if the whole present thing doesn’t appeal, you can always just fatten yourself up with ginger cookies, almond pastries and chocolate letters. That’s perfectly fine too.

And, the day after, you can finally go and put up that Christmas tree.