Here comes Sinterklaas
Ho Ho Ho…oh wait. That’s not Santa Clause coming down the chimney.
On December 5th every year the Netherlands celebrates the birthday of Sinterklaas, and this year so did I.
Sint arrives on a boat from Spain in November with all of his helpers, the Zwarte Piets, or Black Petes. I’m sure most of you have already heard of the controversy surrounding the participation of the black Petes in the Sinterklaas celebration. If you’re interested in learning more, here is a link to an article that I read before arriving in the Netherlands.
Sinterklaas left a surprise for me in my shoe! The cookies are called pepernoten.
December 5th, Sint’s birthday, is when the celebration happens, but Sint has been in the Netherlands since mid-November. I even went with some other au pairs to his official arrival in Apeldoorn. In the weeks leading up to the 5th, Sint and his Petes would visit other towns in the Netherlands. They would go to schools and see the kids. The children would leave out their shoes (not stockings) and sometimes in the morning there would be little presents inside. Every night after dinner we would watch the Sinterklaas news with the kids. There was a lot leading up to this.
On the night of the actual Sinterklaas celebration we went over to the grandparents house. All the grownups (including me) did a Secret Santa. We drew names and created wishlists on a website, which made it very easy to order presents. Unlike our Santa Clause celebration, all the presents come from Sint, even the ones for the adults. So we were not actually allowed to say thank you to the person, but rather thanks to Sint, so the kids still believe.
There’s not really a specific meal that we have for Sinterklaas, this year we had snacks and finger-food, including mini tacos, chicken nuggets, a cheese platter and lots of fruits and veggies.
My sinterklaas haul. Please note the adorable Clog slippers and my chocolate initials.
Everyone also gets a poem made specifically for them from Sint. I had to write one for my Secret Santa person. And no, none of you will ever get to read the poem I wrote. It’s not fit for human eyes.
I’m so grateful to be a part of a family that lets me observe their traditions and treats me the way that they do. They didn’t have to get me these gifts, and it means the world that they did. I thought the holiday season would be slightly depressing, my first Christmas without my family. This family thinking about me makes it so much easier.
To answer a lot of yalls questions, yes we also celebrated Christmas in The Netherlands. Christmas here is more about being around family, then getting gifts. They also don’t usually do anything on Christmas Eve, but call December 26 the second Christmas Day. We had our family dinner on the second Christmas Day.
Christmas card pose with me and the kiddos!
On Christmas Day we went to the Archeon museum park near Alphen aan den Rijn. Archeon is a living museum where you can explore through prehistoric, medieval and Roman times. They have re-enactments, including staged gladiator fights and musical performances. For Christmas they had a brunch and other winter events, like ice skating and bread making demonstration. I went with my host mom, host kids and an au pair friend (hello Poala!). For dinner that night we used a little grill to cook our own individual meats and veggies. We could also cook eggs with it. The Dutch usually use these for Christmas dinner. They call it Gourmetten.
It was strange not being around my own family for Christmas. This was my first Christmas being away from home, and it was harder than I thought it would be. Once again I must say how lucky I am to have a host family that has been so welcoming to me, inviting me to their own Christmas made it a lot easier.
Happy Holidays everyone!!
