I suppose you have been wondering what Sinterklaas is about. As someone correctly noted, Sinterklaas looks like a religious Santa. Well, to put things straight: Santa = Sinterklaas.

The Dutch/Belgian Sinterklaas is officially known as Saint Nicholas of Mira (a Turkish city). He was a Roman Catholic bishop who was a patron-saint for children. He presented poor children with gifts. He died a very long time ago, but in the Netherlands and in Belgium this tradition to give children presents on Pakjesavond (Presents Night) has been continued throughout the ages. I have always been taught that Presents Night was the night before Sinterklaas' birthday (6th December), but I read on a website that December 6th was his dying day. In earlier times children put their shoes in front of the fireplace on the night of December 5th, to receive gifts throughout the night. That has changed to the tradition to have a present party on the night of December 5th.

Sinterklaas is a real family-party: children believe in Sinterklaas until they're about 8 or 9, after that they understand that their parents buy them their presents. When the children in a family don't believe in Sinterklaas anymore, the tradition changes slightly. Then families draw "lootjes": very much like Secret Santa. You put pieces of paper with the names of all the participating people in a box and you draw a name each. For that person you buy a gift, write a poem (Sinterklaas-rhyme) and/or make a surprise. Not very religious anymore...

Then back to the Santa/Sinterklaas thing. I believe Santa is derived from the Western-European Saint Nicholas. In Germany Saint Nicholas is known too. And in some parts of Germany they used to celebrate him too. But Sinterklaas is giving way to Santa, which I think is a bad thing for our local tradition. Both characters have the same background: they hand out presents among all children, rich or poor, but in fact the man is one big collective lie. It's just that I feel that Santa is more commerically exploited... We can have a discussion about that.

Sinterklaas has some helpers: Zwarte Pieten [Black Pete's]. It's unknown if these men are black because they climb through chimneys to put presents in children's shoes, or because Saint Nicholas had a slave boy. There has been a serious discussion in the Netherlands about the Zwarte Pieten, concerning racism and discrimination.

So, this is what I can come up with for now. If you have questions, don't be shy!
And don't forget: Sinterklaas sees all and he'll know if you've been good or bad this year.

Oh, I just love Sinterklaas!
When I was a kid I used to be so afraid of Zwarte Piet!

I love the way my little cousins and the kids I babysit are so exited about this period! I've watched him arriving on saterday with them and I just loved the look on their faces! It's so great that this tradition is still going on!

I'll see if I can find some photo's of my with Sinterklaas or Zwarte Piet in my old albums ^_^

Wow cool.

I wish I knew some of the finer details so I could discuss it like you asked... I do agree that Santa is more about spending that anything else, kids expect stuff for Xmas rather than see it as a gift. It sounds like Sinterklaas is more about the thought behind it. And if there isnt any religious problems then I think its a good idea :hyper:

So both "men" co exist or is Father Xmas another countrys traddition that got adopted?

i keep reading it as stinkerlas...O_o

Hihi, Rosie!

Rich, Sinterklaas is a very commercially exploited man too. Lots of kids only care about the gifts they get: the larger, the better. I think it's when you get older that you appreciate it more as a nice way to spend time with family. It's often just about the laughs and the being-together, because you can be totally honest in the rhymes you make: nobody can be really sure who gave what person which gift. (Catch my drift?) In any case, the whole religious aspect has disappeared. The man is just still clad in bishop's clothing and when kids learn about him his religious background is explained. But it's not that everyone who celebrates Sinterklaas goes to church on December 5th to pray for him...

Anyways, there are also people who don't do a Sinterklaas-evening but give each other gifts with Christmas. We've never done that in our family: we like to separate the two festivities. I'm not sure if the people who do give gifts with Christmas, say to their kids that Santa brought those gifts, or that they play honest and just say that they share gifts among each other. But Father Christmas isn't a very often seen figure as Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas has many TV-shows, he is featured in every shop and the man makes an official entree. During the summer he lives in Spain and in November he comes to The Netherlands with his boat (Presentsboat 12).
But as soon as Sinterklaas is over - December 6th - Santa comes into view a bit clearer. But I'm having a boycott on him. Santa is an imported figure from American culture, and I feel that he doesn't fit in Dutch culture...

Hm... we do have your "Sinterklaas" too, I guess. At least we do celebrate the "Nikolaus-Tag" which is the 6th of december every year, a festival of Saint Nicholas.
It's a bit different, we put our shoes in front of our doors, and "Nikolaus" (meaning our parents) fill them with some biscuits and stuff and a book or so.
It's not a family fest, though... and its mainly us "kids" who get the presents...

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for more Jo. :bounce:

Here it's the same old Santa. Think it's to do with him being able to make the most money out of the parents. :Wink1:

Bella, you back? :hugy:

Were you taken to Spain with the Black Pete's? That was one way to scare children: tell them they would be taken with the Zwarte Pieten in their bags (the bags which were filled with gifts before). They were like the bogeyman, but that idea was let go off when the whole discriminating aspect of Sinterklaas having black servants became an issue.

Yes, Lische, in the Netherlands it's also parents who really give the presents to the kids, but the kids believe it's Sinterklaas they get the presents from. It's until they're 8 or 9 that they find out (usually other kids are bullies and say that Sinterklaas doesn't exist).

I was being told about Sinterklaas by Oma and Inga. Yes, interesting.

plus today rosie and I had a good laugh about the name haha...

stinkerlass HAHAHHAHA
oh man, Im hilarious

I just baked pepernoten: typical Sinterklaas-food. You can buy them in every store, but I had some spare butter and wanted to make them myself. It smells deliciously...

Here's a handfull:

ooh yummy. What do they taste like? Are they sweet... they look kinda salty, is that fair to say?

Do you all have like a special meal on a certain day, with special foods as well? :unsure:

They're cinnamon-like, very sweet. We also have "speculaas" lemme check my dictionary if there's an English equivalent in cookies: ah, it's a "type of spiced biscuit". The spices that have to be added to the dough are cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, white pepper and cardemom. I got a mixture of it, and it smells deliciously. The ones I baked are more spiced then the ones you can buy in the shops: they have way more sugar added. I also added some pancake syrup to my mixture, that makes them sweeter as well.

On the day itself we don't have special meals: it's just loads of sweets, pepernoten (peppery nuts is the literal translation), chocolatemilk or Bishops Wine (spiced wine, often heated) and the spiced biscuits.

Hmm, the whole kitchen still smells like pepernoten. I like the smell beter than the taste, actually :ROFL:

Hurray, someone who knows the real story behind the Santa Claus myth, I've recently been looking into this so I can teach my kids. My kids don't really believe in Santa anyway, as they've always done the Christmas shopping with me, and, of course, being in UK, we associate Santa with Christmas. I'm going to investigate the rest of the threads in this area.