Sinterklass Overkill

Sunday night is the last night of Sinterklass.  That is, the last night for most children.  We told M that the last night was Friday night for a couple of reasons.  One is that Peter is going to be out of town on Monday for the feast day.  The other is that we are sick of Sinterklass.  Our original plan to only have Sint come on the actual feast day was disrupted by an early burst of holiday spirit.

Sinterklass is a festival that runs from the feast of St. Martin on November 11th, when Sint arrives from Spain, to the feast of St. Nicholas on December 5th, when he heads back.  Children clean their shoes, set out a bowl of water and some carrots (the carrots are either for Amerigo, Sinterklass's horse or the Zwarte Piets, his assistants (who need to see in the dark).  Kids then sing a song to call Sinterklass (who keeps a record of kid behavior in his book) and he sends his Piets to bring them kadootjes (small gifts).  Depending on a kid's behavior and how busy they are with other kids the Piets don't come every night.  And sometimes they mess up the house.  Naughty children may receive a stick or a little bag of dirt, and particularly naughty children may be transported back to Spain in a sack.  If you run into some "Piets" on the street, they might throw some pepernoten at you.  On the last night it's a somewhat bigger gift.  We learned all of this as we went along.  If we are here next year we'll be Sinterklass experts.

M's final Sinterklass gift:  a Playmobil Sint playset.
You can see his shoes in the background and part of the water bowl

This year we got a little overloaded, even thought most of the gifts were quite small (like small candy bars or small bags of pepernoten, little kibble-like Sinterklass cookies).  If we had to do it over again we probably would have only asked Sint to come every three days or so, and probably would have required M to do the preparation (bowl of water, song, carrot) every night.  We probably would have had the Piets mess up the house more than just once, since that was as big a treat as the small gifts M got.

So, Sinterklass has been exhausting, and now Christmas is starting.  So, we'd better get our holiday energy back up.

Happy Sinterklaas!

Here in Amsterdam, Christmas seems to take a backseat to Sinterklaas, the feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of both Children and the city of Amsterdam.  In the past week I have learned a lot about Sint, although I am by no means an expert (for more authoritative info, check out Wikipedia). The season starts with a very Haloweenesque type of carroling (kids go from house to house singing Sinterklass songs in exchange for sweets).  He arrived in Amsterdam by steamship from Spain, on Sunday.  Children dressed as the Sint himself, or as his able (yet mischievous) assistant Zarte Piet--a character whom Peter and I still can't believe--to welcome him to town.  Here he will stay until December 6th, the  feast day, when children who have left out their cleaned shoes will receive small gifts in them--a clementine, a chocolate letter, etc.  

I love all holidays, including those I have no business celebrating, plus the whole point of being here is to learn about another culture, so Sint will be visiting our house on the evening of December 5th.  M will receive the little wooden flute he coveted from Hema (but could not get the day it was originally a possibility because of naughty behavior in the store), a CD of Sinterklass music, and a little Hema chocolate bar.

In honor of the season, the dress-ups box at M's school has been stocked exclusively with holiday-themed apparel.  This morning, he and his best mate dressed up as a couple of Zwarte Pieten.