Amsterdam Day 130: Sinterklaas

The day that has long awaited as finally coming. After three weeks of seeing the Piets everywhere, the Sinterklaas celebrations by the city and at school, and putting out our clogs (or just regular shoes for us) at night to get little treats, we had our Sinterklaas celebration today. For normal Dutch families with children, it is a big day for gift giving and family gathering.

For expat Americans, it is just another time to party. Our celebration consisted of the regular family gathering, like we usually do on most days anyways, and singing songs celebrating Saint Nicholas. The biggest problem is that all the songs are in Dutch and we don't speak Dutch real well yet in our household. But we did well singing about the 100,000 Piets and the little Sinterklaas. Strangely, around 630 at night while we were singing songs about Sinterklaas a knock and bell ringing happened at our door. This is really new to us, so we got up a little surprised. And what did we find? Apparently Sinterklaas and his Piets left us several burlap bags of toys. What joy and excitement. It took everything the kids had to wait for the picture to be taken. 

The kids tore into their presents excited as if it were Christmas morning. Charlie was not quite ready to celebrate and was finishing some food. But as soon as he realized there was a new bike for him, he came around. Jannica got an acoustic guitar and a selfie stick. Ryan got a skateboard and a crochet kit. Cameron got a skateboard and roller skates. Beverly got a scooter and a band set. Charlie got a bike, with pedals, and a stroller for a baby. And then there were Hulu hoops for all of them. Then dinner was a traditional Dutch meal of Stampot, which is really just mashed potatoes mixed with another mashed vegetable like carrots served with sausage. But since I love potatoes, it was amazing. 

They holiday had a very lovely feel about it. It is a celebration of Saint Nicholas, but it is almost completely centered around the children. And what I really like about it is that it serves as the gift giving holiday around this time. It leaves Christmas as a true religious holiday without all the commercialism of the gifts. Although, it looks like they really go all out on there decorations.