Christmas in
THE NETHERLANDS

Click here to view video clip of Sinter Klass on December 5-- 371 kb mpg video
Click here to view video clip of Zwarte Piet on December 5-- 316 kb mpg video

Our Santa Claus evolved from the Dutch Sinterklass Many imigrants to Visalia, California came from Friesland in the Netherlands.
FRIESLAND, NL

Click here to view video clip of Sinter Klass on December 5-- 371 kb mpg video
Click here to view video clip of Zwarte Piet on December 5-- 316 kb mpg video

In the Visalia, California area, there are a lot of immigrant families from the Netherlands, primarily Friesland and Gronigan. Most families here have incorporated the American experience of Christmas. Ironically, it was from the early dutch settlers' Sinterklaas that our modern Santa Claus was derived. Also, the churches in which they celebrate the birth of Jesus are offshoots of the original dutch reformed church.

The Dutch tradition of "Sinterklaas" is an interesting Dutch tradition, although American commercialism is eroding on this cultural event. Halfway through November there is a big spectacle when the Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands. Television crews await his arrival from Spain at a port where he docks his steam boat full of presents, Zwarte Pieten [black Piet] , and his horse. They are welcomed by a huge crowd of children and parents.

Sinterklaas simultaneously arrives at every city or village in the Netherlands. Suspicious, thinking children who understand the impossibility of simultaneous sightings of Sinterklaas discover that this grand event unfolds with the help of "hulp-Sinterklazen" (people who help Sinterklaas by dressing up like him). Sinterklaas goes on a tour through the village accompanied by several Zwarte Pieten, who throw different types of sweets around and on the ground for children. After this day, Sinterklaas begins his assessment of all the children's behaviour in the past year, and proceeds to hand out presents. It culminates on the evening of December 5.

For better details on how the dutch celebrate Christmas and the custom of Sinterklaas, we invite you to read the emails that you find below from actual natives from the Netherlands. Another great internet site to visit on this topic is http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/deeper/Articles/Sinterklaas.html. Diversity is a great thing. We appreciate their rich customs and the heritage that our community has received from them.

Sinterklaas is said to have originated from St. Nicolaus, the Bishop of Mira, Turkey, who did good things for children. Instead of living in the North Pole as the American Santa does, Sinterklaas lives in Spain, it seems. How it came to be that Sinterklaas lives in Spain is a mystery, but hey, it beats the north pole! Perhaps, there is a connection with the Spanish inquisition or the Spanish domination over the Netherlands.

Some people in east Holland hold a special Advent ceremony. Evil spirits are scared off and Christ's birth is declared in by blasts of homemade horns. The three or four foot long horns are made out of one-year-old saplings and are blown over wells, sounding somewhat like foghorns.

Amongst many reformed Christian families of Friesland and Gronigan, the story of Christ's birth is a very important part of Christmas. Children are reminded that God's righteous wrath concerning their sins was taken upon the Christ child later upon his death on the cross. Scripture is read and Christian hymns are sung.

Click here to view video clip of Sinter Klass on December 5-- 371 kb mpg video
Click here to view video clip of Zwarte Piet on December 5-- 316 kb mpg video

EDITOR'S NOTE:We try to make our pages as accurate as possible. As we get email, we make corrections to our introduction (above). However, nothing beats the original source. We publish the most interesting emails and encourage our visitors to explore them and become enriched.---Bill Drennon

Email

Sinterklaas and Changing Customs in the Netherlands from Dutch expatriot in Germany


From: Corien Meijvogel
To: bdrennon@theworks.com
Subject: Sinterklaas (Christmas in the Netherlands)
Date: Tuesday, December 02, 1997 5:15 AM

Hello Mr. Drennon !

I found your "Christmas in the Netherlands!" page whilst looking for information on Sinterklaas for my german colleages. I am a "dutchie" living and working in Germany.

The Sinterklaas-description given by Taarik and Aaron (under EMAIL) is closer to the truth than your version. [NOTE: We made corrections.] An extensive, though somewhat ironic, description of the Sinterklaas tradition - in english, by the way - can be found under http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/deeper/InProgress/Sinterklaas.html . [EDITORS NOTE: A more complete recent site is http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/deeper/Articles/Sinterklaas.html.]

Whilst roaming the net looking for Sinterklaas-information, I also ran across a dutch site giving the results of a recent survey on Sinterklaas and Christmas in the Netherlands: although the number of families celebrating Sinterklaas has decreased, the number of families celebrating Christmas (with gifts) has not increased. The percentage of people not exchanging gifts at all has increased to 29% (in 1987: 10%). Eight out of ten (84%) dutch consider it very important that the Sinterklaas tradition stays alive.

Apparently, commercial pressure is increasingly trying to force people to celebrate Christmas "the american way", i.e. with gifts and move away from Sinterklaas. 60% of the people interviewed in the survey thought shops were not giving enough attention to Sinterklaas (with respect to decorations etc.) and a large majority (89%) thinks Christmas-items should not be sold before the 5th of December (Sinterklaas's birthday-party). Moreover, 56% think "gifts do not belong in the christmas tradition, because it doesn't fit in the celebrating of Christ's birth". Enough boring statistics !

I myself were sad to hear from my family in the Netherlands that there too the Sinterklaas tradition is slowly but surely falling apart, my brother being the first one to switch from Sinterklaas to Christmas. My husband, who is german, was brought up in the german Christmas tradition, i.e. the Christ-child comes around on Christmas Eve and brings presents. As we live in Germany, I am now having "the best of both worlds", going to the Netherlands for Sinterklaas and celebrating Christmas at home here in Germany.

Hope you have a wonderful festive season !!

Greetings from Bremen, Germany
Corien Meijvogel

Email

Sinterklaas

In Holland most people celebrate a feast before Christmas on 5 December. They call that feast "Sinterklaas". On 5 December a man called Sinterklaas and his assistant Zwarte Piet [black Piet] visit homes and bring presents to children.

Sinterklaas really lived, but that was about 600 years ago in Turkey. Sint Nicolaas was a rich bishop who gave money to the poor. Sinterklaas always rides on his horse Schimmel and he always has an assistant called Zwarte Piet; were Zwarte Piet comes from is still a mystery. The black assistants make jokes, do acrobatics and devide gingernuts and other candies to the children.

Sinterklaas is an old man with a long white beard, he wears a red costume with golden stripes, a mitre on his head and he also has a golden rod in his hand. Zwarte Piet has a pitch- dark skin, curly hair, red lipstick on, and has earrings on. Sinterklaas always comes by steamship to Holland Mid November and goes back the same way on 6 December. They come from Spain (?). Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet can't be everywear at the same time, therefore there are a lot of helpers of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. These people dress like Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet and do what they do.

Most people in Holland celebrate Sinterklaas as following: The little children, who still believe that Sinterklaas really exists, put their shoe next to the chimney with some straw and a carrot (for Sinterklaas's horse). The next morning they'll find a present or a candy in their shoe. At 5 December Sinterklaas brings presents to the children, 'personally' or by one of his helpers. The adults celebrate it by giving presents, wrapped in a surprise with a poem included, to each other.

In Holland the Sinterklaas tradition is (still) stronger than the Santa Claus tradition. Some people, however, give presents to each other at Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Taarik and Aaron
____________Christmas Bells________________

Email

Other Christmas Traditions of the Netherlands

Dec 3, 1997

It occured to me yesterday that maybe the title "Christmas in the Netherlands" is a bit misleading since your text is mainly about Sinterklaas and only at the end a few sentences are dedicated to Christmas.

For some historial facts re. Sinterklaas, have a look at: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~anj/ew/papers/ind2.html "Santa's tomb is found off Turkey Academics claim to have found where St Nicholas was buried."

Back to Christmas:
The Dutch usually buy their (mostly sawn-off) Christmas tree several weeks before Christmas, which very often leads to the embarassing situation of having a tree which has already lost half of its needles by the time Christmas has arrived. Upon the merest touch, hundreds of needles fall down on the ground. Nowadays, there is a growing tendency to buy trees with the roots still on, so that the tree can be planted in the garden after Christmas. Of course, if one follows this procedure for several years one runs into space-problems: the Netherlands is one of the most densily-populated countries in the world. As a result, gardens are usually rather small. My parents' garden is about 20 square meter "big" (yes, you may laugh). It goes without saying that buying a tree and planting it afterwards is not an option to them. I've also heard of the following procedure: "lease-a-tree". The tree is brought back to the gardencentre after Christmas, replanted and the next year you lease it (or another tree) again.This way, "unnecessary sap-spilling" is avoided.

Those who plant their tree in their own garden redecorate the outside-tree when the next Christmas comes, usually merely with little lights, no other decorations because of the wind, rain etc. The new insidetree gets the "all the works", as usual.

Another decoration quite common in the Netherlands is the so-called "advent-ster", a starshaped light, to be hung in the window. For those who do not exchange gifts from Christmas, those who are religious go to a late-night church-service (around 10 in the evening) and afterwards have a light meal together (at home). Usually "kerststol" (Christmasbread, a white bread with raisins, candied fruit (orange, lemon), almond-paste and covered with melted butter and powdered sugar) is eaten.

On first and second Christmas day, families usually come together and have a festive meal. As far as I know, there is no standard food (meat-wise) that's eaten around Christmas; every families eats it's own favourite dish. However, since its late-autumn, game is on many menues.

That's all for now!

Greetings
Corien Meijvogel

Corien Meijvogel
IMSAS-Secretariat
University of Bremen ____________Christmas Bells________________

Email from a dutch alumnus of CVC:

IT IS COLD DURING CHRISTMAS IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Dec 3, 1997

Hi there cvc attenders and friendly neighbourhood sience-teacher Mr. Drennon. How is life today?? In the Netherlands everything is going great. It's just cold! But I'm a dutch guy so i'm supposed to be able to handle it! Thank you for your mail class. I really appreciate mail from America. It has been awhile since I wrote. I have been pretty busy with all kinds of tests and exams lately (the oldest excuse in the book.) Now I'm not to busy and I received mail from you so here's a return. Fortunately the tests and exams went pretty good. After Christmas we have another session of tests and exams. We'll just have to see how that goes. But with praying and trusting on the Lord I'll make it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

to yourselves, too. Mr Drennon, or class, please give these wishes to to mr Elsenbroek, Mr VanderGriend, Mr VanderSchaaf, Mr deLeeuw and all the teachers that taught me all that good stuff when I was in California. Well that's about it for now.

God bless you all richly in these times of celebration and who knows: see you later De hartelijke groeten uit het koude Nederland
van Gerard den Otter ____________Christmas Bells________________ Friesian - Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

updated 12/3/97

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