Christmas Traditions: Sinterklaas

I love this time of year, and I love it even more thanks to parents who incorporated our heritage during our December celebrating. You've read about my German traditions; so let me tell you what we do for my Dutch side...

Sinterklaas is December 6th. We all put our shoes out on the night of the 5th in hopes that Sinterklaas will leave treats and presents there during the night. If you're clever, you will leave hay and carrots for Sinterklaas' horse (we've left grass -- it works if that's all you've got! LOL) This shows what a good little child you are.

In the morning, you wake to presents in your shoes (uh, that's if you've been good -- you will find a switch in your shoes if you've been bad -- yikes!)! At our house, we always find a small present and a chocolate Black Peter or Sinterklaas and a big chocolate letter.

One year, we shared this tradition with another family in the neighborhood; we sang the Sinterklaas song my mother used to sing and shared limericks. That's another tradition you can do -- you make up a funny poem about a family member -- no one is safe. They are so fun! My Sweet Girl's into her teen years and we have more fun with this little tradition nowadays. She is really creative, so you can imagine the limericks we can come up with around here!

Treats

At this point, I've already got my German goodies in the house, so all I buy treat-wise for Sinterklaas is stroopwaffels. Here's what they look like:

and here's what they look like at my house:

Yep. Gone. This happens every year. :-)

Decorations

I have a little vignette here in the house with my Dutch things:

How do you like my Sinterklaas nutcraker? Here's another one:

I think I like him better -- he's less detailed than the other one -- but he has switches in his pack! Love it! (you may have to click the image to enlarge)

I love these traditions. It's been fun passing them down to the Sweet Girl. She takes center stage in the Swedish tradition we do in December...tune in tomorrow!