Sinterklaas Dag

Growing up, my family was pulled in about every different direction during the holidays. We had parties for my dad's side of the family, my mom's side of the family, and all of the possible extended family variation you can think of. To make things even more interesting, we were also musicians. Christmas is not the most magical time of year when there are Advent services, church (and school!) programs, piano recitals, various concerts, and the big (!) finale on Christmas Day. That doesn't include rehearsal and practice times.

One year, I was probably 14 or so, my parents had enough of the madness. My mom found a holiday that celebrated our heritage and was nowhere near the absolute craziness of the season - St. Nicholas Day or Sinterklaas Dag. All of a sudden, my brother, sister, and I started putting out our wooden shoes with hay and carrots and received milk chocolate initials and little gifts the next day (sometimes oranges). My mom explained that the hay and carrots were for Schimmel, his hose. If we were naughty children, the Zwarte Pieten would leave coal in our shoes. If we had been good, Sinterklaas would leave us presents. I had passing familiarity with Santa Claus and the stocking tradition, so the parallels were not lost on me, this was just the Dutch version.

My family still does this, many years later, just with the grandkids now.

With an exchange student in the house and the holidays coming up, we have far fewer commitments now, especially since we moved cross country and have no family anywhere near us. We still wanted to share our traditions and favorite childhood holiday memories with Luca. Yesterday, we celebrated Sinterklaas Dag with gold coins (chocolates), oranges, and we exchanged small gifts. We have no wooden shoes here, so we did not put out hay or carrots (the carrots would not have been safe from the dogs). We also made everyone make a solid guess as to what the present was prior to opening it.

It was fun sharing my family's tradition with Luca and learning more about it. I'm sure my mom told me about it when we started doing it, and I've looked into it a bit since then. I researched Sinterklaas a lot more this year than I ever have before because I wanted to know why the little things were done, like giving chocolate coins covered in gold paper or giving oranges.

The gold coins are because of a legend associated with Sinterklaas where a poor man could not provide a dowry for his three daughters. Mysteriously, three bags of gold coins were thrown through his window and landed by the shoes that were drying out by the fire.

The oranges are similar. They can be used in lieu of gold because they look like gold balls. They can also be because Sinterklaas may have been from Spain, where there are oranges, and oranges would have been a huge treat for Dutch children in the winter.