Starting off the December holidays is
Sinterklaas Day. I personally enjoy this one because it gives me a chance to
celebrate my Dutch heritage, although my family’s celebrations were much more
simple than those in The Netherlands. There, the holiday is marked with
parades, festivals, and gift-giving. Christmas, on the other hand, is a quieter
family affair.
On the evening of December 5th,
the night before Sinterklass Day, Sinterklaas rides up from Spain on his white
horse and leaves presents in the shoes of children who have been good. If
children are worried about whether they’ve been quite good enough are encouraged to leave a carrot in their shoe
for Sinterklaas’s horse. This shows that they have good intentions, even if
their actions might be a bit more…rambunctious.
Accompanying Sinterklaas is his helper (or
sometimes helpers) Zwarte Piet (Black Peter), who is black from the soot of the
chimneys he climbs through to help Sinterklaas deliver his gifts. Zwarte Piet
has a bag filled with candy for good children. Bad children, on the other hand,
receive a spanking with a willow broom. The very
bad children are put in the sack and taken back to Spain.
This year was the first year that my
daughter was old enough to understand Sinterklaas Day and put out her shoe
hoping for candy. When I told her about the consequences for bad children
though, she went to bed very worried that in the morning she was going to be ‘hit
with a stick.’ I hadn’t even mentioned the possible kidnapping because I didn’t
want to worry her. That failed. When I put her to bed, I reassured her several
times that I thought she was a good kid, so Sinterklaas probably would too.
When she saw candy in her shoe the next morning, she was so excited. More than
the delight of m&m’s was the knowledge that she wasn’t going to be spanked.
I think I may have to rethink my storytelling approach for next year.
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