Finally it is here! Today we celebrate the birthday of Sinterklaas, a saint who gives us all presents. His helper Black Peter gives us pepernoten and candies. O boy O boy. Me have been such a good monster all year, me know me will get some nice gifts! Do you know who Sinterklaas is? (picture: me in the Sinterklaas gift bag)Sinterklaas is a saint who is very very old. Every year he packs his great steamer (Stoomboot) and stuffs it with all kinds of gifts and candies. With his Pieten (Peters) he comes to the Netherlands. The old guy lives in Spain for the rest of the year. It is nice and warm there, so why not. So they travel by boat and when he gets here in the Netherlands, we all go welcome them at the dock, because everybody is so happy he is here. That is totally different from Saint Nick, because he only travels the world with Christmas.
Sinterklaas and his helpers (you can compare them with elves) make sure the children and grown-ups will have a great time. During the three weeks Sinterklaas is here, children can put a shoe out in the hallway, sing some songs and hopefully a Piet or Sinterklaas has put some gift in it. It helps if you put some sugarcubes, water, hay or carrots out for Amerigo, the horse of Sinterklaas. O yeah… the reason why the Pieten are black is because of the dirt inside of the chimneys. And it is nice camouflage when you travel through the night.
Between gifts/ om nom nom candies
But at Pakjesavond (Gift night) the party will be complete. Then maybe Sinterklaas and Piet will stop by your house for a personal visit. We always wait impatiently for the knock on the door… O boy o boy. Sometimes only Piet comes to visit. He or she will bang on the door, throw in the candies so we must scatter across the floor to find them all. And then he or she will disappear, leaving this BIG BAG of gifts for everyone!
At a Sinterklaasparty / With me friend Zwarte Piet
With Sinterklaas gifts come lots of fun poems too. Sinterklaas and his helpers like to write those as an extra gift. Because Sinterklaas knows everything about us, he likes to write a personal note that rhymes to all of us. Me love it, just as much as me love me cookie.
Well… me is off to celebrate soon. Me really hope Sinterklaas sends me a nice COOKIE!
