My Favourite Christmas Story

Many moons ago, I lived in Holland. I was 5 years old when we moved back to the UK, following the birth of my little brother. The few memories I do have, which could just be from watching old family movies, are some of the funniest, happiest Christmas memories I have. Since then, the story of how the Dutch celebrate Christmas has always fascinated me.

I looked the story up here and here, just to make sure I got my facts right. The first thing that you should know, is that Santa Claus originated from Sinterklaas, and not the other way round like you might think. 
When the Dutch settlers arrived in America, they brought with them the legend of Sinterklaas. The first church on Manhattan island was actually dedicated to Sinterklaas. When the British took control of "New Amsterdam" in 1664, they merged the British Father Christmas and the Dutch Sinterklaas to create Santa Claus. You can read more about how Santa Claus came about here. 

So who is Sinterklaas? Well, the story of Sinterklaas comes from a real man, by the name of Nicholas Sinterklaas, who was born in the 4th century. There is very little know about him, other than he was a Bishop, and he loved children. There are lots of stories that were told about Sinterklaas that can be found by a quick Google search. On the last weekend of November  (St. Nicholas' day is on the 6th December) every year, Sinterklaas arrives in Amsterdam, from Spain (where he lives for the rest of the year) by steamboat. Sinterklaas usually is sitting on a white horse called Amerigol, wearing his red Bishop robes, accompanied by Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). This arrival is usually shown on television, and thousands of people turn up to greet him. 

Zwarte Piet (pronounced zvarta peet) is Sinterklaas's helper, and is said to keep a list of all the good and bad children. Zwarte Piet will scoop up any bad children and put them in a sack to take away with them.  He has been the cause of conflict recently, with many people saying that he is a black slave, and when people are dressing up as him, they are "blackfacing", however many other people argue that he is black because he is covered in soot. Either way, I think it is political correctness gone mad as it is such an old tradition, why argue to change it now! Zwarte Piet are notoriously mischevious and will often be seen throwing sweets and pepernoten (gingerbread cookies) at people!

On the evening of the 5th, children place their clogs outside their doors filled with carrots for Sinterklaas's horse, in the hope that he will fill the clogs with sweets and small gifts. Then on the evening of the 5th, they might here a knock on the door and find a sack of presents outside your door!

I know that there are many other Christmas stories out there, but I love the tale of the journey they make from Spain, the travelling around Holland and my favourite thing is that kids put their clogs outside and they get filled with sweets.