December 5 - Sinterklaas in the Netherlands (and elsewhere!)

Posted on December 5, 2020

This is an update of my first December 5 post – from 2009!

Day of the Ninja (a.k.a. Creep Like a Ninja Day)

Key Points

This is the day to wear black and be silent and stealthy.

This holiday was created in response to Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19). Apparently pirates and ninjas have a fierce online rivalry; there is even a Wikipedia page on the conflict, which began with an online debate on the question, “Who would win in a fight: pirates or ninjas?”

So, if pirates get a special day, those on Team Ninja
demand a special day as well!

For more information on Day of the Ninja, go here.

Sinterklaas (in the Netherlands and elsewhere)

This is the evening before the name day of the patron saint of children. It is largely celebrated in the Netherlands and countries associated with it (Belgium, Suriname, etc.), but some Germans, Americans, French, and others also have this holiday—with lots of varying traditions, of course.

One tradition is Sinterklaas arriving on horseback or – sometimes – by steamship! Some stories say that Sinterklaas travels by a flying horse. Not a Pegasus – there are no wings involved in the horse’s flying! – more like the flying reindeer of later Santa Claus traditions.

In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas (which is basically St. Nicholas’ Eve) is the main occasion of gift giving. Children receive their presents from St. Nicholas, and everybody enjoys a feast.

In Belgium, children do not receive their gifts in the evening, but instead put their shoes in front of the fireplace (or somewhere like), hopefully with carrots for Sinterklaas’s horse in the shoes! Of course, they find the carrots replaced by presents in (and around) the shoes in the morning of December 6th.

Find out more about Sinterklaas here.

There’s a Sinterklaas coloring page available here, and there are lots of different coloring pages available here. On MamaLisa. com there are lyrics and sheet music for Sinterklaas songs. Here is a recipe for Dutch pepernoot cookies.

Sinterklaas traditions were brought to America by the Dutch colonists, who started a colony called New Amsterdam. Today the site of that colony is a bustling U.S. city. Do you know which one?

New York City!