"Sinterklaas"

Sinterklaas

Hey there, today I'll be talking about Sinterklaas. It's a Dutch tradition for children. In the evening they put their shoe next to the front door. They sing a Sinterklaas song then and go to bed. The next morning there lies a present in their shoe. Usually it's something like a chocolate letter or something else small. The children are always told 'Sinterklaas' and 'Zwarte Piet' give them presents, but actually the parents do. When the children go to bed the parents put a present they bought in the shoe.
At 5 December it is 'pakjesavond' which means something like present evening. The family sometimes arrange something like someone who acts like Sinterklaas. Usually someone knocks on the door and quickly runs away, leaving a sack full of presents behind. Everyone takes their presents out and unpacks it and everyone eats sweets. The sweets which are only eaten at Sinterklaas are chocolate letters, 'pepernoten', marzipan and 'taaitaai'.

Sinterklaas is a very old man with a long white curly beard and long white curly hair. He wears a red tabard, a red miter and he has golden staff. It's said he's over 100 years old and lives in Spain. He comes to the Netherlands by a steamship together with the 'Zwarte Pieten'. They're black because they climb through the chimney to your house to deliver presents.

A Zwarte Piet. He's called 'Hoofdpiet'