Sinterklaas

To Santa or not to Santa?  That is the question.  We've never made a big deal out of the big guy.  We don't visit him at the mall.  We don't really tell his story or give him credit for any of the gifts under the tree.  This year, however, Ella is starting to ask a lot of questions:  "Is he real?  Why are there so many of him?  Why doesn't he visit our house?"  We've given her satisfactory answers and decided this year to go ahead and teach the kids about a tradition from their Dutch heritage-- Sinterklaas.

I've always thought the story of Sinterklaas and his helper Zwarte (Black) Pete was pretty interesting!  We've had this ornament for a while and we've told the girls the short story explaining it: Sinterklaas is the Dutch Santa.  He's based on a real person.  On December 5, he rides around with his chimney-sweeping helper putting treats in the wooden shoes of the good children.  The naughty children are given rocks and sticks and the really naughty children are stuffed into Black Pete's empty sack and taken away. (If you want to read more about it, you can click here.)

So we told the longer story last night, explaining what the kids in the Netherlands do to celebrate Sinterklaas Eve.  We listened to a few Dutch Sinterklaas songs (anyone remember singing "Sinterklaas Kapoentje" at the Museum of Science and Industry in kindergarten?).  We also put carrots in the borrowed klompies for Sinterklaas's horse.

The girls had a spring in their step when they came out of bed this morning.  It was fun to see them light up at the discovery of little wrapped presents and chocolate coins in the wooden shoes.  We open presents on Christmas Eve and don't include Santa.  I really enjoyed getting to finally see the magic of this through kids' eyes!