Origianally posted Jan 10, 2006
The holiday season in Holland begins with great anticipation of “Sinterklaas". Sinterklaas makes his arrival by boat from Spain on November 23rd, bearing gifts. Each Dutch child puts a wooden shoe out on the doorstep, and every few days from the 23rd to the 5th of December Sinterklaas leaves a small gift in the shoe- candy, a book, maybe some crayons. With each gift is attached a small poem personalized to each child about the gift they've received. The big gifts are left for the kids on the night of the 5th- the night all the children anticipate the most! These gifts are the ones most like the ones American children would be given on Christmas. Kevin's sister Kathy was here visiting us for Thanksgiving, and she left us all with (stockings, not shoes) full of Sinterklaas gifts for December 5, complete with poems attached to each gift. So thanks to our first US visitor, we enjoyed our 1st Dutch holiday quite nicely!
After Sinterklaus has come and gone, the shopping frenzy dies down and Christmas comes quietly. Christmas in Holland is quite different than in the USA. It is far less commercial, and thus a lot less stressful, though we missed the sights and sounds of Christmas out and about. We did go for a one day trip to Munster, Germany where we spent the day at one of the many German Christmas markets. It was fun to be in the outdoor market and see all the lights and decorations.
We spent Christmas Eve first at church, then home just the 5 of us, Kevin, Kathy, Kristi, Kenny and Kristi's visiting friend Kristina. Al and Deela and the kids came over and Christmas Day after the morning service at church, and we had a great meal and an afternoon of fun, including spending a lot of time dancing with Kenny’s new “Dance, Dance Revolution” play station game. Even Kevin and Al joined in the fun! The day after Christmas, Kristi and Kristina's friend, Dani, joined us for another week and a half.
New Years Eve is something unlike you would ever see in the USA. We were told there would be a lot of fireworks, but our minds sure didn't conjure up the picture of what the night was actually like. At midnight we went outside, and were completely surrounded with fireworks from every direction. It sounded like a war zone and the place was thick with smoke. Any and all kinds of fireworks are legal, from 10 am until 2:00 am, and every kind of firework imaginable goes off in every direction and from every direction. It is quite a sight. I think most dog owners must need to put their dogs on tranquilizers. We’ve been told that about 50 million euros go up in smoke during those four hours. So, our New Year came in with a bang.
Another holiday tradition here is a food called Oliebollens (oil balls). These are clumps of dough deep fried and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. The history of this treat goes way back in years when people were quite poor, but wanted to find something economical yet festive that would fill the stomach. The tradition has stuck. One man from the church fried up 250 oliebollens the day before New Years Eve, and brought some over to our home on New Years Day.
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