I have to get this off my chest. There may be swearies.
Living here in Holland... it's so conflicting at this time of year. I like it, yet I hate it. I want to take part, but no, I fecking hate it. I like it for the kids, but it ruins my bloody Christmas!
I've felt this way for almost 40 years now... it's probably not healthy.
For those who don't know (so that's like everyone on the planet outside of Holland, barring escapees) the Sint... (Sinterklaas, S. Nicolaas) 'arrives' in the Netherlands, on his ridiculously small 'stoomboot' (steam tug affair) from SPAIN... none of yer Santa's North Pole nonsense.. oh no. Now there's a whole history around it and I know it all but I'm not going to bore anyone here with that... look it up if you're interested and want to warp your brain for half an hour some time. But right, he comes into town, on his wee boat (and his white horse, Amerigo) and as many Black Peter's he can muster (or the council can pay for/arrange somehow... they queue up to be one, honest). There's a whole 'nother controversy about whether Zwarte Piet is black from chimneys (well there's bollix for you) or black because he was 'originally' a black African servant. This controversy gets bigger every year causing a lot of brouhaha I will also not expand upon here other than to say it's very devisive and just adds that extra bit of bleargh to it all for one who dislikes the whole thing anyway (a.k.a... me).
Sinterklaas is not your jolly Santa, but a very serious (if kind) Bishop... of all things... with a big book filled with the names of all the children and details on what they've been up to. This is surreptitiously and serendipitously supplied by quick thinking parents needing their kid reminded to brush their teeth when told, the night before the party, so he can call them up and frighten the life out of them before handing over their present... that sort of thing. The Black Peters frolic around him, being silly and throwing sweets around. Great fun really but so far terrifying to my own grandsons despite the regular singing of Sinterklaas songs for the weeks from his arrival up to his birthday on 6 December.... So like THREE WEEKS from mid-November.
There are no stockings hung here, we leave a shoe... near the window, or a door, if you don't have a fireplace, with a carrot or hay for the Sint's horse, and the usual milk and a biscuit... there are some things similar. Now this can happen in various ways. You (as a child) can put your shoe out every night (Supermarkets let you do it too!) until 5 December (party time... he leaves on the 6th in super stealth style) and only get your present(s) on the 5th... or perhaps once a week, smaller pressies... or every night or every other night a tiny thing (a bit of chocolate perhaps)... it all depends on your behaviour, or what your folks manage to con you into. You tell them that Sinterklaas can't come to all the kids, all the time, then surprise them one morning with a little present because they've been so good... that kinda thing.
Now this is all lovely, and cute and fun... all of that. But I'm a Santa girl. I grew up and started my own kids on Santa, elves and sleighs and reindeer and all things Christmas. This feckin' start of December shite drives me potty!
When we came here to NL it was end September and there was no-one who warned me about this at all. We were in the attic, up a ladder! in these *digs* with two babies and of course we didn't speak Dutch. The 'landlady' had 6 daughters all with families/boyfriends etc (only one small child) but oh let's have a 'Sinterklaas Feest', with 'surprises' (oh god, that's another thing, 'surprises' - same word, different pronunciation, kinda the same meaning but... arghghg). This was just a normal, 3 bedroomed terraced house - the logistics were horrendous for a party with all those folks but ach, in for a penny... . So we spent all we had on presents for everyone, as you do at Christmas, not knowing that generally, grown-ups pull the name of someone in the group attending, out of a hat - so each give one present, in the form of a 'surprise'. Now a surprise is just that really... a present (one you may have asked specifically for, which is another Dutch thing and I don't mean like Santa's letter, I mean like 'what would you like?'... 'xxx please'... 'ok') packed in a surprising way. So a carefully wrapped watch... at the bottom of a cup of custard perhaps? Or a necklace made of tinfoil (but your actual necklace is all wrapped up in there). Or maybe a home made cake, with a box containing a new pen, baked into it. Some folks, when having a proper Sinterklaas party (more for the adults than the kids really) take weeks designing and building say, a doll's house, that comes with all the bits and pieces, and it will contain, after much searching, a concert ticket or... whatever, you get the drift. Each gift is also (traditionally) handed over with a (also traditionally it seems, badly written) poem (although I've honestly yet to hear one that a) has any metre at all, or b) rhymes, unless by mistake at the end of a very long sentence), usually signed 'from the Sint' and mentioning things the receiver has been up to over the past year. Hilarious. If you like that sort of thing. There's always one day at school when the kids exchange 'surprises' too, with prizes for the best one, all of that. We still laugh (mirthlessly) at the 'pencil with a plastic helicopter on the end' that our elder girl got one year... oh they go all out!
Presents are handed out one by one, surprise discovered, poem read... all very convivial. It's just not Christmas. Which of course it isn't. But then, when it's all over... 'hurray, at last the shops can do Christmas stuff'!! Except, when we first came, this was not the case. You couldn't get a chocolate Santa for love nor money. There. was. no. Santa. Full stop. The Sint was yer man and he was off back to Spain (seriously, look it up). Christmas was nativity scenes, BAD carol singing (sooo bad! too slow!! and no Santa/Christmas songs, just carols) going to church (mibbes) and barely even saying Merry Christmas in whatever language! The (horrendously bad) TV *closed down* with the National Anthem at 10 pm... maybe 11 pm?... so no Christmas telly to speak of.
There was NO up early, still dark, ripping open pressies... 'Santa's been!' No kids all over the streets on their new bikes... no turkey in the oven ('Rabbit? RABBIT?!) Nothing at all special for eats in the house we were in. We (well *I*) was suicidal, I swear. Hey, I did your Sint shite, where's my Santa?! And it was my youngest's first Christmas! And we were skint but there was feck all Christmassy and even less for buying in the shops anyway, because they'd been cleaned out for stupid fecking Sinterklaas!! I swear it was the worst Christmas of my life. Luxury problems right? but still... Sure, they'd had pressies 'from Sinterklaas' (that's another thing, everything is from him, no 'ooh, see what I got from Auntie Flo...'... none of it!) but what about Santa Claus?... '...the night before Christmas and all through the house...' All of it! I was bereft.
Now this will have been different in other households no doubt, but this was my experience almost 40 years ago. Santa Claus did not exist in NL then and Christmas as celebrated in the UK did not happen. And it still doesn't, although bizzarely Santa has made more and more of an appearance over the years. A lot of Dutch keep the Sint 'for the kids' HAH! and I've seen myself at office do's making Zwarte Piet hats for all the office workers' kids and shouting 'Dag, Sinterklaas!' too, and being spoken to in a deep voice (must be that soot again) by Peter and handed sweets and laughed and played the whole game with the rest of them. But then the grown-ups (nowadays) 'do' Christmas but they still just don't GET it. Sigh.
There are shops here that get absolutely pilloried for having anything Christmas before the Sint has left the country on 6 December, but the confusion is still there and the mix of Sint and Santa abounds. Now that'd be early enough really... that's not much later than the start of the sweety advent calendar (I'm a heathen, you can tell)... I can live with that. I very much dislike the UK carry-on of Christmassy things at the end of October already! But they still get it wrong here because there is no Santa's grotto to be found even in the biggest department stores, not an elf to be seen, and presents are for Sinterklaas time so kids don't even expect anything! It's weird and I will never get used to it and will never stop objecting to it either.
Now I know, 'real' Christmas is supposed to be about the nativity... but they don't even do the nativity plays in schools... not even the 'Christian' primaries - something to do with political correctness I think. So there's no tea-cloth on the head with a snake belt, no fighting about who gets to be the angel, who's Mary... hmmm, that could be a good thing actually, but you know what I mean. I just miss it all, and have done for so many years it's ridiculous.
We strived (well, I did) to keep 'Christmas' alive in this house so while the kids were small, we did the whole Sinterklaas thing... we do live here after all... and had Christmas mornings and Christmas dinner (once I finally found where to get a bloody turkey!) As normal as possible when there are no pals to show your new stuff too and the Dutch kids just don't get it. Our girls were lucky that way I suppose but of course as they got older we dropped the Sint, and early Christmas Mornings changed to late Christmas Eves. But still dinner, still presents.
Things have changed here and new UK/US/OZ arrivals are not quite so alienated around Christmas, you can at least get decorations now! (seriously, they were all used at birthdays before!) Turkeys are to be had without special order, toy shops are certainly restocked in time, there's chocolate Santas to be had and the Christmas lights are better every year. But it's still not right. After almost 40 years, I'm thinking it never will be. The Sint comes and screws it all up... for me anyway. Of course I love any excuse to buy my grandsons wee pressies and I gee them up with the songs and the excitement same as anyone else and we're hoping they will be 'quite jocko' this year and not be terrified at the very idea of getting a cadeau (present).
But I'll always be a Santa girl. I did say it was confusing and conflicting didn't I? And by that I mean, as our oldest grandson lives in the UK, I feel sorry for him not getting Sinterklaas! Aww! But I've heard that his mummy is taking him to a party with one wahey! Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are making inroads... watch out UK :)
