My wife and I dread December. Not only is the whole month a whirlwind of activity leading up to Christmas, both our children have December birthdays. My brother-in-law is Jewish, and we’re always welcomed into the Hannukah festivities. The worst year was when a birthday, Christmas, and first night of Hannukah all occurred on the same day – something that is happening again this year. Plus, of course, we celebrate Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas is a traditional holiday generally celebrated in the Netherlands and its former colonies, Belgium, and parts of Germany and France. It takes its name from its central figure who, like Santa Claus, has his origins in St. Nicholas, an early Christian bishop who lived in what is now Turkey. In fact, Santa Claus owes much of his origin to Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas has much in common with Christmas. However, unlike Christmas, Sinterklaas is celebrated on December 6, the feast day of St. Nicolas in the Christian calendar. Both Sinterklaas (also called “Sint”) and Santa deliver gifts the night before their respective holidays, Sinterklaas often arrives in the Netherlands in mid-November and travels around the country visiting children, participating in parades, and handing out treats and gifts.
While Sint and Santa have much in common, they have many differences. Sint lives in Spain (probably rooted in the fact that the Netherlands was part of the Spanish empire until the 16th century), travels by steamboat, and rides a horse. As well, Sint’s appearance is rooted in his church origins, so he is dressed like a bishop.
Since only my father is Dutch, we did not observe many of the Dutch cultural traditions, and definitely not in the way they do in the Netherlands. My great grandmother, Elizabeth Bakker (1888 – 1976), always sent us a package of goodies for Sinterklaas. However, at the time I didn’t know it was for Sinterklaas. I never even heard of Sinterklaas until well after my great grandmother died. I thought the package was for Christmas and that she sent it early in the month so it would get to us in time.
I loved those packages – they always contained many of the traditional Sinterklaas treats: pepernoten, kruidnoten, taai taai, and speculaas (all forms of spiced cookies, somewhat like gingerbread, although the former two are quite small); marzipan; borstplaat; and, of course, chocoladeletters (“chocolate letters”)!!
The letters originated centuries ago as baked goods, but are now almost exclusively made of chocolate. It is traditional to receive a chocolate letter of the initial of your first name. When we were kids, there was always an argument that some letters were bigger than others so they had more chocolate. The truth is that, while the surface area of each letter might differ, they are manufactured in different thicknesses so that every letter contains the same amount. The other problem is finding letters that are uncommon initials for names in the Netherlands, although that is less of a problem than it used to be.
Chocolate letters are another item for which, outside the Netherlands, the availability seems to change over time. When I was a kid, they seemed to be available everywhere. Purdy’s made their own for a while, but I haven’t seen them there in a long time. In recent years, the only place I could find them were in Dutch stores. Even then, I could not find Droste letters – the absolute best ones, bar none – anywhere. You could only find the secondary brands. I once asked a vendor if Droste no longer shipped to Canada, and was told they were simply too expensive to carry. Luckily, a couple years ago I found Droste chocoladeletters in a Dutch store in Lethbridge.
Fortunately, chocolate letters seem to be getting easier to find again, as I saw them being sold in many mainstream supermarkets and shops last Christmas. I first noticed them showing up a couple years ago in a local independent grocery store that specializes in Asian foods and ingredients of all places. Plus, in our neighbourhood of Steveston, there is a chocolatier that makes them – in every letter!
Our kids are more immersed in Sinterklaas. We’ve been marking it every year since our eldest was born. In fact, we thought he might arrive on Sinterklaas! Every year, the kids will put out their shoes along with some klompen (clogs), as well as a snack for Sint and his horse. The last few years they’ve also left notes. Then we’ll watch a few YouTube videos with Sinterklaasliedjes (“Sinterklaas songs”) and then off to bed.
When our eldest was in second or third grade, he made a presentation to his class about Sinterklaas. He asked for help with that, and I gave him a few things he could take to school. Our youngest did the same thing last year – except I had no idea he was doing it until after the fact! He had asked me to email his teacher a video of a Sinterklaas song, but I didn’t know what it was for or that it was part of his presentation. His teacher emailed us to say that he knocked it out of the park!
Of course, anyone even vaguely familiar with Sinterklaas has probably heard of Zwarte Piet (“Black Piet”). For decades, Zwarte Piet was seen as Sint’s delightful helper. The association many people have with a beloved childhood memory likely makes it difficult to accept the unsavory fact that Piet is anything other than a negative stereotype. I don’t buy any of the arguments defending this outdated and offensive figure, which are based on fallacies, myths, and disregard for history. It’s often a waste of breath to argue and about this time of year I have to mute my social media feeds connected to the Netherlands.
While a bit on the academic side, Black Pete: Analyzing a Racialized Dutch Tradition Through the History of Western Creations of Stereotypes of Black Peoples provides a thoughtful analysis of the problem.
While Piet remains a polarizing topic, in recent years it seems that attitudes are changing and the popularity of Zwarte Piet as traditionally depicted has begun to decrease dramatically. Over the last ten years or so, there has also been a shift to reforming or rebooting the character, with the emergency of Roetveegpiet (“Sooty Piet”) (characters with dirty faces due to the soot of the chimney) and Kleurenpiet (“Coloured Piet”) (characters with faces of all colours of the rainbow).
Meanwhile, Sinterklaas is less than a month away – better start planning for another busy December!
A Deck of Ancestors 