Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicolas, was a Dutch bishop. Long story short, he saved three poor girls, he was made a saint, and now children in Holland celebrate his birthday as a nation. The night before Sinterklaas would visit the children (like Santa Claus), they would leave their shoes, klompen, by the fireplace and fill them with apples and carrots to treat the horse which Sinterslaas rode. He, in tern, would leave some candy or other treat in their shoes, if there were good, and coal if they had been bad.
The celebrations are usually the night before his birthday, and families gathered and ate chocolate initials, pepernoten (small, ginger cookies), speculaas (cinnamon and clover cookies), and marzipan.
Both sets of my grandparents immigrated from Holland and my immediate family always gathers to celebrate on December 5th. So here are some rough sketches of some of my ideas: very VERY rough.
- Joelle
Darn.. this was what I was going to do! haha.. gotta think up something new now...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely go with the first idea because it's really creative and fits your child's theme
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