As you all of course know, it is Sinterklaas tomorrow!!
Ooh wait, you have no idea what I'm talking about? Well, listen ( or read..) up then.
The English-speaking countries are very fond of there whole Christmas tradition with Santa Claus.
But Sinterklaas was there first
Originally Sinterklaas was celebrated on 6 December, the name day of Saint Nicholas. That explains the name, sint meaning saint and klaas being an abriveation of Nicholas.
Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of children and was a bishop in Turkey. But because he was burried in a Spanish city, the Dutch story tells that he comes from Spain. ( In Spain he is known as a patron for sailors, more on that later)
Sinterklaas is assisted by many mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful Moorish dresses. These helpers are called 'Zwarte Pieten' (Black Petes). During the Middle-ages Zwarte Piet was a name for evil. Although the character of Black Pete later came to acquire racial connotations, his origins were in the evil figure. Good and bad play an important role in the feast: good is rewarded, bad and evil is punished. Hence the duplication of the one Saint in a saint and a (frolicking) devil.
The feast was both an occasion to help the poor, by putting money in their shoes (which evolved into putting presents in children's shoes) and a wild feast, similar to Carnival, that often led to costumes, a "topsy-turvy" overturning of daily roles, and mass public drunkenness. ( that was wikipedia speaking
)Okay, so we know who Sinterklaas is and how his nameday was celebrated in the Middle-ages. But nowadays we celebrate it a little bit differently. Sinterklaas arrives into town with a steamboat ( this because of his patronage of sailors and comming from Spain ) with all of his Zwarte Pieten. Zwarte Pieten are not at all a devil anymore. It is a friend of children and they are very happy fella's. The arival of Sinterklaas in town happens one week before 5 December ( the date on wich we celebrate it now). In that week Dutch children put one of their shoes in front of the fireplace, chimney or outside. In their shoe they put apples, carrots and sugar cubes. They sing songs about Sinterklaas like:
Hear the wind over rooftops humming
in the chimney hear it blow
will Saint Nicholas still be coming
through the storms and through the snow
tbrough the stonns and through the snow
Yes he comes though storms be beating
on his horse so strong and fast
if he hears our heart a-beating
surely he would not ride past
surely he would not ride past
Why do that?, one might ask. Children do this because in that week Sinterklaas hands out presents. To story tells that he rides the rooftops on his white steed and his Zwarte Pieten climb down the chimney and put presents in the shoes of the kids. The apples, carrots and sugar cubes+the songs are to make sure Sinterklaas won't forget you because you gave his horse a treat. The whole putting the shoe in front of the chimney happens before going to bed, and the next morning there is a small present in the shoe. ( Sinterklaas had a key that fits every lock, because not everyone has got a chimney big enough for the Black Petes to fit in)
BUT WAIT!!
THERE IS MORE! WAAAA! AWESOME WALD, TELL US MORE!!!
pff, jeezz. Okay, but calm the fuck down man..
Now back to the actual day it self, 5 December.
On the evening of 5 December, ("pakjesavond") the main presents will somehow arrive, or a note will be "found" that explains where in house the presents were hidden by Zwarte Piet who left a burlap sack with them. Sometimes a neighbor will knock on the door and leave the sack outside for the children to retrieve; this varies per family.(my father used to say he had to go to the toilet and then ring the doorbell, and leave the presents there. I felt so stupid when I discovered that xD)
Older children in Dutch families where the children are too old to believe in Sinterklaas anymore, also often celebrate Christmas with presents instead of pakjesavond, but often there is a period of a few years where pakjesavond is still celebrated, but the family members (children as well as grownups) give one other family member (chosen by sortition) a special present called a "surprise". The surprise is normally personalized for the receiver, and often comes with a personalized "Sinterklaas poem". A surprise (from the French word) is a present that has been packaged in a special way, for example in a large cardboard gamecomputer. ( because the receiver likes games)
Wikipedia has something very cool to say about the link between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus:
Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence, the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam), reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city's non-English past.[17] The name Santa Claus supposedly derived from older Dutch Sinter Klaas. However, the Saint Nicholas Society was not founded until 1835, almost half a century after the end of the war.[18] In a study of the "children's books, periodicals and journals" of New Amsterdam, the scholar Charles Jones did not find references to Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas.[19] Not all scholars agree with Jones's findings, which he reiterated in a book in 1978.[20] Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlement of the Hudson Valley. He agrees that "there can be no question that by the time the revival of St. Nicholas came with Washington Irving, the traditional New Netherlands observance had completely disappeared."[21] However, Irving's stories prominently featured legends of the early Dutch settlers, so while the traditional practice may have died out, Irving's St. Nicholas may have been a revival of that dormant Dutch strand of folklore. In his 1812 revisions to A History of New York, Irving inserted a dream sequence featuring St. Nicholas soaring over treetops in a flying wagon — a creation others would later dress up as Santa Claus.
But was Irving the first to revive the Dutch folklore of Sinterklaas? In New York, two years earlier John Pintard published a pamphlet with illustrations of Alexander Anderson in which he calls for making Saint Nicholas the patron Saint of New York and starting a Sinterklaas tradition. He was apparently assisted by the Dutch because in his pamphlet he included an old Dutch Sinterklaas poem with an English translation. In the Dutch poem, Saint Nicholas is referred to as 'Sancta Claus'.[14] Ultimately, his initiative helped Sinterklaas to pop up as Santa Claus in the Christmas celebration, which returned - freed of episcopal dignity and ties - via England and later Germany to Europe again.
But the fun does not end here!! At the time of Sinterklaas we make and eat special Dutch treats.
I've posted a recipe for pepernoten here: http://alttabme.com/forum/index.php?threads/pepernoten-how-to-make-a-dutch-holliday-treat.1679/
Ooh yeaa, Sinterklaas leaves at 6 December without any note and we don't see him again untill next year.
If you have any questions about Sinterklaas ( or anything else
) just ask me 
