St Nicholas Day anyone?

[Misty9]

I'm quarter Dutch and my Oma died last year so as a nod to my heritage and to spread the presents out I'm thinking of celebrating st Nicholas Day on 5th December. In Holland they put clogs out for sweets/small presents, so I was thinking wellies?!

Anyone else do this? Any ideas? Dc are 4 and 1.

Dutchie here, we just use any old shoes They don't have to be wooden ones.

Sorry for your loss, OP.

I would put the focus on traditional foods/games TBH.

You know that Sinterklaas comes quite a few times (if you're lucky) between mid November and 5 December, right? You can put your shoe out maybe 2x a week and get a little present, pocket money toy type thing. Or a chocolate letter.

German here and we use boots. The kids usually borrow am adult's boot because they're bigger

Oh good, the postage on my Oma's clogs would be horrendous! Yes I read it was between mid November when the steamboat comes in (?!) and culminates on 5th December when a sack of presents are delivered. Might do a few shoe offerings then :)

Traditional food/games? Ooh, I'm all ears?

We always do this as DD has a German Omi, love it, it's like a tiny extra Christmas. We normally put out whatever shoes (wellies when that tiny, school shoes when bigger as wellies would take tonnes to fill) and St Nicholas fills them with sweets, lebkuchen, chocolate coins, candy canes and a couple of small presents - last year it was new PJ's and a dvd. The Christmas list gets left in with the shoes so he can deliver it to Father Christmas (and so we get ages to see what's on it).

Chocolate letters, ah - brings back memories of us all fighting over whose initial meant the most chocolate! I'm a J... My brother is an A and definitely seemed better off!

Aww, wonky that sounds lovely - how often do you put the shoes out?

And where do I put the shoes?!

We put them under the central heating thermostat (old Dutch tradition )

If you have an open hearth then that would be ideal.

Will Google up some food/games links for you in the AM.

We only put them out on Dec 5 night, not sure if it's a German difference or just how our family do it but my DM (dd's Omi) did it with us as kids so it's lovely carrying it on. I always line the shoes/wellies with food bags so the sweets stay non sweaty and it's easier to get them out, oh and I always put a satsuma or teeny apple in the toe, again no idea why, just how it was done when I was young :D

We were told traditionally you put them outside the front door but obviously not a great idea these days with rain/chancers/foxes so we've always put them just inside the front door instead.

We've got a huge open hearth ever hopeful for a woodburner so that will be perfect :) good tip re lining the shoes too! Might start using Sinterklass as an incentive for ds to behave from mid November then

We used to have a special back door key for Nikolaus ( and he's collects Father Christmas letters here too), but now have a proper fireplace so he can come through the chimney. I usually sprinkle a bit of glitter around the boots and to the point of entrance/exit.

Open hearth would be perfect as one St Nicholas story is that he dropped coins into some poor sisters' stocking as they hung drying by the fire.

I guess you don't speak any Dutch Misty9?

I haven't tried this or any pepernoten recipe but this is THE Sinterklaas food - it's what the Pieten throw around for kids during Sinterklaas.

www.food.com/recipe/dutch-pepernoten-195547

They sometimes seem to magically appear around the house when Sinterklaas is in the country. The Pieten can throw them through walls you see.

Sounds like they're solid enough to throw through walls ohmyeye I'm gluten free but might give them a try, thank you. If only gluten free lebkuchen existed bloody loved that stuff.

Hema now have a UK webshop. They already have chocolate letters and pepernoten (and less festively, stroopwafels).

Wow, just looked at Hema and I think my debit card started to cry - there's some fab stuff on there, already planning to get a chocolate letter and the St Nicholas sweets

Ooh, i shall add hema to my activities to do way in advance of Christmas list

Just checked and only four letters available it seems - which covers three of us but dd will miss out
The chocolate nuts look perfect too.

I spent a year in Holland as a young child. 35 years later I still have gingerbread on 6 Dec. and I'm sure this year influenced me in no small way on the highly unsuitable boyfriend I was with far longer than healthy who was called Nicholas and born on 6 Dec

bike

Ooh, we could bake gingerbread on the 5th or leave the uncles to do it while we read the papers

They might have more chocolate letters in in the run up to December. It is a dangerous shop. Even worse when you have a store to go into.

'S' or 'P' for Sint or Piet are always acceptable too Misty.