please can anyone living in holland educate me?

[wtfhashappened]

We have some dutch friends coming to stay on 5th Dec and they said 'of course, that will be nice for the children to celebrate St Nicholas's day together. I know vaguely about the shoe thing, but nothing else. What should i do as the host? I don't want them to be disappointed and would like to try and suss it out without asking them as they will be so polite and say not to do anything.

The Holiday Today

In anticipation of St. Nicholas's nightly visits, children in several European countries put their shoes in front of the fire place. They sing traditional songs and provide a carrot or hay for the horse. At night Black Pete puts gifts and candy in the shoes.

In the Netherlands, families celebrate St Nicholas's birthday the night before his feast day (December 6th). At one point during the evening, a loud knock will herald the arrival of Sinterklaas and at the same time candy may be thrown from upstairs; when the door is opened, a bag of gifts will be on the doorstep.

For families with older children and adults, different twists are added to the gift giving and may include gag gifts or the drawing of gift ideas or names, and most times are accompanied by poems with a "personal touch" that poke fun at the recipient in a gentle way (or not, depending on the families ;) ). Wrapping the presents up in odd packages and planting a trail of clues is also part of the general fun, and can sometimes be pretty tricky to get to, depending on the squeamishness of the recipients.
and read this TOO

have a look here. Ask them to bring the wooden shoes!

Hi..as a host i would serve hot chocolatemilk ( sorry for the bad writing)on top of the normal dinks ( coffee/tea and cola etc. You can also put "pepernoten" on the table.They are very small cookies..everyone in holland eats them...but only for "Sinterklaas". For the kids you can buy a little present ...don't give the kids the present yourself but try to give it to the parent's without the kids noticing (..they then will pretent sinterklaas of zwarte piet has knocked on your window and left a (special sinterklaas) bag with presents...it's a hassle but again one of the many beautiful things in holland,...hahaha...thank god for bringing santa claus to holland. I hope you have a nice evening