The Dutch "Santa"

He spells his name "Sinta Klaas" and he looks a bit like the other dude "Santa Claus" but this guy does things a bit different and has little black helpers called "Black Peter" (below is a picture of a Black Peter).

The Sinta celebration happens on the 5th of December - I don't know why. I'm hoping some Dutch culture class in the future will make this clear. Martijn's family decided that we would celebrate this day in November - for reasons that probably will not be explained in the Dutch culture class.

There are three things you have to do on this day and your preparations are supposed to start at least a month (or more) before The Day. From a lottery thing you have a name of someone in the family for whom you must:

1. Write a poem (which usually mentions some silly things that this person has done during the year)

2. Buy a gift

3. Make a gift that has somesort of deep and or funny meaning (and I mean 'make', with your hands).

On this day you have to pretend that your poem and gifts all come from Sinta Klaas. You sit around in a circle and wait for your turn. When it is your turn to open your gifts, you first have to read aloud the poem created for you. Then you get the surprise gift. And then you can open your 'real' gift. Not too hard you may think.

Unfortunately for me, Martijn's mother made my poem. And it was long. Very long. And in Dutch. And I had to sit in the circle surrounded by Martijn's family and SLOWLY read my way through the poem. Martijn sat beside me and tried to help as I realised that words were not rhyming as they were supposed to.

This lasted about 3 hours.

Just over 12 months to psych myself up for the next one.