Traditionally, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on the eve of 5th December, with festive family parties when gifts and surprises are exchanged. This celebration is the most awaitng event of most children here in Holland, which children sing Sinterklaas songs and put their shoes next to the window or
door, or, by the fireplace or heater, along with a nice drawing, a
wish-list and a carrot or hay, and maybe a saucer of water, for the
horse. Children are looking forward in the next day or on 5th December to receive presents from Sinterklaas if they are behave well, that is the idea believed by the children where Zwarte Piet keeps a record of all the things they have done in the past
year in a book and that good children will get presents from
Sinterklaas, but bad children will get chased by Zwarte Piet with a
stick. Most of the parents, significant family members or friends are the only who put presents on their shoes or dressed like a Sinterklaas so as many children as possible get a chance to see Sinterklaas and get a present. The main reason for this is to teach the children what is good and bad, and the thought of gift-giving or sharing with others.
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| Sinterklaas Slinger |
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Sinterklaas is basically for children but here in the Netherlands, adults also join on this celebration. Dutch people love to have fun with their family and friends especially making surprise to them. The element of surprise is a small gift may be wrapped in
a huge box, or it may be hidden and require following clues to discover
where it is. So yesterday, me and Dennis, including his father and brother, held our first Sinterklaas celebration because we would not have much time to do it on 5 December. Even we don´t have yet kids in our family, we decided to celebrate it just to have a family bonding with fun, enjoyment and surprises. I told Dennis that it would be more fun if we were going to play a game like what we did last year together with Dennis´friends. But I planned to divert this game which suited for us that would make interesting and enjoyable for the father and brother of Dennis. I was thinking to make a Sinterklaas board game with full of consequences and rewards but I was lucky to find the same board game I was thinking of in one of the stores here and it was nice that it´s not so expensive to buy it. It was also the same game where some members of the Badminton club held their Sinterklaas celebration last Friday night. I bought also a Sinterklaas decoration (Sinterklaas slingers) to feel more the spirit of celebration. It was great that all of us were enjoyed and surprised last night.
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| Sinterklaas cadeautjes |
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| Sinterklaas board game |
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