Your Bonus Christmas Saint
The original title of this blog was “A Year Without Holidays” when my first 2-month plan at backpacking stretched 14 months instead. I thought being abroad meant I wouldn’t get to have my holidays.
That’s adorable. Being part of a wider world doesn’t diminish your holidays or traditions, it enhances them. Just as favorite songs or dishes show up best in varied playlists and menus.
Today, in my new home in the Netherlands, it’s Sinterklaas. Comparisons with Santa Claus are inevitable, since both are large white-bearded guys in red & white robes bringing presents for the kids in December, attended by elves, and derivations of Saint Nicholas. The fact that the Low Countries’ version came on a boat from Spain does not threaten a sled from the North Pole.
Of course there are abundant historical influences and lots of traditions to list, but I’ll leave the academia for another day, same for whether his blackface assistant is racist. Interesting topics, but I’m focused. On what?
The sweet stuff, of course. Gotta gain some weight if we’re going to survive the winter, no?
Sinterklaas’s connection to Spain may be a result of his traditional gifts of oranges, familiar from my own childhood, when we thought “wow, when our grandparents were kids, an orange was a big deal.” We shook our heads in wonder, deposited the fruit in the communal bowl, and dove into our chocolate.
That same increase in caloric abundance is thriving here, where the holiday brings little gingerbready biscuits called pepernoten, sometimes coated in chocolate, crunchy brown sugar speculaas cookies, sometimes coated in chocolate, and big chocolate letters of each child’s first name. Sometimes coated in chocolate.
I’ve semi-celebrated these traditions for years, but being here is a delight, seeing the goodies and decorations spring up around town. What I didn’t expect was how punctual the Dutch are in their treat-buying. (I really should have known.) When I went to the store a couple days ago, the racks of letters were down to a morose line of mostly M’s.
So family back home, you have two weeks to think of words that begin with M that describe yourselves or our relationship. (Mom, yours is easy.)
Happy Sinterklaas everybody, and happy shared world of holidays!
