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Italian Christmas Traditions
Dutch Christmas Traditions
Danish Christmas Traditions
Austrian Christmas Traditions
French Christmas Traditions
Peruvian Christmas Traditions
Russian Christmas Traditions
Argentinian Christmas Traditions
Welsh Christmas Traditions
Maltese Christmas Traditions
German Christmas Traditions
Spanish Christmas Traditions
Summary: Dutch Christmas traditions involve many unique holiday activities. Learn more about the Christmas traditions in the Netherlands with this free holiday video.
Karina Fraley is a safety expert and the official mom for mommywood.com. In addition to her work for Expert Village, she is also working on a documentary about food allergies, as well...read more
"Today we're talking about different Christmas traditions from around the world. Now we're going to the Netherlands where they actually celebrate on December 5th, and it's called Sinterklass Vond, or Saint Nicholas' Eve, and St. Nicholas is known to be a very kind and generous being. The children are told that he actually sails from Spain on December 5th, which is his feast day, and so they busily leave hay and sugar in their shoes for his horse, and in return they find candy and nuts and fruit in their shoes. And after that, on the 6th, they actually gather for some family time and everything sort of settles down until December 25th, which is Christmas. In East Holland, they actually have a tradition of a special Advent ceremony, in which special horns are blown to cast away evil spirits and to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. These horns are usually homemade. They are about three or four feet long and they blow them over wells so it actually has a sound very similar to that of a foghorn."
eHow Article: Dutch Christmas Traditions
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Comments
marije said
on 6/30/2009 This video gives some false information about the Dutch Christmas celebration.
'Sinterklaas' arrives 2 weeks before the 5th of December, he comes by steamship from Spain together with his helpers. The fifth of December people celebrate 'sinterklaas avond' and the 6th 'Sinterklaas' is moving back in silence and the feast is over. The celebration of 'sinterklaas' has no connection with the celebration of Christmas.
We celebrate Saint Nicholas' Eve 'Sinterklaas' on the fifth of December. Families gather together and in most cases after dinner people sit together and sing 'Sinterklaas' songs. These songs are meant to be heard by the helpers of 'Sinterklaas' known as black pete 'zwarte piet' he gets his colour of climbing down the chimney. 'zwarte piet' has the tasks of bringing small presents in the shoes of children during the 2 weeks Sinterklaas is in the country and bringing the bag f...