Sure enough, we couldn’t escape it here either.
Moving 650 kilometers away doesn’t mean we have to miss out on the most important man of the year: St. Nicholas. As it turns out, he’s perfectly capable of making his way to Berlin.
Whether he made his way over the rooftops or maybe just hopped on a train, or whether it was actually just a Dutch guy in disguise who does an incredibly good job—fortunately, it doesn’t matter, because my child doesn’t ask about such things yet.
Fact: He even came here twice, making for exhausting but amazing St. Nicholas weeks filled with songs, homemade miters, carrots in our shoes, and peppernuts.
To start with, he was invited to the Dutch school. With his helpers and all, songs—a schoolyard full of students, teachers, and staff. And they’d already been talking extensively about Sinterklaas for at least two weeks beforehand. And about the Sinterklaas news program; which we then watched every evening via “Uitzending gemist.”
Then our friend M. came to visit. And she brought a CD of Sinterklaas songs. I thought that was nice. Our son then fell asleep to those songs every night for a whole week. As the songs played from the old black radio with a CD player, Max memorized all the lyrics and sang the songs for us during the day.
After the Sinterklaas celebration at school, there was another one at the Dutch embassy. Maybe a bit too much of a good thing, but we’d already signed up, so we were going. The embassy is right on the banks of the Spree, so the same man—wearing the same hat and the same cloak—arrived by boat. Across the water, two “Pieten” in yellow-green suits were cycling back and forth. And all the children started shouting: “Over here, you have to be here! Across the water!” I seriously wondered what the Berliners must have thought of that—two of those crazy guys on Dutch bikes, just riding back and forth. What explanation would they have given? “Yes, sir, we’re here to hand out presents. For St. Nicholas! You know.” Oh, you don’t know?”
So many Petes. And kid Petes—especially cute and a brilliant invention. Because even the scared kids aren’t afraid anymore when little Petes are handing out candy too. And the mayor? He was played by the deputy ambassador. Nice guy, by the way.
Inside: presents, presents, presents. And then quickly back home.
And then there’s St. Nicholas Eve, too. With an unbelievable number of presents—more than in previous years.
Now I’m done with it.
He’s gone from here too, back to the Netherlands. Spain. Wherever.
I just dropped off the last of the peppernuts at the daycare. They can munch on those there with peace of mind.
They’ve already heard plenty about Sinterklaas this year. And now, thanks to my daughter, they’re also learning right away what it means to share treats.
