5 December Sinterklaas

[Marcellarius]

Hello,

in Holland we have a tradition on 5 December we celebrate the birthday of sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas is a holy man and the tradition tells that he's from Spain and he has servants called "zwarte piet" (black piet)

so 5 December is called "gifts night" and when you have young children they get a bag of gifts.
when the children are getting older there is a is a second tradition and people are making surprises to hide there gifts in. (like a pi?ata) and you have to make a poem that goes along with it.

we started with a gourmet meal and then get to te unwrapping.
my daughter made Perry the platypus from Phineas en Ferb, she called me  Dr. Doofenshmirtz in the poem because I have a dust cloak when sawing. (I like to watch Phineas en Ferb with them)
after we where ready unwrapping the surprises, there was an other surprise, my wife had bought presents for everyone.
because of the age of the children we decided not to buy presents, but she was our secret sinterklaas

we had a great afternoon/night and is was "old-fashioned fun"

[dgman]

Sounds like a fun time for all Marcel! Some fun gifts for sure. Tell us about the gourmet meal!

[GrayBeard]

Wonderful to learn the "Holiday Traditions" of other countries!

Looks like you had a wonderful party!

Please, tell us more about the meal!
AND post recipes!!!!
I love to cook new things!

~~~GrayBeard~~~

[yyyyyguy]

Marcellarius - I had a teacher in my one room school house in the 50/60's, she would show us how Christmas and other holidays were celebrated in other countries and I very much remember Sinterklaas as one of her special favorites, thanks for jump starting some old memories

[julief]

What a wonderful celebration.  I love that the gifts were home made.

[Kepy]

Quite a few years ago, I was a 6th grade geography teacher and during the two weeks prior to Christmas break, the students researched Christmas around the world and did a presentation to the class.  Giving out samples of traditional foods from their country was worth an extra 50 points.  Needless to say, I usually gained weight during the presentation week.  Sure wish we had the internet at that time.

[Marcellarius]

unfortunately I forgot to take pictures from the meal this year......
so I searched some pictures from internet.   
I don't know the English names for it, but in Holland we do a lot of "gourmetten"
I guess you do it to, it's quit popular over here.

the principle is simple:
you buy all kind of meat (sometimes pre-pretreated) chicken, beef, pork, mini hamburgers, roulades and sausages.

and there are vegetables like paprika, champions, union
everyone bakes his own meat/vegetables on top of the gourmet pan

and there is baguette, cucumber and Russian salad (My wife add extra potatoes and meat)
and off course there are a lot of different sauce

Do you all know this ?

getting hungry again 

[heiko rettberg]

I know that. oh its soooo delcate, i get hungry. yam yam.