"What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." Colette

Dec 5, 2012

Sinterklaas is Coming...



In the Netherlands, THE holiday for kids is St. Nicholas Day.  Sinterklaas arrives on his white horse, on a barge, via rivers and canals, and since the majority of Holland is below sea level, every town is sure to get a visit from him or one of his helpers.  Kids set out their wooden shoes for presents.

Sinterklaas is accompanied by Black Peter; P-in-C I know, but it’s the custom.  If you’re bad, continually, you get tossed into Peter’s sack and whisked off to Spain.

Especially mid-winter, that never sounded so bad.  The link has a more detailed description, plus the site has many more cultures, but this is the gist of what I was told.

A gift may be accompanied by a poem, written by the giver.  At the office in Rotterdam, my co-workers educated me royally on the “Comedy Roast” aspect of that annoying little tradition.  I spoke Dutch badly, as I do German, Spanish and more and more these days, English, so that was a favorite target.

I don’t remember my own to Tino except for the last stanza:
 
“…But December 5th,
a Poem with,
a Present, is a BITCH.”

So imagine how tickled I was this morning, December 5th, to open an email announcing my Christmas spoof-poem, The Night Before Food Stamps,  had just been published on Yahoo.

Who knew?

My wooden shoes are packed away in Mom’s attic, but I do have a recycled Croc I’m putting out tonight.  I believe.

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