Tuesday, December 14, 2010

sinterklaas- a dutch tradition

December 5 is the date set for St. Nicholas(sinterklaas) and his side kick  black pete (zwarte piet) to some by and drop some treats in your shoes if you have been good boys and girls...

This is the tradition I learned from my new Dutch family. My husband is dutch and his family is from the Netherlands. It has been a lot of fun learning their culture. As I have stated before, they do not have many traditions as a family, however, I am really trying to learn as much as I can about the Dutch culture.



My sister in law and I decided that we would take part every year in Sinterklaas (dec. 5) and the four of us would leave door step gifts for each other.

Last year things got out of hand, beer bottles strewn through out our yard and the police called on us for running through sister in laws "fancy" community. It was awesome!


This year we decided pranks were the way to go! Rather then do as Klaas and Pete would do we would not only leave gifts, but also a little something extra.

We decided that we would gift the most (stop reading if you like tacky yard art) hideous of all Christmas decorations.... inflatable yard displays! haha, i chuckle just thinking about it!

B already owns an ugly halloween inflatable that they use for the kids at his business... we purchased a big white polar bear who wears a hat and scarf... by the way those of you that spend $$ on these inflatable items, WOW they are not cheap! Mr. Bear was about $22 and he was 5 feet tall.... hilarious
He was the cheapest on the rack.

We wanted to make sure no one was home when we set these up, but that was very difficult, because after all, it is Dec. 5 and they were expecting something! We called in back up and got neighborhood friends involved.
We were all going to a neighborhood brunch that morning, so accomplice friend, Mr & Mrs Hopeful, called my sister in law to find out her ETA for the brunch... we waited the next street over until they left..... nothing... nothing.... nothing.....

Finally, we decided we would go to the brunch and leave early to do it...

While at the brunch, B and Mr. Hopeful decided to sneak out and set up the prank.
SUCCESS!

Marj and Dave drove home to find Mr. Bear and a giant Halloween snow globe with bats in their yard! The BEST part is that as they turned the corner and saw the items, they both said " oh great, the neighbors have gone tacky" little did they know...

In the end, our prank was so great that they did not even try to top it this year. We got the classic, Ding Ding Dash, just as good ole' Sinterklaas would do!

Cheers to Sinterklaas and the prank tradition that I hope continues!

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Are there pictures of this? If so you need to post!! :)

M said...

I believe that there is one picture, I will see if I can find it

bluemeow said...

Hilarious! I am now determined to set up an inflatable in our friend's yard. I love it!