As we are bringing up our children in a different culture than our native Australian culture, we are learning all the new Dutch (well, new for us!) traditions at roughly the same time that the kids are learning them. Seeing as we are not Shell or ICC expats, we can't afford to be completely separate in our own bubble apart from the culture here in our adopted homes. As such, our kids go to a Dutch school and will grow up as Dutch kids (funnily enough, our oldest is a bit annoyed that she only has an Australian passport, and not a Dutch one...).
Sinterklaasjournaal
So, in this few weeks of lead up to tonight's Pakjesavond, we have been following every night the Sinterklaasjournal. We began doing this a couple of years ago, when our oldest started school, and when we first started hearing and learning about it. Basically, each year, there is a nightly TV broadcast (about 10 minutes, structured like a news segment) from the NPO (public broadcaster) which documents the arrival of Sinterklaas to Netherlands from Spain, and the several weeks of chaos as the Zwarte Pieten try to get the pakjes (presents) ready for the big event on 5th of December.
It's really a nice thing that all the kids at the school talk about, and they are on tenterhooks.... hoping that the Pieten will sort everything out, and that nothing will go wrong with them getting the presents to the right places on the right day!
Our little one isn't really quite understanding what is going on, but she enjoys watching the TV on the tablet.
This is the jaaroverzicht (the year overview) from last year, 2017.
Trippel Trappel
... and the other tradition that we seem to have begun with, is the yearly broadcast of Trippel Trappel Dierensinterklaas on the afternoon of the 5th of December. We are watching this as I'm writing this post up! It is a great little cartoon which documents the adventures of three little animals (dieren) who are trying to get their Sinterklaas wish-list to Sinterklaas before Pakjesavond.
A touch less scary than Tim Burton's Night before Christmas... perhaps that will be for when they grow up a bit!
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