Sinterklaasavond

Friday night, F and I celebrated Sinterklaas with his family. For those of you who don't know, Sinterklaas is "a traditional holiday figure in the Netherlands, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas' eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children." (More info here.)

This year, instead of picking names, we decided to do what essentially amounted to a White Elephant gift exchange. There were eight of us participating, so we decided on three presents per person, for a total of 24. Each gift was to be accompanied by a traditional Sinterklaas poem, which hints at the package's content. We decided against elaborate wrapping, which is normally made out of papier-mâché and formed so that it also suggests the identity of the present.

Except that, my father-in-law decided that he wanted to do the elaborate wrapping and thus, these were two of the offerings:




Incredible, aren't they? The man is an artistic genius. I had to steal the pig back from my brother-in-law, but I was so enamored of the packaging, I didn't much care about the gift inside! My father-in-law helped me carefully cut it out of the back of the pig, and now the empty packaging sits on my dining table, with Frankenstein-like stitches up the back.

-k