My coworker and I arrived at our client this morning at 8:15, and in typical laid-back European fashion, not one employee from my client had arrived at work yet. So we decided to go to a small grocery store across the street. The grocery store was packed full of baked goods, toys and candy for parents to give their children from Santa. Last night at dinner, our client told us about the Netherland's tradition for Santa. Each year, Santa (called Sinterklass in Dutch) arrives in the Netherlands by steamboat. This event is nationally televised. Children are told that the steamboat hails from Spain. Santa is accompanied by his helper, Zwarte Piet (called black pete in English). Each night until December 5th, children place their shoes next to the fireplace and wake up to find little toys and candy in their shoes. Generally, on December 5th, children receive bigger toys like we do on December 25th. Our Santa Clause story originated from the Netherland's tradition.
While in the grocery store I saw toys that looked like this:
I asked my coworker what these toys were all about and she told me that the toys were of Santa's helper, Zwarte Piet. As mentioned above, Zwarte Piet is Santa's "helper". I think this explains why the US changed the story to include elves instead of Zwarte Piet. If still not sure about this, see the picture below that is similar to other Christmas images around the Netherlands:
On another note, I bought some delicious chocolate at the store. For lunch, my coworker and I wondered around the open air market and stopped in at a deli to have some coffee and sandwiches. I actually asked for a cupcake, not coffee, but I went along with the coffee once it showed up at my table. I suppose my Dutch is very hard to understand, and I feel bad for the poor waitress that was struggling to understand me. Below is the view from outside my office. There is a beautiful church facing our workplace.
Only two more days of work and then I am off to Italy!
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