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You are usually the one helping children put out a shoe and keeping\nthe secret, and you may be pulled into the adult version too: a poem, a homemade surprise, and a\nshared evening on 5 December.",[129,130,132],"h2",{"id":131},"shoes-songs-and-the-run-up-to-5-december","Shoes, songs and the run-up to 5 December",[125,134,135],{},"Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands by steamboat in mid-November, at a televised national\nintocht, and every town holds its own local parade too. From that arrival until 5 December,\nchildren may put out a shoe near the heating or the chimney in the evening (schoentje zetten),\nsing a Sinterklaas song, and sometimes leave a carrot for the horse; the next morning there is a\nsmall present or some sweets inside. How often this happens is entirely up to your host parents,\nsome do it once a week, some most nights, so ask rather than assuming a pattern.",[125,137,138],{},"One rule matters more than any of the details: in front of small children, never say that\nSinterklaas is not real. Play along, the way the rest of the household does.",[129,140,142],{"id":141},"pakjesavond-5-december","Pakjesavond, 5 December",[125,144,145],{},"The evening of 5 December, pakjesavond, is the climax. The family eats together, and at some\npoint during or after dinner a sack of presents appears at the door, often with a knock and\nnobody quite catching who left it. Everyone opens their presents together. What your own part in\nthis looks like, whether you receive a present too, whether you help hide the sack or answer the\ndoor, is a household-specific detail, so ask your host family beforehand rather than being\nsurprised on the night.",[129,147,149],{"id":148},"lootjes-surprises-and-the-gedicht","Lootjes, surprises and the gedicht",[125,151,152],{},"Older children and adults in a household sometimes draw lots (lootjes trekken) weeks in advance,\nagree a small budget, and give each other a surprise: a handmade paper or cardboard object that\nhides the real gift inside, along with a gedicht, a rhyming poem that teases the receiver, in a\nfriendly way, about their year. If your host family does this and includes you, it is a genuine\nsign you are treated as part of the household, and it is also real work: ask early how much time\nand budget it usually takes, so you are not building a surprise the night before. Typical festive\nfoods around this period are pepernoten, kruidnoten, speculaas, chocolate letters and marzipan.",[129,154,156],{"id":155},"zwarte-piet-and-roetveegpiet","Zwarte Piet and Roetveegpiet",[125,158,159],{},"Sinterklaas is accompanied by helpers called Pieten. In the traditional version, Piet was played\nwith a fully blackened face, red lips and a curly wig, a look many people, particularly Black\nDutch people, see as a racist caricature with roots in a colonial past; other Dutch people see it\nas an innocent children's tradition and object to changing it. The disagreement has been part of\nDutch public life for years, and families, schools and towns do not agree with each other about\nit. Since 2019 the national broadcaster's televised intocht and the children's programme\nSinterklaasjournaal use only roetveegpieten, helpers with a few sooty smudges on the face,\nexplained to children as coming from climbing down chimneys. Away from the national broadcast,\npractice is mixed and depends on the individual town and school: some use roetveegpieten only,\nsome still use the traditional version, and it can change from year to year in a given place.\nThere is no reliable national figure for how common each version is, so the only way to know\nwhat your host family's school actually does is to ask them directly, before the season starts.",[129,161,163],{"id":162},"what-to-do-if-it-makes-you-uncomfortable","What to do if it makes you uncomfortable",[125,165,166],{},"You are not expected to take a side in this. If a school party or a family tradition makes you\nuncomfortable, say so calmly and privately to your host parents rather than reacting in front of\nthe children, and it is a reasonable request to ask not to dress up as a Piet yourself. Be\ncareful about filming or posting photos from a school party online, other people's children are\nin them too. And whatever your own view, avoid arguing about it in front of the kids, that is not\na conversation for them to referee.",{"title":168,"searchDepth":169,"depth":169,"links":170},"",2,[171,172,173,174,175],{"id":131,"depth":169,"text":132},{"id":141,"depth":169,"text":142},{"id":148,"depth":169,"text":149},{"id":155,"depth":169,"text":156},{"id":162,"depth":169,"text":163},"2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z",true,"Sinterklaas is a three-week children's festival, separate from Christmas, that most au pairs end up helping run, shoes by the heater, a sack of presents on 5 December, sometimes a homemade surprise and poem for the adults too. What actually happens, what is expected of you, and how to handle Zwarte Piet if it makes you uncomfortable.","md",{},"\u002Fen\u002Fguide\u002Fsinterklaas-survival-guide","2027-04-01T00:00:00.000Z",{"title":116,"description":178},[185,186,187,188,189,190,191],"https:\u002F\u002Fsinterklaas.nl\u002Fnieuws\u002Fwanneer-komt-sinterklaas-in-2026-aan\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fsinterklaas.nl\u002Fintocht\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.iamexpat.nl\u002Flifestyle\u002Flifestyle-news\u002Fhow-celebrate-sinterklaas-present-night","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.leideninternationalcentre.nl\u002Fget-advice\u002Fblogs\u002Fall-about-pakjesavond","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.dutchnews.nl\u002F2015\u002F11\u002Ften-things-you-need-to-know-to-celebrate-sinterklaas\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fnos.nl\u002Fnieuwsuur\u002Fartikel\u002F2590538-actiegroep-kick-out-zwarte-piet-stopt-nederland-moet-stokje-overnemen","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.kis.nl\u002Fartikel\u002Fde-langzame-maar-gestage-metamorfose-van-zwarte-piet","living-here","en\u002Fguide\u002F17.sinterklaas-survival-guide","annual","kgWQuu73G7eUm8IhbDQJMn-mTx9ba5y5QowHRp1A8Ho",1787854365052]