what’s with the image? you can make text posts my man
The surprise box.
At the en of pakjesavond, when everyone has had their gift, there’s a basic box with wrapping paper covering the top and a string for each family member coming out of it.
Everyone grabs a string and pulls at the same time, your gift is at the end of the string.
The gifts are typically more traditional, foods that were really special to get a few decades ago, even if you wouldn’t think about it much these days.
A pineapple, a bag of mandarins, a package of figs, etc ….
I play Need for Speed most wanted while my parents go through a divorce
Die irritante kutzoon/-neef zijn die constant anderen verbetert als ze “pepernoot” in plaats van “kruidnoot” zeggen.
I try to buy a book for each family member every year…
That I don’t celebrate it, my birthday is the 3rd of December. And every goddamn time I have to celebrate it a week earlier or a week later because everyone always has a Sinterklaas celebration that day. For some reason, all the snacks have to be Sint related (and as someone with a gluten allergy this sucks extra), and all the gift wraps are Sint.
Arguing with strangers online
Go to the Movies or out to dinner… We tried 1 year of ‘surprises’ in my family once my little sister stopped believing, it came down to me making one, and my mother making 3, since my father didn’t have the time and my sister needed help. So after that we first got the movies for a couple of years (which was half price on Sinterklaas back then) and later on fancy restaurants (japanese teppanyaki was a favorite for a few years). Managed to keep that up for the 30 odd years now
My wife is Swiss and grew up with the tradition where Sinterklaas doesn’t bring presents, but instead brings supper on the night of the celebration. The supper consisting of things like peanuts, chocolate, some fruit, etc…
So while with our kids we follow the Dutch traditions, we do add a bunch of food to the pakjesavond-bag which becomes our dinner.
Zwarte piet
The vicious beatings administered by Black Pete are some of the most vivid recollections of my childhood.
Watching Het paard van Sinterklaas 1 and 2 just like watching Home Alone 1 and 2 on Christmas.
At our family we have a tradition of “speed running” suprises and pakjesavond. We don’t really have the time to take multiple weeks to make our suprises, so we usually do it all in one day. At 10 in the morning we draw our names, and by 8 at night we have to have: a suprise with a present and a poem for whoever we drew, and a small gift + a small poem for all the other (in our case 4) people. It’s hectic and stressful but extremely fun. If you can’t find the time to do it the long way, I would highly recommend this.
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what’s with the image? you can make text posts my man
The surprise box.
At the en of pakjesavond, when everyone has had their gift, there’s a basic box with wrapping paper covering the top and a string for each family member coming out of it.
Everyone grabs a string and pulls at the same time, your gift is at the end of the string.
The gifts are typically more traditional, foods that were really special to get a few decades ago, even if you wouldn’t think about it much these days.
A pineapple, a bag of mandarins, a package of figs, etc ….
I play Need for Speed most wanted while my parents go through a divorce
Every year my brother and me watch this [video](https://youtu.be/xhyxaSn95to)
I ignore it and it goes away! Works every year.
Die irritante kutzoon/-neef zijn die constant anderen verbetert als ze “pepernoot” in plaats van “kruidnoot” zeggen.
I try to buy a book for each family member every year…
That I don’t celebrate it, my birthday is the 3rd of December. And every goddamn time I have to celebrate it a week earlier or a week later because everyone always has a Sinterklaas celebration that day. For some reason, all the snacks have to be Sint related (and as someone with a gluten allergy this sucks extra), and all the gift wraps are Sint.
Arguing with strangers online
Go to the Movies or out to dinner… We tried 1 year of ‘surprises’ in my family once my little sister stopped believing, it came down to me making one, and my mother making 3, since my father didn’t have the time and my sister needed help. So after that we first got the movies for a couple of years (which was half price on Sinterklaas back then) and later on fancy restaurants (japanese teppanyaki was a favorite for a few years). Managed to keep that up for the 30 odd years now
My wife is Swiss and grew up with the tradition where Sinterklaas doesn’t bring presents, but instead brings supper on the night of the celebration. The supper consisting of things like peanuts, chocolate, some fruit, etc…
So while with our kids we follow the Dutch traditions, we do add a bunch of food to the pakjesavond-bag which becomes our dinner.
Zwarte piet
The vicious beatings administered by Black Pete are some of the most vivid recollections of my childhood.
Watching Het paard van Sinterklaas 1 and 2 just like watching Home Alone 1 and 2 on Christmas.
At our family we have a tradition of “speed running” suprises and pakjesavond. We don’t really have the time to take multiple weeks to make our suprises, so we usually do it all in one day. At 10 in the morning we draw our names, and by 8 at night we have to have: a suprise with a present and a poem for whoever we drew, and a small gift + a small poem for all the other (in our case 4) people. It’s hectic and stressful but extremely fun. If you can’t find the time to do it the long way, I would highly recommend this.