Dreadfully Dutch Fake Facts About Sinterklaas

Dreadfully Dutch Fact Facts Sinterklaas

We all know that the tradition of Sinterklaas can sometimes be confusing for expats who are unfamiliar with it. The responsible thing to do would be to truth-ally explain the many interesting details and facts about the much loved Dutch tradition and leave it at that… But sometimes it’s just fun to mess with them and make stuff up.

Welcome to; Dreadfully Dutch Fake Facts – The Sinterklaas Edition!

  1. Sinterklaas and Santa were once business partners but after several disagreements about whether they should locate their place of business in a cold climate or a warm climate they went their separate ways.
  2. No one realizes that Sinterklaas’ horse Amerigo is the real brains behind the operation. He controls everything.
  3. Sinterklaas and Santa are actually the same person but due to EU regulations he has to assume different identities for different countries. That’s why you’ve never seen them in the same room together… Think about it.
  4. The Pieten once lost Sinterklaas’ naughty book and in a panic replaced it with a phone book. This went unnoticed for three years until the real book was recovered.
  5. Sinterklaas used to place the children’s presents in their shoes himself. However, after passing out several times due to particularly bad smelling shoes he decided it was best to let the Pieten do it instead.
  6. There are in fact only four Pieten. It is an optical illusion that makes it look like there are more.
  7. During the summer months the steam boat is used to give tours around the coast of Spain to tourists.
  8. Sinterklaas used to traditionally dress in white until one day when he accidentally mixed one of his red socks in with his laundry.
  9. Sinterklaas and Santa once spent five hours stuck down the same chimney while a team of elves and Pieten tried to get them out. It was very awkward.

All these lies have probably put me in Sinterklaas’ naughty book. So if you are looking for the truth about the Sint check out:

Sinterklaas vs Santa – Eight Humorous Differences

Or checkout my post on:

Why I Love Sinterklaas

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

10 Responses

  1. AQK1982 says:

    Okay…. So you want to be taken to Spain?!

    If Sinterklaas or Zwarte Piet finds out about this…. there is no telling what they will do….. Maybe Sinterklaas will send the mutated elves to you.

    Please, know what you are doing. If we do not hear from you after December 6th then we know enough…

  2. There are lies, damn lies, then celebrity gossip rags. Those tidbits about Santa and the Sint going their separate ways due to their preferences in climate only to have a begrudging fateful reunion while getting trapped in the same chimney? AWWWWWWWWKWARD!!!!

    Who knows what might have happened in those four hours? Did they reconcile their differences and have rekindled their long-standing friendship, or is Amerigo, as the brains of the operation, onto them and planning to thwart whatever camaraderie comes between them as to not relinquish his present-giving empire? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

    At the risk of being carted off to Spain, I can’t wait to read next year’s exposé about the Sint. :)

  3. Alison says:

    Too bad I didn’t think of these Sunday when some tourists stopped me to ask about what was going on as Sinterklaas was arriving here in Utrecht.

  4. VallyP says:

    Haha, Stu, very good indeed, especially about the EU regulations! Glad to see some lighthearted nonsense back in the Sinterklaas zone again :-)

  5. Luana Bacci says:

    As a Brazilian living for several years in the flanders (Belgium) I wonder why is it so bad to be sent to Spain… =D
    In Brazil we have a figure from the folklore named “guy with the bag”… He travels around, searching for naughty kids. When he finds one, kidnap him/her, place inside the bag and the kid is never seen again. I don’t think they are sent to Spain! That would be awesome! =D

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.