Stuart Piet

I slowly crept up the stairs using all the stealth skills that I like to think I have but don’t. The sack over my shoulder made an awkward rustling sound as one of the gifts inside shifted. It struck me that burlap sacks are not the best option when you are trying to carry something quietly. However, they are part of the tradition. The Piet hat that I was wearing was also part of the tradition. I didn’t actually have to wear it since I would not be seen but I’d wanted to wear it anyway.

I reached the top of the stairs and slowly lowered the sack, placing it quietly against the front door of our upstairs neighbours (as asked). Slowly and carefully I drew my hands back from the sack but kept them just a few inches away for a moment, as if trying to mentally will the sack to stay in place. Once I was satisfied that it was not going anywhere I slowly stood up and began to turn around. At that moment the sack suddenly decided to make a break for it. It began sliding sideways down the door, threatening to send toys crashing down the stairs.

In a clumsy, frantic movement I quickly grabbed the falling sack just in time and froze. Staying as still as possible I listened. Had I been heard? Was my cover blown? Would I have to leg it? If I was caught in a position like this the neighbours would either have to explain the reality of the situation to their children or tell them that buurman Stuart had just been caught trying to steal toys.

When a moment had passed without the sounds of children running towards the door I quietly repositioned the bag, making sure it would not fall again and breathed a sigh of relief. I imagined this is what bomb disposal experts feel like when they are trying not to blow themselves up.

With everything in place I took a handful of pepernoten out of my pocket and got ready for stage two. I’d been asked to bang on the door as loud as I could to, “really scare the shit out of the kids.” Given the way the apartment building stairwell echoed I was probably about to really scare the shit out of everyone else in the building as well. Luckily, it was pakjesavond so they would probably realize it was a Piet delivering toys… hopefully.

I raised my free hand back as far as I could and then brought it crashing down on the door. Boom! Boom! Boom! Three times. Damn it hurt my hand. They have a hard door. I had no time to think about the pulsating in my hand. I had to get out of there before the door was opened by very excited (and maybe slightly terrified) children. I started running down the stairs, tripped, grabbed the banister and somehow managed used the momentum to swing myself around to the second set of stairs. It would have been graceful if it had not looked so clumsy.

From my new position I waited, out of view. My escape exit back into our own apartment was close but there was one last thing to do; The pepernoten! From above I heard the door open and I flung the pepernoten upwards in an arc in the general direction next to it. I couldn’t see my target so I could only hope that I didn’t accidentally take out a surprised child’s eye with a flying pepernoot. The lack of screaming told me I had not.

As the children gasped in amazement at the sack of gifts (and the pepernoten that had just been thrown at them by a fleeing Piet) I slowly crept back into our apartment as my wife (Piet accomplice) quietly closed the door behind me. For a while we listened to the children’s reactions from behind the closed door and giggled.

“Dank u Sinterklaasje! Dank u Piet!” the children shouted from upstairs.

“PIET!” shouted our two year old daughter from next to us as she pointed in excitement at the hat I was wearing.

It was the first time I had ever been asked to stand in for a Piet. I think this officially means I work for Sinterklaas now. At the very least it must mean that I am more integrated into Dutch culture now. What do you think?

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.

11 Responses

  1. Nice to see that your previous acting experiences and natural accident-proneness came into play for this role! This is like the part that you were born to play. :D

    (I also seriously cracked up imagining you dressed as Piet.)

    Yes, I dare say that dressing up as Piet and delivering toys was THE clincher to Dutch integration, more than having your bike “stolen” or eating a speculaaskroket.

  2. Being ‘piet’ for friends, family or neigbours is one of the final steps of integration. I think you’re going to enjoy the Sinterklaas tradition even more when your daughter starts believing. It’s a wonderful time for both parents and children.

  3. Jochem says:

    I had the pleasure of doing the same for my nieces and nephews. It’s almost as exhilarating as it was when I was a Sinterklaas believing kid.

    • Invader Stu says:

      Yeah. It’s fun to see it from the other point of view (as the parent). Although for me I’m drawing more on my childhood memories of Father Christmas because I did not know Sinterklaas back then.

  4. Lizanne says:

    This year we have the pleasure of introducing two non-Dutch persons to the tradition. We have already succeeded in making one of them addicted to homemade pepernoten, the other one’s turn is Saturday.

  5. Jeroen Heijmans says:

    How many pepernoten did the neighbours get and how many did Piet eat? :D

  6. Petra says:

    I remember the times i was a child. One of the adults would go to the bathroom. The others told us to sing sinterklaas songs. Make more noise, they need to hear you…
    The person in the bathroom always missed the moment. ( left the house through the front door, arrange the sacks at the backdoor, beat up the door, get back in the house, get in the bathroom, wash hands, and act surprised and frustrated about missing the moment..

    You are nearly dutch now!

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