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Summary: Dutch Christmas traditions involve many unique holiday activities. Learn more about the Christmas traditions in the Netherlands with this free holiday video.
Views: 650 | Tags: holiday, activities, christmas, world, the, traditions, around
Karina Fraley Karina Fraley is the official mom for mommywood.com. In addition to her work for Expert Village and mommywood.com, she is working on a children's crafting b... read more
Today we're talking about different Christmas traditions from around the world. Now we're going to the Netherlands where they actually celebrate on December 5th, and it's called Sinterklass Vond, or Saint Nicholas' Eve, and St. Nicholas is known to be a very kind and generous being. The children are told that he actually sails from Spain on December 5th, which is his feast day, and so they busily leave hay and sugar in their shoes for his horse, and in return they find candy and nuts and fruit in their shoes. And after that, on the 6th, they actually gather for some family time and everything sort of settles down until December 25th, which is Christmas. In East Holland, they actually have a tradition of a special Advent ceremony, in which special horns are blown to cast away evil spirits and to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. These horns are usually homemade. They are about three or four feet long and they blow them over wells so it actually has a sound very similar to that of a foghorn.