Soon to be upon us: Sinterklaas. For those of you who are unfamiliar: Sinterklaas is both a man and an event. One causes the other. Sinterklaas is a bishop, but without a chess set. He travels with a gaggle of black servants (which is now a controversial concept), and officially he judges whether you've been good or bad. If good: prezzies. If bad, you get taken to Spain in a gunny sack, or flogged with a bunch of twigs. Or both.
In the Netherlands it all starts with his arrival, traditionally by boat - as he is said to live in Spain. This arrival is usually by mid November, since that gives retailers a chance to sell you lots of prezzies. The actual event (as in: the cashing in on prezzies) takes place on the evening of December 5th, and is aimed mainly at children. Grown-ups do the prezzie thing, too, according to an old ritual. Goes like this:
Within the family circle (or whoever else is going to be there) you draw lots that have the name of a fellow Sinterklasian, for whom you are then supposed to create a "surprise" - meaning you buy them something and then find a creative way of wrapping it in, say, something sticky, yucky, smelly, or unbreakable. You then add insult to injury by also creating a poem about said person. This can be sincere, but it's much more fun to make fun of the person, since the gifting is anonymous. Hazmat clothing, or power tools (sometimes both) are required to get at the present, which is almost always disappointing.
Like I said, anonymous. So: excellent opportunity to regift that piece of cr@p you got in last years surprise, especially if you drew a person whom you dislike. Which is of course a phenomenon (Scrabble Score!) that can lead to grandpa receiving - after a cycle of 4 years - the pink vibrator that your sister didn't want and was thoroughly embarrassed about (That's why you bought it for her in the first place).
Poems can - and should - be embarrassing, too. Think along the lines of:
"The PC of uncle Joe's- stores a lot of videos- Uncle Joe has many issues- that require boatloads of tissues". You get it. Added fun is provided by that one person who will exclaim that that wasn't them, placing him or her immediately at the top of the suspect list. Obviously, this tightens family bonds. I recommend it.
