Pakjesavond - Tradition

Instead of presents at Christmas traditionally the Dutch have a presents fest on the Eve of St Nicholas, Dec 5, pakjesavond means 'presents night' and Sinterklaas is the Dutch name for St Nicholas. One kind of the traditional foods/sweets for Sinterklaas are chocolate letters, you can get all the letters of the alphabet in chocolate, be it dark, milk, hazelnut, white or nowadays whatever other kind of chocolate you like. I'm however having trouble finding a Y for one of my nieces ! In the run-up to St Nicholas Eve children can put one of their shoes near the fireplace (or the central heating radiator) with a carrot for St Nicholas's horse and may receive small gifts or sweets in return. And of course there's special Sinterklaas wrapping paper.

For Tiny Tuesday with thanks to Carole Durham for hosting this month.

Thanks very much for the kind comments and stars for yesterday's papyrus mono !