Sinterklaas comes to Skokie

The Dutch Club of Chicago has an annual Sinterklaas celebration. This year Sint and Piet came to Skokie (a town neighboring Evanston), so we paid the $10/child admission and headed over. We were to bring a toy (less than $5 value) already wrapped for each of our children for Sint and Piet to give to them. There were many people there - at least 100 - in the rec room in a church. There were dutch goodies (spekulaas and papernoten etc) plus coffee, juice and chocolate milk. There were very few people speaking English. The MC would make an announcement in English, then again in Dutch. It was very neat to be in Skokie, IL, yet feel totally like we were back in Holland. All the kids were speaking Dutch to each other as well. They had a bunch of tables set up for coloring and crafts while each child waited for their turn to meet and talk to Sint. We had to give a small bio of our kids saying what they like etc so Sint could talk to them about it.

Here are Art and Wyatt at one of the craft tables, waiting for Sinterklaas and all the Piets to arrive. Wyatt has done a bit of coloring.

Zach, done with coloring is showing off his balloon and string. Quite a special thing to get a balloon, b/c they ran out of them, and other parents were asking me where I got it.

Zachary showing off his craft - a Piet hat...complete with feather!


We all sang some Sinterklaas songs and then Sint arrived, along with 3 (?) Piets. One was very naughty and hid Sint's staff, but didn't do a great job since he hid it behind his back.


They called the kids up alphabetically to meet and talk w/ Sint (in either language). Wyatt was terrified and wanted nothing to do with him. Zach was timid, but willing to talk with him a bit, and answer his questions about Audi and cars.


The table laden with goodies! Art made sure we got our $20 worth in food!


Some ladies were impressed at how well Wyatt drank his chocolate milk from a cup, for his age. So we documented it. Then of course when he pulls the cup away, he's got it running down his face. Not quite so impressive!

"I could not care LESS about this present"

"I am mildly interested in opening this"

Wyatt very happy to see his present was a "khaki".

Zachary with his present from Sinterklaas.

Then the battery in the camera died. Boo. "Sint" brought Zach a bulldozer.

The present give-away left something to be desired. Sint and Piet just left a pile of presents on a table, and it was a MAD DASH to the table to claim the present with your name on it. In hindsight, we should have waited until the crowd dispersed a bit, b/c Art and I got separated - each of us with one kid.

The whole thing was pretty chaotic, but enjoyable none-the-less. We were really glad that we went. Hardly any effort really, being so close.

Oh, this will be interesting to no one but me. I PURPOSELY dressed Wyatt in the exact same outfit (except the boots - Wyatt's feet are smaller at this age than Zach's were) that Zachary wore when he met Sinterklaas for the first time in Utrecht. Wyatt's reaction was pretty similar to Zachary's at the time: food - excellent, Sint - scary!. Silly yes, but I thought it would be cute to have them wearing the same thing.