The Origins of Sinterklaas: Saint Nicholas, Dutch Traditions, and Pakjesavond

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While modern Halloween developed in America through traditions brought by Irish and Scottish immigrants, the Netherlands has its own celebration that has been part of Dutch life for centuries and is still celebrated today.

It’s a tradition that almost every child growing up in the Netherlands becomes familiar with. And who could be more closely associated with it than Sinterklaas and his companions, known as Piet?

Although certain parts of the tradition have caused controversy, Sinterklaas remains one of the most recognizable figures in Dutch culture. The tradition even played a part in the development of Santa Claus in America. In fact, the name Santa Claus itself comes from the Dutch name Sinterklaas, which gradually changed in pronunciation.

Every year, from around mid-November until December 5, the Sinterklaas season begins to make itself felt across the Netherlands. Children eagerly await his arrival, shops fill their shelves with chocolate letters, pepernoten, and all kinds of presents, and at home, children put out their shoes, hoping to find a little surprise inside the next morning.

This time, I wanted to write more about the history behind Sinterklaas. Where did he actually come from? Why does he arrive from Spain when the real Saint Nicholas lived in what is now Turkey? And who first started the tradition of leaving presents in children’s shoes?

A Bishop from What Is Now Turkey

As I mentioned earlier, Sinterklaas is a Dutch tradition, but the person who inspired it wasn’t originally from the Netherlands.

The story goes back to Saint Nicholas, known in Dutch as Sint Nicolaas, a Christian bishop who lived around the fourth century in Myra, a region that is now part of Turkey.

Saint Nicholas became known through stories about his generosity, particularly his kindness towards children and people living in poverty.

When I looked further into his history, I discovered that Saint Nicholas is also known in Turkey, although not through the kind of Sinterklaas celebrations we see in the Netherlands.

In Turkey, he is known as Aziz Nikolaos. His name is also associated with Noel Baba, meaning Father Christmas, although the Noel Baba familiar in modern Turkish culture looks much more like Santa Claus than the bishop we recognize from Dutch tradition.

Myra, where Saint Nicholas once served as bishop, is now located in the Demre area of Antalya Province, Turkey.

The Church of Saint Nicholas still stands there today. It is a historical site visited by tourists and Christian pilgrims, and it contains a tomb traditionally associated with him. However, in 1087, most of the bones believed to be his relics were taken from Myra to Bari, Italy.

There is an important distinction here. Although Saint Nicholas lived in a region that is now part of Turkey, he wasn’t Turkish in the modern sense of nationality. During his lifetime, Myra belonged to the Roman Empire, where Greek language and culture had a strong influence.

Best-known legends

One of the best-known legends about Saint Nicholas tells the story of a poor father who had three daughters.

According to the legend, Saint Nicholas secretly gave the family gold so the daughters would have enough money to marry and avoid an even more difficult future.

Over time, this story became closely associated with the custom of giving gifts secretly.

However, the story of the gold is a religious legend that has been passed down for centuries. Its details cannot be confirmed as historical facts.

How Did the Story of Saint Nicholas Reach the Netherlands?

So how did the story of a bishop who lived in what is now Turkey eventually reach the Netherlands?

Long ago, people across Europe were already familiar with Saint Nicholas through stories spread by the Church. He was remembered for his kindness and willingness to help others, especially children and poor families.

Saint Nicholas was also regarded as the patron saint of sailors and merchants. At a time when travelling and trading by ship were important parts of everyday life, his name became increasingly familiar in European port cities, including those in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam even adopted Saint Nicholas as its patron saint. The Oude Kerk, one of the city’s oldest churches, was originally dedicated to him.

So the Dutch didn’t come to know Saint Nicholas simply because he had lived in a region that is now Turkey. They knew his story because it had already travelled through different parts of Europe centuries earlier.

Why Is Saint Nicholas Day Celebrated on December 6?

By the Middle Ages, December 6 was already recognized as Saint Nicholas Day in the Christian Church calendar.

According to Christian tradition, Saint Nicholas died on that date, probably sometime during the fourth century.

However, there is no historical evidence confirming that he actually died on December 6. Even the year of his death remains uncertain. The year AD 343 is often mentioned, but historians cannot establish it with certainty.

At first, I found this a little confusing. Why would people commemorate the day Saint Nicholas died instead of celebrating his birthday?

After all, aren’t birthdays usually the occasions we celebrate?

From what I learned, the explanation lies in early Christian tradition, when the day a saint died was often considered more important than the day they were born.

Death was understood as the beginning of eternal life with God. For this reason, many saints’ feast days were established according to the dates of death preserved in Church tradition.

As devotion to Saint Nicholas spread across Europe, December 6 became part of that tradition too.

In the Netherlands, however, the family celebration gradually became associated with the evening before Saint Nicholas Day, on December 5.

That evening is now known as Pakjesavond.

How Did Saint Nicholas Become Sinterklaas in the Netherlands?

Stories about the generosity of Saint Nicholas, especially those involving children and gifts, gradually developed into the Sinterklaas tradition.

Today, Sinterklaas is portrayed as an old man with a long white beard, wearing a bishop’s robe and a tall ceremonial hat called a mijter. He carries a bishop’s staff and is accompanied by his helpers, known as Piet.

But the Sinterklaas we recognize today didn’t appear all at once.

Centuries ago, people in different European countries were already celebrating Saint Nicholas Day by giving children food, sweets, or small presents. Similar customs developed in the Netherlands, where children gradually came to associate Saint Nicholas with receiving gifts.

The practice of leaving out shoes in the hope of finding something inside them also became part of the celebration.

As these customs became more familiar in Dutch households, Saint Nicholas gradually changed in popular culture. He was no longer remembered only as a bishop who had lived centuries earlier, but also as someone who visited children and brought them presents.

Over the years, religious stories and family customs became intertwined, shaping the Sinterklaas tradition that Dutch families know today.

The Protestant Reformation and the Survival of Sinterklaas

During the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation brought major changes to religious life in the Netherlands.

Calvinists opposed the veneration of saints, including Saint Nicholas, and in some towns, local authorities tried to restrict celebrations associated with his feast day.

But the Sinterklaas tradition wasn’t so easily forgotten.

By then, giving children presents and sweet treats had already become part of family life. Although attitudes towards the religious celebration were changing, many families continued to keep these customs alive.

Gradually, Sinterklaas became more of a cultural and family tradition rather than simply a religious observance.

This helps explain why Sinterklaas is still celebrated today by Dutch families from different religious backgrounds, including those who don’t follow any particular religion.

One interesting reminder of how long Sinterklaas has been part of Dutch family life can be found in a painting by Jan Steen.

Jan Steen’s Painting, Het Sint-Nicolaasfeest

Sometime between 1665 and 1668, the Dutch painter Jan Steen created a painting called Het Sint-Nicolaasfeest, or The Feast of Saint Nicholas.

The painting shows a family celebrating Saint Nicholas Day at home. Some children appear delighted with their presents, while another child is crying after receiving something disappointing in his shoe.

For me, this painting interesting because it shows that several customs we still associate with Sinterklaas today were already familiar in the seventeenth century.

Children received gifts, shoes were part of the celebration, and there was already the idea that good behaviour might be rewarded while naughty behaviour could lead to disappointment.

So these customs weren’t suddenly invented when Sinterklaas began appearing in popular children’s books during the nineteenth century. They had already been part of Dutch family life for generations.

The original painting is now part of the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam.

Jan Schenkman and the Story of Modern Sinterklaas

One person who had a considerable influence on the modern image of Sinterklaas was Jan Schenkman, a teacher and writer from Amsterdam.

In 1850, he published an illustrated children’s book titled Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht.

The book became very popular and helped establish several elements of the Sinterklaas story that later became familiar throughout the Netherlands.

In the book, Sinterklaas arrives from Spain aboard a steamboat. He is accompanied by a dark-skinned attendant who, at the time, wasn’t yet called Piet.

The book also helped popularize the song Zie ginds komt de stoomboot, which remains one of the best-known Sinterklaas songs in the Netherlands.

There are also stories involving Sinterklaas riding his horse across rooftops, watching children’s behaviour, and delivering presents.

However, Jan Schenkman didn’t invent the entire Sinterklaas tradition.

As we can see from Jan Steen’s painting, children were already receiving gifts and leaving out shoes long before Schenkman’s book was published.

The stories about horses, rooftops, and chimneys also have more complicated histories, so we cannot say for certain that they all originated with one person.

According to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, it is not entirely clear whether Schenkman himself invented every element that appeared in his book.

What we do know is that his work had a significant influence on how Sinterklaas stories developed during the nineteenth century.

The Sinterklaas we recognize today is therefore the result of centuries of religious traditions, folklore, family customs, and children’s literature.

He isn’t an exact representation of the historical Saint Nicholas and the life he actually lived.

Why Does Sinterklaas Come from Spain?

This was one of the questions that made me particularly curious.

If Saint Nicholas lived in Myra, which is now part of Turkey, why do Dutch children grow up hearing that Sinterklaas lives in Spain?

Every year, Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands aboard a steamboat, supposedly travelling all the way from Spain. It’s such a familiar part of the celebration that children simply accept it as part of the story.

But historically, there is no evidence that Saint Nicholas ever lived in Spain.

So where did the Spanish connection come from?

Several theories have been suggested.

One theory links Spain to Bari, the city in southern Italy where the relics of Saint Nicholas were taken in 1087. Parts of southern Italy later came under Spanish rule, and some explanations suggest that this historical connection may have influenced the story.

However, that doesn’t necessarily explain why Spain eventually became Sinterklaas’s home in Dutch folklore.

Other explanations point to historical trade and political connections between the Netherlands and Spain.

The difficulty is that none of these theories has been established as the definitive origin of the story.

What is clear is that the idea of Sinterklaas arriving from Spain became increasingly familiar through songs, stories, and children’s books, including the work of Jan Schenkman.

So although the real Saint Nicholas lived in what is now Turkey, the Sinterklaas of Dutch tradition has his home in Spain, at least according to the story.

Piet and the Controversy Surrounding the Tradition

Of course, it would be difficult to talk about Sinterklaas without mentioning Piet.

In Dutch celebrations, Piet is known as Sinterklaas’s companion and helper. The Pieten accompany him during his annual arrival, hand out sweets, and help distribute presents to children.

However, the way Piet has been portrayed has changed over the years, and some aspects of that portrayal have become the subject of considerable debate in Dutch society.

In Jan Schenkman’s 1850 book, Sinterklaas was accompanied by a dark-skinned attendant. Over time, this character developed into what became known as Zwarte Piet.

For many years, Zwarte Piet was traditionally portrayed with black face makeup, curly hair, exaggerated red lips, and colourful clothing.

This portrayal became controversial because many people consider it to reinforce racial stereotypes that are offensive and demeaning to Black people.

Some Dutch families associate Zwarte Piet with childhood memories and a tradition they grew up celebrating. Others believe that Sinterklaas can continue to be celebrated without retaining elements they consider discriminatory.

In recent years, many celebrations have introduced Roetveegpiet, a version of Piet with a few dark smudges resembling chimney soot rather than the traditional full-face black makeup.

These changes show how even a tradition that has existed for centuries continues to develop alongside Dutch society.

Pakjesavond and the Tradition of Leaving Presents in Shoes

One of the most familiar parts of the Sinterklaas celebration is Pakjesavond, which can be translated as Gift Evening or the Evening of Presents.

In the Netherlands, Pakjesavond takes place on December 5, the evening before Saint Nicholas Day.

Families gather to exchange and open presents. Some write Sinterklaas poems, often containing funny or personal messages about the person receiving the gift. Others prepare surprises, presents hidden inside creatively made packaging, sometimes shaped like something connected to the recipient’s hobbies, interests, or personality.

But another tradition begins long before Pakjesavond arrives.

Children put out their shoes, hoping Sinterklaas will leave something inside.

And this made me wonder who first came up with the idea of giving presents in children’s shoes.

It turns out there isn’t one particular person we can identify as the creator of the custom.

One story often connected with it is the legend of Saint Nicholas secretly giving gold to three young women from a poor family.

In some later versions of the story, the gold falls into stockings or shoes that had been left out to dry.

However, the details about stockings and shoes belong to the way the legend developed over time. They cannot be confirmed as historical events.

The Utrecht Records from 1427

Another interesting reference to the history of the shoe tradition comes from Utrecht in the Netherlands, dating back to 1427.

Historical accounts of Sinterklaas refer to records from that period involving money, shoes, and assistance given to people living in poverty.

These records are often mentioned as some of the earliest traces of customs that later developed into the tradition of leaving out shoes for Saint Nicholas.

Of course, the family celebration we recognize today didn’t suddenly appear in 1427. The custom continued to develop over the following centuries.

Nowadays, children in the Netherlands usually place their shoes near the fireplace or somewhere else in the house where Sinterklaas and Piet are expected to find them.

Sometimes they leave a carrot or a little hay for Sinterklaas’s horse. Others put a drawing or a letter inside.

The next morning, they hope to discover chocolate, pepernoten, or a small present waiting in their shoes.

Depending on the family, children may put out their shoes several times during the Sinterklaas season rather than only once.

Photo: My kids and the Sinterklaas tradition in the Netherlands.

Why Is Pakjesavond Celebrated on December 5?

December 5 is connected to the evening before Saint Nicholas Day, which falls on December 6.

In European Christian traditions, the evening before a religious feast day was often already considered part of the celebration.

As Dutch customs developed, this evening gradually became associated with families gathering together and exchanging presents.

The modern form of Pakjesavond continued to develop during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when giving presents within families became increasingly common.

Today, Pakjesavond remains one of the most eagerly anticipated evenings of the year for many children in the Netherlands.

What About Saint Nicholas in Turkey?

After reading about Saint Nicholas and how his story gradually developed into such an important part of Dutch culture, I found myself returning to another question.

How do people in Turkey remember someone who lived in their region so many centuries ago?

As it turns out, Turkey doesn’t have a Sinterklaas tradition like the one celebrated in the Netherlands.

Saint Nicholas is mainly known there as a historical and religious figure, particularly through his connection to Demre and the historic church that bears his name.

At the same time, people in modern Turkey are also familiar with Noel Baba, a figure who looks much more like Santa Claus, with his red suit and white beard.

Unlike Sinterklaas, whose celebrations take place in early December, Noel Baba is often associated with New Year’s celebrations, known in Turkish as Yılbaşı.

During the New Year period, some Turkish families exchange presents and decorate their homes with ornaments similar to Christmas decorations in Western countries.

To me, this is one of the most interesting parts of how traditions travel and change over time.

A bishop who lived centuries ago in a region that is now Turkey eventually became a figure deeply connected to Dutch family life. Meanwhile, in the country where he once lived, the modern figure associated with year-end celebrations looks more like Santa Claus than the Dutch Sinterklaas.

And it was through the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition that the name and some of the characteristics of this figure eventually contributed to the development of Santa Claus in America, who is now recognized around the world.

Sinterklaas and Santa Claus

So how did Sinterklaas become Santa Claus in America, and what changed along the way?

That’s something I’ll explore in my next article.

If you know any other interesting stories or facts about Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, or Noel Baba, feel free to share them in the comments.

I’m also curious whether there is a similar celebration where you live, especially one that involves giving presents to children. Tell me about it in the comments so we can learn a little more about traditions from other countries.

Thank you for reading my story.

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Historical Sources and Further Reading

If you’d like to read more about the history of Sinterklaas and Saint Nicholas, these are some of the sources I referred to while researching this article.

• Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht. Information about Jan Schenkman’s book and the development of Sinterklaas stories, including the horse and rooftop traditions. National Library of the Netherlands.
• Rijksmuseum, Het Sint-Nicolaasfeest. Jan Steen’s painting of a family celebrating Saint Nicholas Day, dated around 1665 to 1668.
• Meertens Instituut, Vragen over Zwarte Piet. Historical information about Piet and the controversy surrounding the traditional portrayal.
• Demre District Governor’s Office, Aziz Nikolas Museum. Information about Saint Nicholas and the historical church in Demre, Turkey.
• Schoen zetten, The History of Leaving Out Shoes. Background on the Utrecht records from 1427 and the tradition of leaving shoes for Saint Nicholas. This is a secondary source rather than the original archival document.