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Thali

Next: 5 Dec 2026

Sinterklaas

Dutch children find their initial in chocolate, with spiced biscuits and marzipan.

Schimmel Amerigo met Sinterklaas (Bram van der Vlugt) in 2008 nabij Zeist.
Photo: R.F. (Roel) Jorna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is eaten for Sinterklaas

The Dutch give presents on the evening of 5 December, the eve of St Nicholas. In the weeks before, children leave a shoe by the fire and find sweets in it in the morning. Each person receives their initial as a large chocolate letter. Handfuls of kruidnoten, small hard spiced biscuits, are thrown into the room. Speculaas biscuits are pressed in carved moulds, and there is marzipan in many shapes, chewy taai-taai figures, and pastry filled with almond paste. Belgium keeps the feast on the morning of the sixth.

The dishes

Speculoos biscuitSpiced biscuits from carved moulds.MarzipanShaped into fruit, animals and jokes.

Also part of it, and being written: Chocolate letter (Each person gets their own initial.), Kruidnoten (Small spiced biscuits thrown by the handful.), Banket (Puff pastry filled with almond paste, often as a letter.).

About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Sinterklaas" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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