Holiday Traditions

My dad's family is from Holland (also called The Netherlands).  It is a small country in the western part of Europe.  Can you find it on the map?

My dad and his family came to America in 1954.

This is Oma!

Oma means grandma in Dutch.

Some facts about Oma:

Oma lived in Holland during World War II.

Oma walks two miles every day.

Oma still dances with the young people at family weddings.

Oma still has the cleanest house I've ever been in.

Oma was born in 1919.  

How many years young is she?

My dad spoke Dutch with Oma and Opa (grandpa), but unfortunately, no one taught my brother and me.  The only words I know are in a lullaby they sang to us.

Growing up, we celebrated St. Nicholas Day.  On the evening of December 5, we put our shoes by the front door (sometimes leaving carrots for his horse).  When we woke up the next morning, our shoes were filled with treats!

 

Sometimes we got the letter of our first initial made of chocolate.

 

I loved finding Dutch salty licorice in my shoes!  Sometimes we'd get licorice griotten, which look like sugar cubes, but have a marshmallowy texture and a slightly salty licorice flavor.

On this holiday, we also ate stroopwafels, thin wafer cookies filled with caramel.

Tonight at our house we are putting out our shoes and look forward them being filled with treats when we wake up!

Since many of our third grade social studies standards cover geography and culture, specifically in North America and the Caribbean, we will be learning about some of the winter celebrations that take place in those countries.

What winter holiday traditions does your family celebrate?