Arrival of St. Nicholas

Most of us Dutch have wondered since childhood how St. Nicholas is able to meet & greet all children in the Netherlands on the streets, in schools and even at home in only a few weeks per year, roughly between mid-November and the 5th of December. How his ship is able to carry all the presents, how his horse is capable of taking St. Nicholas over the roof tops to all these homes and schools in every town and village of Holland, and what incredible time-management skills St. Nicholas must possess to plan all this in just one month a year. Our respect for the old man only grew when we realised that in his journey he also includes all the places in the world outside of Holland where Dutch children live! The map below shows what a demanding task this is:

Number of Dutch and Flemish living abroad (Source: info-graphics.nl)

– an indispensable itinerary planning tool for St. Nicholas

With this little bit of background information, you can imagine the joy we felt when we learned that St. Nicholas would visit us in Oman again this year! And similar to last year, he did not let us down. On the contrary - His entrée was remarkable and full of excitement, which is promising in the light of presents and sweets that we can expect this year.

We gathered at the beach to welcome St. Nicholas on November 10, eagerly awaiting his arrival

Waiting in shorts and swim gear instead of raincoats and winter jackets

‘hij komt, hij komt’

Matilda was more interested in the airplanes flying by

Where have I seen this black peter before? It must have been in a previous blog entry about camping at Jebel Shams...

Amidst the happy chaos, there was a brief opportunity to pose for the camera man

After the beach welcome, we all rushed to the school’s gym, where we sang songs to St. Nicholas and were treated with even more pepernoten, schuimpjes and the like.
 

Sint said he really enjoyed being in Oman, and our hearts were filled with pride! He told us about his adventures of camping in the Omani desert and dune bashing in a 4x4 jeep. If you find that too bizarre to believe, just see for yourself in the picture below!