Een bijzondere gastbijdrage van de Amerikaanse journalist John Giuffo. In tegenstelling tot veel van zijn landgenoten neemt hij het voor Zwarte Piet op en plaatst hij de traditie in perspectief. Maar hoe vertel je de kinderen dat Sinterklaas eigenlijk een klootzak is?

Christmastime in Amsterdam has a special kind of magic, and a unique kind of controversy.

White lights slide down buildings and arch across shopping streets, multiplying their twinkle in canal reflections. No garish multi-color, animatronic ego contests anywhere. You will hear Christmas music, but you’re not assaulted, and dreams of restraining orders against Bing Crosby never fill your head (unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of his children). No one is trampled in shopping frenzies, no one gets arrested for assaulting line-cutters, and the gift giving comes in early December, separate from the more low-key holiday of the 25th. Family members write sardonic poems for each other. Poems! Glühwein – a sort of hot Christmas sangria – warms hands and bellies. And Sinterklaas arrives not on a reindeer-pulled sleigh laden with loot, but on a white horse, accompanied by a small cohort of his helpers, the Zwarte Pieten, or Black Petes – white revelers coated in blackface.

For many American visitors who first witness the tradition, it can be jarring, to say the least. This year, Sint, as he’s commonly known, arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday, November 18, where he paraded through the central canal ring, greeted by ecstatic crowds and hyper-excited kids in the thousands. (He’ll make his way through towns across the country until December 5, when he visits the country’s children, leaves gifts, and takes the carrots they leave in their shoes for his hungry steed).