St. Nicholas’s Day in Holland,  By Willem Traas

Soon it will be Christmas. This is the biggest feast during the year in Ireland, England, America and many other countries. And people give presents at Christmas.
But when I was a child in Holland Christmas was a church feast only. We went to church to sing carols on Christmas Day, but there was another day for getting presents. That was St. Nicholas’s day on the 5th of December. Saint Nicholas had a servant called Black Peter. 
Each year St. Nicholas came by boat to Holland from Spain. We would sing: 
"Zee ginds komt de stoomboot van Spanje weer aan,
Ik zie hem Saint Nicholaas, ik zie him al staan"
In English:
"See the boat from Spain,
I see St. Nicholas again"
Once he had landed, he travelled on a white horse while Black Peter walked. He would journey all through Holland.
My father had a white horse called “De Witte” or The White One. She did all the farm-work just like farmers in Ireland worked with their horses. We were told that De Witte came from Normandy in France. She had been in the war and was afraid of loud bangs and water.
Now when St. Nicholas came to our village his own horse was very tired after the long journey from Spain. So Saint Nicholas asked my father for a loan of our horse. And that was good, except that De Witte was not used to a saddle, so St. Nicholas had to sit on her bare back. The Saint must have been very sore after the day, especially because De Witte was very slim from eating lots of fruit.
Now from the age of ten I had been the handler of De Witte. I did all the work with her and we were very used to each other. So St. Nicholas needed me to go with the horse. So he said to me: “You can be Black Peter for a day; the real Black Peter and horse can rest”. Then he made my hands and face black with shoe-polish and gave me special clothes to wear.
And so the two of us went visiting the schools where the children were waiting for us. They gave De Witte some oats and they sang for us. I carried St. Nicholas’s bag of presents, and he gave one to each child. There were no bad children. That was good, because naughty children would be put in the bag and carried back to Spain. Only one teacher was almost put into the bag. But he was too big.
When all the children in our village had presents we walked back to my father’s barn. But then something happened. A car came past (there were only three cars in the village) and the car back-fired, making a very loud bang. Now De Witte had eaten oats and was in good form, but got an awful fright from the bang. She gave a big jump and galloped away with St. Nicholas. I heard the Saint using bad language, in Spanish I think. But all ended well, because De Witte ran to our barn with the Saint on her back, and I soon caught up with them. She stopped there to drink and Saint Nicholas got off to recover.
This happened 55 years ago. So this Christmas I will remember St. Nicholas and De Witte.
After De Witte died my father got a tractor, and St. Nicholas’s day was never the same again.

Children's competition.

Winter competition, 
The Apple Farm,
Moorstown, Cahir,
 Co. Tipperary.

Entrants should be aged 12 years or younger. First prize is a €20.00 Eason’s voucher while the runners-up receive €10.00 vouchers for The Apple Farm

Autumn competition winners: 
Congratulations to the winners of our autumn competition. Your prizes are on the way to you.

• Andrew from Glounthaune
• Luke from Ballylooby
• Abbey from Carnew
• Robbie from Emly
  
  

---