The 2025 Machiavelli Prize goes to Het Sinterklaasjournaal. This was announced by the board of the Machiavelli Foundation. The prize is awarded annually for a remarkable achievement in the field of public communication. According to the jury, the program has already been... for 25 years.
When you see the advertisements and the decorations on the streets and in the shops, the emphasis is on Christmas and not on the Sinterklaas celebration. Do you still celebrate Sinterklaas with your (grand)children or have you already put up the Christmas tree...
Do you have everything you need for the annual Sinterklaas celebration? Including the chocolate? This year, chocolate is very expensive due to failed harvests, climate change, and more expensive processing/transport. Real chocolate countries are France, Switzerland, and Belgium, even on...
After a successful run in Amsterdam at The Black Archives, the exhibition 'Facing Blackness | Facing Blackness' has found its way to The Hague, thanks to a special commission from the Municipality of The Hague. The exhibition, hosted at the...
Sinterklaas is celebrated not only in the Netherlands but also in Austria, Germany, and Luxembourg. In Austria, there is no Black Pete, but Krampus. This year, a special stamp was even issued. In Germany, a St. Nicholas stamp is issued every year...
On Whit Sunday, I would like to draw your special attention to the annual folkloric festivals for children, which were created by paper-cutting artist Hil Bottema for the children's stamps. In the introductory brochures of the 1961 children's stamp issue containing images of the paper-cutting stamps (nvph...
From January 26 to February 5, 2022, it is time for the National Reading Aloud Days 2022, the campaign dedicated to reading aloud to young children. An important part is the National Reading Aloud Breakfast, where well-known Dutch personalities read aloud to the young...
2020 is a very special year. Worldwide, many unknown individuals have died from the coronavirus. It is estimated that more than 1,7 million people have died from COVID-19. The reality will be higher. The world is turning red. I have a personal...
Prime Minister Rutte during the press conference on December 8, 2020: 'No easing of restrictions. The number of infections is too high. There are too many people in hospitals. The healthcare system is still under pressure.' Celebrating Christmas and New Year's together without a large group...
Sinterklaas, who doesn't know him?/Sinterklaas, Sinterklaas and of course Zwarte Piet/etc. Are you already streaming Sinterklaas? Or is Sinterklaas visiting via your iPad? This year Sinterklaas arrived in our country via the port of Elburg. Afterwards, a brief break at the Palace...
One still comes across an AVRO stamp album with some regularity. Primarily in antique shops, flea markets, and book markets. In the stamp world, they are seen much less frequently. That is logical, too. Most of the time, the album is in mediocre to poor condition...
Today, Saturday, November 17, the national arrival of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will take place in Zaanstad. It has long ceased to be a children's party. Summary proceedings, court cases, slavery, and other matters that have nothing to do with the traditional Sinterklaas celebration dominate the...
On Wednesday, March 14, 2018, PostNL organized a reunion of the 'children's stamp designers' from 1965. All three artists present brought their scrapbooks. The numerous photos and clippings from newspapers and magazines vividly recreated the 1965 children's stamp campaign...
During Sinterklaas time, all sorts of old memories surface again. Recently, I found a relic from long-gone times: a mission kit. If you collected stamps, a nice and inexpensive gift was always close at hand. You picked them up at the bookstore or...
'Santa Claus is a spiritual pickpocket,' Godfried Bomans once said during a visit to Canada, dressed as Sinterklaas. Santa Claus, who originated in the United States, is a corruption of St. Nicholas that was brought along by the Dutch colonists to...
When it gets dark earlier in the evening, the children start to get a bit nervous and shopkeepers spontaneously start advertising in rhyme. Saint Nicholas is the cause of this. But what is the story with the good holy man, really? What do we know...
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