Sinterklaas is coming!

Instead of Santa Claus the Austrians have Sinterklaas with an evil twist. Through the first week of December children leave their shoes out and Sinterklaas comes and leaves candy for them. On December 5th, Saint Nicholas' Eve, Sinterklaas leaves a present for all the good children. Now here's were it goes a little evil, if you were a bad boy or girl, Sinterklaas' helper, Black Pete will snatch you up and take you back to Spain where Sinterklaas lives during the rest of the year. It's one thing to tell your kid that they'd be getting a lump of coal for Christmas but it's another to tell them they will be spirited away by Black Pete. Even worse Black Pete has a slightly demonic look to him. They had Black Pete's roaming around last night in the city and I was creeped out as an adult I can only imagine what that would be like for a kid to see. I guess I was a good girl this year as there was candy on my door this morning at the hotel and I didn't get any visits by Black Pete last night.

Anyway, I'm not quite doing the Sinterklaas story justice so if you want more on him check out his wiki page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas .