{"id":1791,"date":"2011-12-20T20:09:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T20:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2014-07-18T15:30:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:30:32","slug":"christmas-in-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/christmas-in-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are all your Christmas decorations up? \u00a0Are there presents under your tree? \u00a0There are only five more days to go before the big day. \u00a0I hope you are ready. \u00a0To get you into the Christmas mood, Dutch style, here are some things you might like to know about Christmas in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Christmas Days<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the Netherlands there is <em>Eerste Kerstdag<\/em> and <em>Tweede Kerstdag<\/em> (First Christmas Day and Second Christmas Day). \u00a0It is quite common to spend one Christmas day with one side of the family and the other day with the other side, although every family is different of course!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Christmas Greetings<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These greetings (with rough translations) will get you through the holidays, sounding like a native Dutch speaker:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Vrolijk Kerstfeest<\/em> or <em>Vrolijk Kerstmis<\/em> (Happy Christmas party\/feast)<\/li>\n<li><em>Prettige Kerstdagen or Prettig Kerstmis<\/em> (Enjoyable Christmas Days\/Merry Christmas)<\/li>\n<li><em>Fijne Dagen or Fijne Kerstdagen<\/em> (Nice Days &#8211; can be used for other holidays)<\/li>\n<li><em>Gelukkig Kerstmis<\/em> &#8211; (Happy Christmas)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Christmas Stamps<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Christmas may result in a general post slowdown what with all those extra letters and packages that have to be delivered. \u00a0But the post service in the Netherlands has tried to alleviate your pain a bit with a little something known as &#8220;<em>Decemberzegels<\/em>&#8221; or &#8220;<em>Kerstzegels<\/em>.&#8221; \u00a0These special post stamps are only valid from November 22nd <em>tot en met<\/em> (to and including) January 6th. \u00a0Each stamp is at a discounted rate and every year they look different (this year they are really cute!).<\/p>\n<p><em>Pas Op!<\/em> (Watch Out!): \u00a0The stamps are only valid for items that weigh 0-50 grams and also only for post sent within the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Christmas Wrapping<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A tradition that appears in the Netherlands around Sinterklaas and Christmas time is the <em>gratis<\/em> (free) gift wrapping. \u00a0When you head up to the check-out with your purchases, you will often be asked, <em>&#8220;is dit een kadootje?&#8221;<\/em> (is this a gift?). \u00a0If you answer<em> ja<\/em> (yes), your item will be transformed into a present fit for presenting directly to the receiver without a single request for money. \u00a0It is possible that the text <em>en\/of<\/em> (and\/or) stickers will give away where your gift was purchased and you may wait quite some time with a large queue forming behind you because the cashier is typically the same person with gift wrapping responsibilities but still a nice touch, especially if you are late with buying your presents!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"204\" height=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/12\/kerstvel2011_M.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Are all your Christmas decorations up? \u00a0Are there presents under your tree? \u00a0There are only five more days to go before the big day. \u00a0I hope you are ready. \u00a0To get you into the Christmas mood, Dutch style, here are some things you might like to know about Christmas in the Netherlands. Christmas Days In&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/christmas-in-the-netherlands\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":1792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590],"tags":[43,117719,117720,117717,117721,913],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-stamps","tag-gift-wrapping","tag-kerstmis","tag-merry-christmas-in-dutch","tag-traditions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}