Sinterklaas in Beirut

Sinterklaas made a stop-over in Beirut before he is due to arrive in Holland on December 5th. Hana was not particularly amused by ‘the Sint’ although she did figure out pretty quickly that he had a huge bag with presents that he was handing out, so she was willing to be her apprehension aside and walk up to him to get that present.
Eddie, who had told me that he didn’t believe in Santa Claus anymore, surprised me by saying that the Sint had given him a present from Virgin in Spain. When I told him that I though he didn’t believe in Santa Claus, he replied “No, I don’t believe in the American one, that’s just a guy dressing up in a suit. But the Dutch one is real.” So much for being almost 12. He did notice that the Sint was rather young this year. And the Sint WAS rather young this year, couldn’t have been more that 30, and was obviously new at the job. And one of the black Pieten is in Adrian’s school, one grade above him! He didn’t notice. So much for the power of believing. If anyone wants to read more on this peculiar Dutch phenomenon; Check out the rest

Sinterklaas explained
In the fourth century St. Nicholas (in dutch called "Sinterklaas") was the bishop of Myra, Turkey. According to the legend, he saved his town from starvation. He is also said to have revived three dead children, and to have offered gifts of dowries to poor girls. Some sources say that he died on the sixth of December in 343. In 1087 his relics were taken to Bari in Italy. It is unclear why, according to the Dutch tradition, he comes from Spain. Possibly it has something to do with the fact that St. Nicholas was the patron of sailors. In the 17th century Holland was famous for its navigation. Maybe by contact with Spanish sailors this myth began. It could also explain why St. Nicholas has "zwarte (black) pieten" to help him because the Moors dominated Spain for several hundreds of years.
His legendary gifts of dowries to poor girls led to the custom of giving gifts to children on the eve of his feast day, 6 December. Together with his "pieten" he visits children to punish the evil ones and to reward the good ones. The worst punishment is to be taken to Spain in "zwarte piet's" bag out of which the good children get the sweets (called "pepernoten", "taai-taai", or "schuimpjes") and presents. A less radical punishment is to get the "roede" (rod) instead of presents. Nowadays there are not much evil children any more...
On the eve of his feast day St. Nicholas visits all children. After knocking on the door he gives them a bag full of presents (if they were good children). Early in the morning of 6 December, when he has visited everyone, he leaves and goes back silently to Spain, to come back next year
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~erik/sint/sint.html