Q 01/05

Dutch children are told that Sinterklaas sails north each November from his home in which warm country?

A) Italy

B) Portugal

C) Spain

D) Morocco

Answer · why

C) Spain

Spain may have entered the story through Bari, the Italian city holding the saint's relics, which later belonged to the Spanish Kingdom of Naples.

Q 02/05

Instead of hanging up a stocking, what do Dutch children set by the fireplace for Sinterklaas to fill overnight?

A) A shoe

B) A hat

C) A basket

D) A mitten

Answer · why

A) A shoe

A shoe is set out, in modern homes often beside a radiator or a door, and by morning it holds candy or a small present.

Q 03/05

Which American city, founded as a Dutch colonial town, is credited with turning Sinterklaas into Santa Claus?

A) Boston

B) New York

C) Philadelphia

D) Albany

Answer · why

B) New York

New York is where John Pintard's 1810 pamphlet urged making Saint Nicholas the city's patron saint and printed an old Dutch Sinterklaas poem.

Q 04/05

Sinterklaas traditionally gives each Dutch child a large chocolate version of what personal detail?

A) Their birth year

B) Their street number

C) Their zodiac sign

D) Their own initial

Answer · why

D) Their own initial

Their own initial arrives in solid chocolate, and makers thin the wide letters so a W holds no more chocolate than an I.

Q 05/05

Which kind of structure in the Dutch town of IJsselstein is lit every December as a giant Christmas tree?

A) A water tower

B) A broadcast tower

C) A wind turbine

D) A cathedral spire

Answer · why

B) A broadcast tower

A broadcast tower, the 367-metre Gerbrandy Tower, has worn the lights each winter since 1992, and Guinness named it the tallest Christmas tree in 1998...