Dr Robert V J P Varman Ph D
St Nicolaas and Christmas in Australia
KERSTMIS IN AUSTRALIA
It was by the ship 'Sebijak' 44 years ago exactly when we arrived in Sydney, Australia, as immigrants from the Netherlands. I was four years old, nearly five, and the feast of Sint Nicolaas and Christmas were not far off.
The first Sint Nicolaas and Christmas in Australia was not as memorable as the last one in Holland. I remember opening the front door when we lived at Haarlem, absolutely terrified, on the Eve of Sint Nicolaas. There was Sint Nicolaas in full bishop's splendour with his horse and carriage behind him and Zwarte Piet at the ready with a basket of presents. My papa then joined me to carry a large oval basket full of presents. We all sat around the Christmas tree near the warmth of the fireplace. One big, beautifully wrapped present was for mama. As it happened, the big present contained a slightly smaller present which in turn contained a slightly smaller present and so on until there was a white box. The box was opened with great anticipation. What a shock. It turned out to be wet coals wrapped in paper. How could Sint Nicolaas do that? Mama must have been very naughty. Anyway, there was later a tiny present that turned out to be exactly what mama had hoped - a ring. So I was confused, mama couldn't have been naughty after all.
Our tree on the last Sint Nicolaas and Christmas in Holland was a dense fur tree. There were real candles and also a set of electric imitation candles to illuminate the tree and decorations but I liked the candles best because of that special smell. The borbles were works of art: balls of frosted or coloured thin glass, some with deep inverted cones reflecting the light; bells of thin blown glass that actually tinkled; glass birds; frosted icicles ... and angel hair. I remember asking if it was real angel hair. The pinnacle of the tree was crowned with 'the peak' a silvered orb, with a deep cone impression, over which there was a tall spire, all of thin blown glass. It represented the Star of Bethlehem. There were also hand-made decorations of silver and gold foil - a legacy from the War years when no-one had much money and Christmas decorations were not easy to come by.
For the first Sint Nicolaas and Christmas in Australia the decorations were 'still on the ship' not the one we were on - such a disappointment. Peter tells me that our first Sint Nicholaas was actually when the Sibaijak was at Melbourne, we were en route to Sydney. I don't even remember this. Peter wondered if Sint Nicolaas might not have lost his way because nothing happened.
I remember papa being very annoyed that only 'Scotch Pine' Christmas trees were available instead of the more delicate European fir trees. We soon adjusted to that because the tree had a lovely smell. It has always been a family obsession to get the best tree possible: it had to be a good cone shape, tall and fully branched. It would be nothing to check out ten different outlets for Christmas trees until the right one was found. It was always a tense moment when bringing the tree home and the family inspections would begin. It was a big relief when the pronouncements were good but there was a long period of mostly silent rebuke if the tree was found to be wanting in some way - a rare event luckily.
We loved decorating the tree. The boxes of decorations would come out and be carefully unwrapped. Breakages happened from time to time and replacements available in the shops were never of the same quality until about twenty years ago. We resisted the paper stars, glitter, streamers and the spray-on 'Santa Snow'.
After the white cloth was draped about the base of the tree, the wooden shelled Brazil nuts, Walnuts, Almonds and Macadamia nuts were strewn about. The nuts have always been a favourite, especially with the youngest generation of the family. The nuts had to be cracked outside and the shells would end up in the garden bed - the closest we got to having archaeological midden heaps. Some nuts ended up in the pond because they could make cute little boats if they were cracked open carefully.
After the nuts, the oranges were added. It is a custom that has survived even in my elder brother's family. The oranges always grabbed the attention of Australian visitors, 'Why oranges?'. Mama just said it was a family custom. To us it was in commemoration of the House of Orange. A couple of centuries ago oranges would have been a rare delicacy but in these days the oranges are purely decorative and symbolic.
In Holland you could expect snow around the Christmas season, but in Australia it was the time for droughts and 'heat waves'. Nothing in my past prepared me for my first Australian Christmas experience. There was great commotion in the street and clouds of dust rose from the dry dirt road, children running and yelling after a truck. I was urged to go up to the truck also. There I saw a man with a long white beard dressed in a red suit with white trimmings handing out presents to the children around the truck. It never occurred to me that he was Sint Nicolaas. Anyway, I discovered that he couldn't speak Dutch! For me too? My present was a silver toy revolver in a colourful leather holster. What could I do with that, I thought, I didn't yet know of the game called 'cowboys and indians'. In later years, only in my brother's family did Santa Claus gain currency but my brother had an Australian wife!
I have no other memories of the first Australian Christmas except that I was doing my best to avoid going to school during that hot December. While I stood outside the school, papa was talking to a teacher, I heard the children singing a beautiful song, "Away in a Manger" - a song that to this day brings back a wonderful feeling.
It took a few years to get into the swing of living in this new land. Our family celebrations returned to normal. For example, we still decorated the birthday chairs the night before a family birthday. We still congratulated the closest relatives of the birthday boy or girl (we still do), a custom not practised in Australia. But slowly Australian ways came into our lives. My brother Peter was only 13 then but was the first to start to speak English at home.
The custom of putting out our shoes, on the eve of Sint Nicolaas, filled with carrots, vegetables and sugar for the Saint's white horse and then finding them the next morning filled with chocolates, marzipan and zoute drop, was observed for a year or two. One year I set up my shoe but found nothing in it the next morning. I wanted an explanation. Our Sint Nicolaas celebration soon shifted to Christmas, but without the shoe ritual. My Australian-born sister has revived St Nicolaas for her children which is really nice and brings back happy memories to all of us.
There was no rush to the presents first thing in the morning and ripping open the packages. We first had to go to church. It was difficult to keep your full attention on the service but there were amusing distractions, like adults not knowing what to do and making mistakes because they hadn't been to church for twelve months.
There was suspense even when we got home. We all knew that the adults had to have coffee first but the very acceptable trade-offs for the children's patience were the speculaas and almond cakes.
It used to be that one present was given out at a time. We could enjoy seeing what everyone received and you eagerly looked forward to your turn. The adult presents always ran out first (poor papa). The very best presents were handed out either first or last, often the best came last of all. I remember my last present at one Christmas, a small gift but it turned out to be a watch from my brother - he was earning money now. Considerable effort went into the wrapping of presents - even if it were only a bag of zoute drop or a roll of chocolates. The presents were always carefully unwrapped, making sure not to rip the paper but more out of respect than frugality. The labels on the presents only had the name of the recipients on them because they were all from 'Sinte Claas'. Each year Sint Nicolaas seemed to try to outdo himself in generosity over the year before.
The trick presents still turn up from year to year. There was still the occasional shrinking present trick. One of the best of the trick variety was when my brother loving wrapped a fake 'dog poo' as a present for someone. That was slightly shocking in those days. I wondered how my brother could get away with it but there was laughter after the initial half-hearted attempts to show disapproval.
After all the fun with the presents and our thanks to 'Sinte Claas' we headed out to visit family and friends. I loved going to our elderly Tante Miep and Oom Laurant because they had even more traditional Dutch goodies. Their house looked typically Australian on the outside but by stepping inside you were back in the Netherlands ..... of the 1930s. The Dutch are more Dutch than the Dutch when they have been away from the old country for a long time, or so it was in those days. In the afternoon visitors would come to visit us and have coffee and more delicious cake.
The Australian Christmas is what you make of it. That's why it happened that our Christmas became a hybrid of Sint Nicolaas and Christmas turning into a distinctly Dutch/Australian Christmas......not quite Australian and also not quite Dutch either.
Not many changes have happened over the years. We have become more secular, the presents are no longer individually given out, we ran out of angel hair and last year my sister purchased an imitation Christmas tree for her family......
November 21, 1998
Robert V J Varman
varman@ozemail.com.au