In The Netherlands, it’s a tradition on 5th December, Sinterklass (Saint Nicholas), to receive a chocolate letter in the initial of your christian name. Originally, they were made of pastry but in the 20th century they changed to being made from chocolate.
My in-laws, although Dutch, have for a number of years now lived in the South of France and we’re currently here visiting them for Christmas. When we arrived at their house late Saturday night, these chocolate letters welcomed us on our pillows – one for me and one for Tall Brown Fox. A delayed Sinterklass gift.
A lovely way to start Christmas, as up until that point, it hadn’t felt very festive. Probably because it’s been feeling more like Autumn than Winter.
On Sunday we went to the local shopping centre and we were greeted with sparkling window displays.
Aren’t they dazzlingly festive?
On the way back, as evening fell, we stopped off at a nearby village to enjoy the lights decorating the streets.
This village had gone for a silver and blue theme.
A towering tree of bright lights reaching up into the night sky!
As we walked up the main street, we heard loud bangs which pretty much scared the living daylights out of us, before we realised that the village was enjoying a public, festive fireworks display.
The village had hosted a free, family friendly afternoon with food stalls, bouncy castles, music and traditional games, finished off with the fireworks display.
Fortuitously, we had arrived just in time for the show!
WHOOSH!
up go the rockets!
On the next day, the Monday, we tootled off to a nearby town to soak up the atmosphere and visit the small Marché de Noël (Christmas market) there.
The guy roasting the chestnuts was clearly feeling the heat from the roasting machine.
Jumper off but clearly the Santa hat had to stay on!
Most towns will put up a small ice rink.
We spent a few hilarious minutes watching all the kiddies either zooming around the rink at speeds faster than the speed of light, or unceremoniously falling over every 2 seconds. There didn’t seem to be much in between these two extremes of skating!
More decorations outside the shops.
A rather chic looking polar bear with matching hat and scarf.
And decorations hanging from balconies.
Hope you enjoyed my petite tour of the local decorations.
I’ll be back after Christmas with more style posts.
In the meantime, I wish my readers and fellow bloggers
A Very Merry Christmas!
Linking with
Lovely photos! Enjoy your family visit. Merry Christmas!
Thank you Tiina. Wishing you a Merry Christmas too.
Beautiful photos! I love Christmas in Europe, with all the traditions and old world charm. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
-Katie
I love the traditions too. Wishing a Merry Christmas, Katie.
Merry Christmas my lovely!! What a wonderful festive place to be.x
Hope you had a great Christmas, Kezzie. Yes, we're lucky to be here for Christmas.
I love any tradition that involves chocolate. 🙂 Enjoy the time with your husband's family and Merry Christmas! These photos are so amazing.
Amy Ann
Straight A Style
Ha, ha, Amy, me too! I love chocolate! Hope you had a lovely Christmas.
I love these pictures! merry christmas hun. Happy holidays! That chocolate looked yummy 😉
Merry Christmas<333
Lots of love,
Kayla xo // Kayla's Vibration
Thank you Kayla.
I hope you had a fabulously wonderful Christmas! I love, love, love the blue and silver displays; those are my favorite colors for Christmas lights. And those chocolate letters are beautiful as well as delicious looking. I agree with you, I think I had a hard time getting my brain around Christmas because of the ridiculous warm weather.
Debbie
http://www.fashionfairydust.com
I love silver and blue too. Thanks Debbie, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family too! The chocolate letters were delicious!
I love seeing Christmas lights! What lovely displays, and great that you managed to catch the fireworks show too! 🙂
Hope you had a merry Christmas!
Away From The Blue Blog
It was alot of fun seeing all the lights. Hope you had a good Christmas, Mica.
What a wonderful tour! And who doesn't love chocolate (in any shape)? How fun!!
Thanks Jodie. Yes, I do love my chocolate!
Those window displays. And the street decor. Heavenly.
They were beautiful, Sheela.
A little late for Christmas , so I wish you a joyous New Year. The decorations were simply wonderful, somehow it makes more sense in the Winter as opposed to our Summer.
And a joyous New Year to you too, Jill.
fun post! my favorite time of the year!
kelseybang.com
Thanks Kelsey.
Thanks for sharing all these lovely Christmas images. Hope you've had wonderful time in France and I wish you and TBF a very Happy New Year x
Anna
Anna's Island Style
Thanks Anna and a Happy New Year to you too!