The Sinterklaas celebrations on December 5, when St Nicholas visits children accompanied by his Moorish servant Zwarte Piet, is the most important Dutch tradition, according to a poll for the Dutch folk culture centre NCV.

Second on the list is dressing a Christmas tree and third is the Queen’s Day market on April 30. ‘Some traditions you adopt, others you try to ignore. Everyone has their own collection of traditions,’ the NCV’s chairwoman Ineke Strouken said in Monday’s Parool.
‘Traditions create social cohesion and a feeling of belonging,’ Tilburg University professor Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld told the paper. ‘Despite growing individuality, we still want to belong. But traditions are not static, they are dynamic. And that is a paradox – the old which is being constantly updated.’
Hans Bennis, director of the Meertens Institute pointed out how the Sinterklaas traditions have been adapted. ‘The switch and the sack [to take naughty children away to Spain] have almost disappeared,’ he tells the Parool.
The top 20 traditions, according to the NCV are:
1 Sinterklaas – present-giving on December 5
2 Putting up a Christmas tree
3 The Queen’s Day market
4 .Eating oliebollen – deep-fried donuts – on New Year’s Eve
5 Painting Easter eggs
6 The Council of 11 who organise Carnaval
7 Eating crispbakes with pink or blue aniseed sprinkles to celebrate the birth of a baby
8 Blowing out birthday cake candles
9 Singing Sint Maarten songs on November 11
10 Eating herring
11 Luilak – the Saturday before Whitsun, when children play practical jokes and make noise
12 Eating stamppot – a mash of potato with a vegetable, often curly kale
13 Celebrating Liberation day and Remembrance Day on May 4 and 5
14 The Suikerfeest marking the end of Ramadan
15 ‘Seeing Abraham‘ – turning 50
16 Mother and Fathers’ day
17 Twelfth Night
18 The Palm Sunday parade
19 Skating
20 Fairgrounds