Next week is the Sintvoorieder1 toy drive for the upcoming Sinterklaas holiday on 5 December. I have donated for the last 3-4 years and I look forward to this week every year! Sintvoorieder1 is short for “Sint voor iedereen”, or “Sint for everyone”. “ieder1” is because “een” is how the number 1 is spelled out. (een, twee, drie, vier, vijf…)
Sinterklaas is actually the precursor to Santa Claus. I amsterdam has an article explaining the differences between the two holidays if you are curious.
Sintvoorieder1’s goal is to donate gifts to kids in need throughout the Netherlands, with the gifts usually delivered via food banks or similar organizations. Last year they received 88,000 gifts which meant they could make packages for around 31,000 children. A package contains something to play with, something to read, something to learn or make, and chocolate.
This year the main location for donating gifts is at the The Hague’s central library (click the translate link in the upper right if needed), which will be accepting gifts this week, from 10:00-20:00 Monday through Thursday and 10:00-17:00 on Friday. The total number of gifts will be announced around 19:00 on Friday. You can follow the action on social media or check the local radio broadcaster (Den Haag FM)’s Sintvoorieder1 page for all the details. Den Haag FM will be broadcasting from the library all week as well.
List of other locations which are accepting gifts in the region
And for fun, here is an 2022 article from Omroep West about Sandra, a volunteer jigsaw puzzler. While new gifts are easier to donate, you can also donate old items if they meet certain criteria, which jigsaw puzzles do. If they have all of their pieces of course! Sandra’s job is to put used jigsaw puzzles together to make sure all the pieces are there before it ends up in a gift package. That’s cool if you ask me.
Life in the Hague 