Holidays

Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree (Or: 2025 edition)

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Niki

Here’s a look at Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree for 2025:

The Christmas area on the third floor also had bears which ever so slightly moved.

I do like the use of colored lights this year. A lot of places in the Netherlands only have soft white lights. The gold symbols on the tree are pictures of a teddy bear, Bijenkorf shopping bag, and Christmas present. The longer rectangle one is the symbol for the Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. You can also buy it as a Christmas ornament…

That picture makes it seem like the store was fairly empty, but that was most definitely not the case. It was a bit of a madhouse, but the ornaments are a bit further in. This was near the beginning of the section, by the escalators.

In my last post I mentioned the Christmas tram. Unfortunately, it got into a (minor) accident the next day (omroepwest.nl), although it was back in service quickly. Accidents between trams and cars happens a lot. A bit more unexpected was the accident earlier this week when the switch which allows the tram to change tracks broke and shot through the floor of the tram, slightly injuring one of the passengers. A few pictures into the article you can see the damage to the floor. Crazy stuff.

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Christmas tram in The Hague (With: A Santa hat)

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Niki

I recently saw the Christmas tram riding around in The Hague. It was the second time I have spotted it this year, but this time I was able to stop and take a picture.

Don’t you think the Santa hat on top is cute? Apparently it has 6,300 lights on it and it also plays Christmas music non-stop. Haha. (I wouldn’t mind, though. It isn’t like you are in the tram that long.)

You can check out ovzoeker.nl to see where the tram is riding. The URL looks for HTM tram #3109.

Also, if you are in The Hague, check out the Royal Christmas Fair, which is open on the Lange Voorhout until December 23.

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Golden lights (Or: Christmas tree in De Passage)

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Niki

Last week, the Christmas tree arrived in De Passage, a covered shopping area in The Hague.

This is in the older part of De Passage, outside of the Apple Store. The older part meets at this point. De Passage is designed in such a way that the Christmas tree is visible from everywhere.

Here is a photo from a bit further away, to give you an idea of how the area looks:

It’s a great place to walk through, especially when the weather is bad. The older part is a bit cold in the winter, but the new part closer to Grote Marktstraat is much warmer.

If you click the “De Passage” tag at the bottom of this post, you’ll see similar blog posts about this part of The Hague.

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Sintvoorieder1 (Or: Holiday toy drive)

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Niki

If you live in The Hague, you have two more days to donate a gift to the Sintvoorieder1 action. Sint is short for Sinterklaas, similar to Santa Clause. voorieder1 is short for ‘voor iedereen’, or ‘for everyone’. You can donate gifts tomorrow or Friday at the Central Library, so that all kids have something fun to open on December 5, the Sinterklaas holiday. The event closes Friday at 17:00.

DenHaagFM has daily news stories covering the action at the Central Library. There is also more information available at the official website.

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Takkie and Sepia at Hema (Or: Christmas gifts 2025)

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Niki

Hema is going all in on the Takkie and Siepie gifts this year. Takkie is a dog and Siepie is a cat, and both are from Jip and Janneke, a series of children’s books (English Wikipedia).

This year they have Takkie mugs:

There’s also a Takkie toy:

I also took a picture of some of the stuffed animals.

Takkie has a red collar and Siepie does not have a collar.

You can find more Takkie and Siepie related items on Hema’s website, on their Takkie en Siepie page.

I’m a fan of Takkie with a scarf as well as the Christmas ornaments for both of them. Cute stuff!

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Christmas time (Or: Window decoration by Bijenkorf)

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Niki

The holiday window decorations are now in place by Bijenkorf, a high-end department store here in The Hague. Here’s a look at one of the windows:

The window reads: “Ook 100 jaar geleden bezorgde de Bijenkorf al aan huis”, or “100 years ago, de Bijenkorf was already making home deliveries”.

I found a news article which mentioned that their Christmas departments opened on 11 September (!). It’s early, of course, but going to Bijenkorf to look at Christmas ornaments and other decorations is a tradition for a lot of families. It sort of reminds me of the mall scene in A Christmas Story, only there is no Santa!

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Tompouce (Or: The yearly battle to not get messy)

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was the King’s Day holiday in the Netherlands, celebrating the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. His birthday is on April 27, but since that falls on a Sunday it was celebrated yesterday instead.

The company I work for through a King’s Day party this week, complete with orange tompouce, cheese blocks with Dutch flags sticking out of them, and borrelnootjes (Wikipedia). The last is a peanut or similar nut with a crispy coating around it. The flavor of the crispy coating can differ. Think of things like cheese & mustard, bacon & cheese, oriental, provencal, paprika (bell pepper), etc. They are a typical snack to eat at a bar, or you can buy them at your local grocery store.

HEMA is a big seller of tompouce, although you can also get it at Albert Heijn and probably other grocery stores. But for King’s Day the typically pink frosting is replaced with orange frosting:

I’ve mentioned before how impossible it is to eat these things with just your hands. The middle layer is cream, so if you bite down it will of course squirt out on the other side. My usual method of attack is to use a small fork to eat most of the cream, damaging the structural integrity of the top layer like I am playing a mad game of Jenga. Eventually I pull off the top layer before it collapses, alternating between eating the top layer, the remaining cream in the middle, and the bottom layer.

Tompouce is tasty, but very sweet. Once a year is good enough for me. Luckily a coworker was willing to “halfsies” so we each had half. You can read more about the history of tompouce at HEMA at their website (you’ll need to use Google Translate).

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Off in the distance (Or: Ferris wheel at Malieveld)

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Niki

Every year in April, Malieveld is host to the King’s Fair (Konings kermis), a fair leading up to the King’s Day holiday on April 27. Last weekend I was walking past and took a picture of the ferris wheel in a distance.

As with every photo taken in the Netherlands, you need to have the obligatory bicycle somewhere in it. The grass is actually greener than I would have expected, considering we haven’t received much rain lately…

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Orange craziness (Or: King’s Day merchandise at HEMA)

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Niki

This year, King’s Day will be on Saturday, April 26. The holiday marks King Willem-Alexander’s birthday (April 27). Since it falls on a Sunday this year, it will be celebrated on Saturday instead.

You can already get appropriately orange apparel at HEMA:

This kid’s t-shirt is available for purchase online. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, HEMA has a few characters that are associated with their brand.

  • Jip and Janneke, a boy and girl from the book series of the same name (see also English Wikipedia). They have been associated with HEMA since 1993.
  • Takkie and Siepie, the dog and cat of Jip and Janneke respectively. Takkie is Jip’s daschhond and Siepie is Janneke’s cat.

They also have some of the more normal merchandise available for purchase:

The Hague will also be host to “The Life I Live” festival on Friday, April 25. The full schedule of artists will be posted on their website on April 15.

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Chinese New Year in The Hague (Or: 2025 edition)

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Niki

The Hague celebrated Chinese New Year today in the city centre. This holiday is always celebrated on a Saturday in The Hague, although Chinese New Year was on Wednesday this year.

We are now in the year of the snake, in case you’re wondering.

I was in the area this morning while they were setting up for the event. Here is a photo of the rooster:

Here is the snake (the star of the show this year!):

Here is a photo of the rabbit, with the Nieuwe Kerk (new church) in the background:

As you can probably see from the photos, it was a very sunny day (one of the few sunny days this month). And finally, here is a photo of what I think is a dog…:

And in other news, Dutch supermarkets want to print labels in English to combat rising prices from nltimes.nl. The supermarkets argue that the Netherlands labels could be accessed via a QR code. I don’t think I agree with this one. English is indeed everywhere in this country, especially in the larger cities. However not everyone can speak it, especially the older generation. The local expat store, Kelly’s Expat Shopping, posts signs saying Dutch labels are available on request, but their target market is obviously English speaking.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

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