De Passage (literally “The Passage”) is a covered shopping area in The Hague’s city centre. Here’s a look at the 2024 Christmas tree which arrived a few days ago:
It’s in the middle of the old part of De Passage, visible from every part. To be fair, I think it is the same decorations as last year, but that doesn’t detract from it. It does make me realize I should check if Bijenkorf has their Christmas tree up yet, though…
There is now a Christmas tree by ‘t Goude hooft (the oldest inn in The Hague).
Of course, there’s so much light in this area that it is difficult to see the decorations on the hotel itself, but it is the building on the right where it says “bites to go”. The last part is an automat (English Wikipedia) to purchase food at any hour of the day. I haven’t checked in a while to see if it still has food in it, though.
On the right is the clothing store The Sting. The building is nicknamed either “the cookie jar” or the “candy jar”. If you don’t believe me, check out the Dutch Wikipedia page.
Here’s a look at the holiday decorations around the Hoogstraat (=high street), also called the Noordeinde (=north end).
Schaap en Citroen, pictured on the right, is a jewelry store. The first store opened in Utrecht in 1888 and the location in The Hague opened in 1921.
Last week the city added a Christmas tree to the Grote Markstraat, the main shopping street in The Hague’s city centre.
It’s nice, but the photo definitely shows the weather we have been experiencing the last few weeks. Cold, rain, you name it. The Netherlands even saw some snow in the north of the country last week (and when it melted, it weakened some train tracks, causing a bit of chaos up there). Bring on the winter?
Spotted at the local Lego store on the Spuistraat:
Storks, tulip fields, windmills… it sums up the touristy side of the Netherlands (and The Hague with the stork) nicely.
Earlier this month a very large and lit up teddy bear was added to The Hague Central train station for the holidays:
It’s also functional – it provides a few places to sit by its legs, although it is hard to tell from this angle.
The last week or so the crowds around the city centre have definitely picked up. But I was able to take a nice photo of the newest holiday decorations on the Spuistraat before the stores had opened:
I also took a photo of Spuistraat back in the summer of 2020, complete with street markings asking everyone to keep 1.5 meters distance from each other. In some places in the city you can still see the faint reminders of those markings, but they are almost (almost) gone.
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.
The Dutch department store HEMA has a few characters that are associated with their brand.
The Takkie and Siepie merchandise was all over during last year’s Christmas – it was almost impossible to get certain items and the homepage of hema.nl told people to check store inventory before going to the store to prevent disappointment. Part of the craze started because the two pets appeared on a HEMA holiday commercial (you don’t need audio to understand the story).
This year HEMA brought out the Takkie and Siepie merchandise out in full force, and I don’t blame them.
Here are some examples. First, Takkie as a rocking horse (funny that the stickers also mention “use at your own risk”).
Takkie stuffed animal with an adorable sweater:
Christmas tree with Siepie ornaments (at least it looks like Siepie):
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Life in the Hague 