Marco was kind enough to take some photos of Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree for me earlier this week. This is a Christmas tree which starts on the 1st floor (2nd floor if you’re American) and goes up to the 4th floor. It is an interesting design this year:
And here is a close up of the ribbons hanging in the tree:
If you are interested, you can also see Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree in 2023 and 2022.
Additional Christmas decorations have been added to ‘t Goude Hooft since the last blog post I wrote:
And here is a close up:
It has been looking pretty festive in the city centre these last few weeks!
This year we have a bit of a red and white theme going on in our tree:
Somewhat accidental, but somehow still a bit on purpose. A coworker gave me the mushroom ornament this year, so I immediately hung it up in the tree. Here’s a close up of Mickey and his mushroom:
Now I want to play Super Mario Brothers 3 again…
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…
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?
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):
Continue readingI was in Bijenkorf yesterday picking up a greeting card when I spotted a sign that the Christmas section was available on the third floor. Of course I just had to see for myself…
It’s true. So I decided to take a few photos of ornaments. The soy sauce because the animal was cute.
And this because it is oliebollen (Wikipedia). Yum.
Oh, and stayed tuned for pictures of the oliebollen stand on the Grote Marktstraat, perhaps. Marco and Roger spotted it yesterday after we went to the movies (we saw Transformers One), although we suspect that the stand won’t open until Tuesday (October 1). It is always interesting how it either opens on October 1 or November 1. Pre-covid it wouldn’t be allowed to set up shop before November 1, but they made an exception for a few years in 2020-2021. But I thought last year it didn’t open until November 1.
Anyway – it is almost oliebollen time!
Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been that great the last few weeks. I do think the yearly Christmas fair has suffered because of it. It is always held outside at Lange Voorhout, but that part is all sand and stones so it gets waterlogged pretty fast whenever it rains.
I did take a photo of a cute, oversized polar bear which can be used as a photo opportunity to make some good memories. They had a few options like this but the polar bear was definitely the cutest in my opinion.
Luckily I was able to grab a quick shot while it was still empty! Everyone wanted to get their photo taken there.
Luckily Albert Heijn still sells my favorite Christmas cookies ever. These are dark chocolate butter cookies with red and green sprinkles on top. Plus they are nice and big, as the name suggests (Kerst kransen = Christmas wreaths). This year I think I bought 3 packages. A few years back I think I bought 5 or 6 in the end and was still eating them in May.
And here is a photo of some other Christmas cookies because I thought the idea was pretty smart. It is cookies of all difference sizes which you can stack to make it look like a Christmas tree. And then someone starts eating them 2 minutes later.
Looking at the picture on the right, I am not sure that I believe that the smallest cookie can be placed on its side to form a star. I feel like it would fall over right away. Maybe I should buy the cookies to test that theory… Hmmm.
Here are a few more Christmas trees for you. While at city hall Marco was able to snag this photo for me:
The Hague’s city hall is a really interesting building. It is nicknamed the ice palace because it is all white. Over on the official denhaag.com website there are a few pictures of the atrium if you want to see more.
And here is a photo of this year’s Christmas tree by Bijenkorf. Normally I take the photo from one of the higher levels, but this time I took the photo from the ground floor looking up. Note: the Christmas tree is hanging in the air, starting from the first floor – or the second floor for my American readers – so it is a bit tinier than the photo’s perspective may make you think. But it is fun to have a look each year and see what design they went with.
Life in the Hague 