Check out this cute window display at Bijenkorf in The Hague:
The cutest part is definitely the teddy bears trying to open the fridge on the right (this part was motorized, so the fridge door did open and close).
Posts Tagged With: Christmas
A new Christmas decoration (Or: Spotted at Primark)
Last week I bought my first Christmas decoration, this one at Primark. Marco and I usually buy 1-3 small things a year. I couldn’t resist this cute face and bell…
Kruidnoten (Or: The start of Christmas this year)
Back in 2013 I wrote a blog post called Kruidnoten (Or: Christmas comes earlier every year). That post mentioned how kruidnoten (Wikipedia) were readily available after September 1st. This candy is traditionally seen in the month of December, both for the Sinterklaas holiday on December 5 as well as Christmas.
This year they were definitely available by August 23, when this photo was taken in a local Hema. Heh.
I give it another 5 years, and then they will be available everywhere by August 1st.
(And in case my parents are wondering, yes, we’ll bring some the next time we visit.)
Bijenkorf in The Hague (Or: Holiday decorations, 2017)
I was looking through my photos from last month and realized that I hadn’t posted my photos of Bijenkorf yet!
Holiday lights (the same every year, but always pretty!)
Bijenkorf does different window decorations every year. A lot of businesses in The Hague take part in holiday window displays (see the TINK competition).
And this one:
This year the Christmas tree was rather simple, at least compared to previous years:
It was of course as tall as ever – the base started at the top of the ground floor, with the peak reaching to floor 5. As evidenced by the escalators at the left…
Check out the Coke and Diet Coke can ornaments in the upper right. I especially like the slightly ‘frosty’ look. Cute!
Chocolate Christmas decorations (Or: Hop & Stork)
Recent photos that I took of Hop & Stork in De Passage, a covered shopping area in the heart of The Hague. The creations they can make with chocolate are just insane…
Dressed up and on your way to a fancy Christmas soirée…
Tasty!
Categories: Dordrecht, Food, Holidays, The Hague
Tags: Chocolate, Christmas, De Passage
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Christmas shopping on the Fred (Or: Life-sized Disney decorations)
A few days back I was doing some Christmas shopping at “The Fred” which is short for Frederick Hendriklaan, a street in the Statenkwartier neighborhood. There are a lot of international organizations and businesses in this part of The Hague.
Much to my delight, I saw some cute Christmas decorations:
There was also Pluto:
And Olaf:
I never knew how popular Frozen was until I went to Disneyland Paris last month…
Apparently there was also Minnie Mouse and Goofy, but I missed those (news article in Dutch).
Not so Christmasy Christmas (Or: San Francisco for the holidays)
Last week Marco and I were in San Francisco for the holidays with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun! I didn’t take too many pictures this time, but here is a small sampling:
One of the piers at San Francisco
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (not to be confused with the Golden Gate bridge which everyone photographs)
Powell and Market cable car
This cable car is positioned at the turnaround point – the cable car stops on a wooden platform before being rotated to head back in the same direction it came. See a demonstration at YouTube.
Sugar castle at Westin St. Hotel lobby, San Francisco (free to view, donations optional)
We also visited the Exploratorium, an interactive exhibit hall for both kids and adults. It was a lot of fun and I can highly recommend it. One of the exhibits was the Curious Contraptions exhibit. Clicking the link will show a short 47 second video of what made them so curious…
Turn a crank and watch the item move (or in this case, press a button on the outside of the glass since these items are too delicate to be touched directly).
Another example of automata are the Dutch Strandbeest creatures created by Theo Jansen, born in nearby Scheveningen. Those were also referenced in the Exploratorium.
Finally, here is a fun workout for you:
“Your turn counts” exhibit
Read more about it at the exhibit page – basically if you turn the lever at the right, the wooden wheel spins. Turn that ten times and the grey wheel (currently at 0, though the 9 can also be seen) turns once. Turn THAT once (so the wooden wheel 100 times) and the next wheel turns, the black one currently at 0, and so on. Patience…
All in all a fun trip. And you better believe we raided a few grocery stores for some American snacks!
Second day of Christmas (Or: Christmas tree in Bijenkorf)
To celebrate the second day of Christmas in the Netherlands…
I was in Bijenkorf last week and noticed they put in their Christmas tree for the holidays. It’s so large (four floors high) that it is difficult to get a complete photograph of. But to give you an idea:
A look at the tree from below, standing on the ground floor
I love the blue theme!
And a look at the tree from above
Last year’s Christmas tree was a red and gold theme.
First day of Christmas (Or: Christmas tree in De Passage)
To celebrate the first day of Christmas here in the Netherlands, here is a look at the Christmas tree within De Passage:
The fun story being this tree – in 2013 there were rumours that the Christmas tree would no longer come back because it ruined the view of the incoming Apple Store, but it was still present in 2013 (the Apple Store wasn’t open yet) and luckily present in 2014 and 2015.
And here we are in 2016! (This year I heard from someone that it wasn’t that Apple wanted to ban the Christmas tree so it didn’t ruin the store view, but that they wanted to decorate it themselves but the other stores were against that. Makes sense, but probably just another rumor.)
Photos from a work Christmas party (Or: Oh – THOSE are crackers?)
A few weeks back Marco and I attended a Christmas party for my work.
A look at the table we were sitting at
The red and white tubes are actually Christmas “crackers”, although all of these are broken open already. It’s basically a tube which two people pull apart to make a noise like a firecracker (“cracker”), apparently with a witty saying inside. Mine was something like “The things you dream about can’t keep you awake at night” or similar.
Ever since I moved to the Netherlands I thought these items were actually crackers – that is, food. Imagine my surprise when a coworker said we should take turns pulling them apart. Haha!
Life in the Hague 