Happy Sinterklaas

Today all Dutch children (and adults) celebrate Sinterklaas, or Sint Nicolas. He arrives by ship from Spain with black Pete (Zwarte Pieten) to give presents to the children who have been good and punish the children who have been bad. The punishment is either a beating with a stick or to be taken away with black Pete on the ship to Spain, neither of the two punishments are practised much - I guess 99.99% of all children are just plain good nowadays...?

Since the festivities occupy all Dutch people and shops, you will also find the internet bulging of Sinterklaas sites these days, for instance try the Sinterklaas portal or read the Blog of Sinterklaas.

If you want to hear some more Sinterklaas history, I can recommend:
Sinterklaas explained (in English)
The History of Sinterklaas from Biltongmakers (in English)
Sinterklaas is jarig (in Dutch)