St. Nicholas Day Table
| Year | Shoes out (eve) | St. Nicholas Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sat, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Sun, Dec 6 |
| 2027 | Sun, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Mon, Dec 6 |
| 2028 | Tue, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Wed, Dec 6 |
| 2029 | Wed, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Thu, Dec 6 |
| 2030 | Thu, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Fri, Dec 6 |
| 2031 | Fri, Dec 5 (pakjesavond) | Sat, Dec 6 |
St. Nicholas Day is December 6, and its real date is the night before: on the evening of December 5 children put a boot or a shoe by the door, and overnight the fourth-century bishop of Myra fills it - clementines, chocolate coins, walnuts, occasionally a small gift. It is the quiet first course of the Christmas season, a week of breathing room before the December 25th machine starts.
Bottom line: Germany and Austria fill shoes on the night of the 5th into the 6th; the Netherlands goes bigger and earlier - Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat in November and pakjesavond, the gift evening, is December 5 itself; Belgium splits by language region. The table above runs the weekdays through 2031, because a Saturday shoe-night is a different party than a Tuesday one.
The honest part: nobody gets December 6 off. Unlike the 25th, this is a feast that lives entirely in shoes, stockings and classroom parties - which is exactly why it survives: the bar is a clementine in a boot, and the return on that clementine, in four-year-olds' eyes, is unreasonable.
How to use
- Pick the night by country: December 5 evening for the Netherlands (pakjesavond) and most of Belgium's Wallonia; December 5 into the 6th for Germany and Austria.
- Set the shoe out with the classics - cleaned boot by the door, carrot or hay for the horse - and manage expectations: clementines and coins are the tradition, not game consoles.
- Use the countdown above for the school-party date; St. Nicholas visits land on the closest school day, not always the 6th itself.
Frequently asked questions
When is St. Nicholas Day 2026?
Sunday, December 6, 2026 - shoes go out Saturday evening, December 5. The full table above lists every year through 2031 with weekdays; the countdown counter re-aims at any year you pick. In the Netherlands, the parallel big evening is pakjesavond, Saturday December 5, 2026.
Is St. Nicholas Day the same as Christmas?
No - it is its own feast day for the historical Nicholas, bishop of Myra, famous for secret gift-giving. December 6 is the gift-in-the-shoe morning across the German-speaking world and the Low Countries; December 25 remains Christmas, a separate holiday. The traditions blur only because Santa Claus is literally Saint Nicholas, flattened and repackaged for export.
What do you put in the shoes for St. Nicholas Day?
The traditional kit is fruit and sweets: a clementine or orange in the toe, chocolate coins (Goldmuenzen), walnuts, gingerbread, and a small toy or book if the year earned it. The carrot for the horse is left by the child, not the saint - and disappears overnight, which is the entire magic mechanism.
Why do the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5?
Because the eve of the feast carries the celebration in Dutch tradition: pakjesavond (packages evening) is when Sinterklaas' helpers deliver the presents and the poems - the sack arrives at the door, not in the shoe. Sinterklaas himself arrives by steamboat in mid-November, and the whole country follows the nightly news of his tour until the 5th.