If there’s one night to drink BrewDog OverWorks‘ Krampus Nicht, it would be tonight: Krampusnacht!
On the eve of 6 December, the feast of Saint Nicholas—the OG, not the Yankee* copy—this horned, devil-like creature would accompany the benevolent saint, to punish children who had misbehaved, by taking them to hell, or swatting them with a bundle of birch branches…
I’m slightly mixing traditions here: Krampus usually appears in Alpine cultures, and is not something I grew up with. The kruidnoten and the Saint Nicholas—or Sinterklaas, as we call him—made out of speculaas, are more of a Dutch tradition.
I tried to also include a banketstaaf —a delicious puff pastry bar filled with almond paste—but I couldn’t find one anywhere in Brussels… 🙁
* The use of “Yankee” instead of “American” is deliberate, since it was the Dutch immigrants—often named “Jan” or “Kees”—that introduced Sinterklaas in the New York Christmas parades, who was then gradually turned into the fat, mitreless Santa Claus we know today.
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