Christmas time in the Netherlands

One tough decision for us this year was whether or not to come back to the states for Christmas. Since we would only be in the Netherlands for one year and still felt like we were adjusting to life over here, we decided to stick around in Delft for christmas time instead of making the long (and expensive) trip back to the states. It was definitely odd not being home with our families and celebrating with our familiar holiday traditions, but we made up for it by creating some of our own family traditions and it was by far one of my favorite christmases to date (sorry family!). On Christmas Eve we decided to head into Amsterdam to go to THE CIRCUS! Because what screams christmas more than acrobats, trapeze artists, horse trainers and clowns? The show was in a beautiful old theater and the performances were jaw droppingly amazing. Plus it was really fun to get all dressed up and head into the city for a fun night out.






Christmas morning we woke up to a beautiful clear day and opened a few little presents (that we had picked out together so it wasn't really a surprise :) We started a fun tradition loosely based off a dutch one where we left some clogs out by the tree and "sinterklaus" left candies in the shoes for us! I found the old clogs at a hole-in-the-wall tourist shop that was filled with real clogs, old tiles and antique ice skates from back in the day. The owner was a sweet old man who told me all about his shop and his life - he only sells traditional dutch things that have actually been used by dutch folks, so these clogs were once actually used as shoes. He told me all about when he was little and how the town was filled with the clattering of clogs on the stone roads as kids ran to school in the morning. Just imagine a little dutch kiddo wearing these red clogs to school! So cute.

the prettiest wrapping jobs ever - jumbo & h&m shopping bags!

After presents we made a delicious breakfast, fully stocked with lots of sweets and coffee. It's been a tradition of both our families to eat cinnamon rolls on christmas morning while we open presents, but all we could find were chocolate pastries and croissants, which definitely didn't disappoint. Jack started making a delicious slow cooker stew for dinner and then we headed out on a family bike ride to enjoy the sun for a bit. I love the bike culture in the Netherlands and we saw tons of families out for a ride on this christmas morning.

sweaty bike ride selfies

Finally, the highlight of the day was seeing STAR WARS! We had been anticipating seeing star wars for weeks but decided to save it for Christmas day and it was so worth the wait. I got shivers in the opening credits and was on cloud nine the whole time.

Post star wars bliss

love this pretty city

Despite missing our families terribly, we had the best time making new traditions and celebrating this cozy holiday just the two of us. We can't wait to bring back some of these new traditions back home (do you think there's a circus performing in the states on christmas eve??) and include our families in them!