A cop tries to wake up Sinterklaas in Roosendaal. Source: Dumpert.nl

We already knew that when Santa Claus parties he parties hard. Last year he had a drunken sledge crash in Poland and got into a massive street fight with his doppelgangers in New York. As it turns out now his colleague from Holland Sinterklaas also knows his way with the bottle. This weekend the police found him passed out drunk in the gutter in the city Roosendaal.

For the people who are not familiar with  the Dutch traditional holiday for kids in December, here’s  a small summary. According to the legend Sinterklaas (Saint Klaas, which is short for Nikolaas) is a Catholic bishop who lives in the Spanish capital Madrid. Every year on his birthday (5th of December) he visits the Netherlands to give presents to the children who behaved well that year. He doesn’t have flying raindeers or elves, but arrives by boat and has many black helpers (Moors, who used to control large parts of Spain for many years) who hand out candy to children.

On Saturday the Spanish holy man was also present on a music festival called Roosendaal Leeft, along with his helpers the Zwarte Pieten (Black Pete’s). According to a police spokesman Sinterklaas already appeared to be quite drunk during the festival. “At the beginning of the evening officers in the entertainment district were already worried about the ‘welfare’ of the friendly Saint.”

A few hours later Sinterklaas was found while taking a well deserved nap in the gutter. His helpers weren’t anywhere in sight at that time, so the cops woke him up and took the Saint home.

Micky Bumbar