I was chatting with another expat once about how American holidays are being celebrated more and more in NL. Namely Halloween and Christmas. (From what I've read, Easter is not TOO different in NL than US, but it's a 2-day affair as Easter Monday is a holiday)
Halloween is definitely not a Dutch thing but with so many American expats wanting their children to not miss out on free candy on October 31 it has become more prevalent in NL. And since they're giving their children candy the Dutch children can't be excluded, right?
Christmas is celebrated in NL, but not like in the US. Their big day is Sinterklaas which is Dec. 6. Dec. 25 is more religious and more like our Thanksgiving... family getting together to eat. More and more Christmas is being celebrated like in the US.
When I made the comment to my expat friend that NL was becoming "Americanized" their response was "that's sad". And, in general, I would agree. But it doesn't seem to end there. For there seem to be many things that people want to "Americanize" about NL, for NL's own good, of course.
1) Smoking. It's not uncommon to find people smoking here in NL. Many restaurants allow smoking in their outdoor seating areas. It's even allowed in open air markets. And I haven't seen a sign at any Starbucks here in NL prohibiting smoking within 25' of the establishment.
2) Zwarte Piet. This goes back to Sinterklaas day. Sinterklaas has a Moor "assistant" named Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Actually, there are multiple Piets (I have no idea why). In late November Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Piets arrive in NL on a boat from Spain (don't ask, I have no idea why they live in Spain). Since Piet is a Moor he's black. ZP is the one who actually goes down the chimney and either puts gifts/treats in the children's shoes or puts them in a bag and carries them back to Spain on their return ship ride. Many people, and from what I can gather predominantly non Dutchies, take offense to the whole ZP thing. First off, they seem to see it as slavery that ZP is black and SK is not. I like to say that ZP is SK's assistant, he collects a salary and has a very decent benefits package. 'Sides, if SK was black and it was Witte Piet (White Pete) I don't think anyone would be saying a word. But, then again, NL didn't practice the slave trade with white people. So... a lot of guilt there. Some are trying to push ZP to become "Sooty Piet"... his face is black-ish from the soot he collects when he goes down the chimney.
Any who... historically there haven't been a lot of black people in NL (shocking, I know) so ZP is usually portrayed as someone in black face. This has been causing quite the stir lately, with much gnashing of teeth about how this is racist. One American was quite proud of how they went to a McDonald's in some town in NL, saw the staff dressed like ZP (with black face) and contacted the American HQ of McDonald's to complain.
I don't want to get into a debate about whether this is indeed racism or not. I'm not black so I cannot speak to how it is interpreted by that community, but on the other hand the Dutch say there is no malice (think someone putting on blue paint to dress up like a Smurf)
Either way... the main point is that there are external forces trying to change the aspects of Dutch culture they don't like while lamenting how immigrants are changing the local culture (HMM... remind you of a country whose initials are U.S. and A? Except there it's lauded and to pine for olden days is racist.). The problem is that not everyone agrees on what parts of NL should remain Dutch.
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