So, in Australia, when it’s your birthday, the idea is that everyone else makes you feel special and buys YOU presents and cake.  In the Netherlands, you still get the presents – but on your birthday, it’s YOUR turn to treat everyone else…and the training starts young.  From the peuterspeelzaal (kindergarten) right through basisschool (primary school) at least, on your birthday, it’s expected that you take some kind of snack for all the kids in your class. This is usually food based, but often with a small something else for the kids to keep.  I’m not sure if it’s “done” in the middlebaarschool (high school) but does usually happen at work with adults…almost always with a selection of appeltaart, vlaai or something with ridiculous amounts of cream from somewhere like MultiVlaai, Jumbo, Hema or Albert Heijn.

Regularly on the walk to school, I’ll see some parent carrying a tray of some creative concoction – and even if you don’t know them you can congratulate them with “gefelciteerd”.  Which, on the surface means “congratulations it’s your child’s birthday”  but can also carry the undertone of “congratulations that you spent hours coming up with an idea and then making something that satisfied your kid and they were proud enough to take to school”!!

Now, my first year, this was pretty stressful!  How on earth do I make something that:

1. My kids will like and be proud to share with their class
2. Isn’t super sticky/messy/expensive
3. It something I’m not likely to mess up easily (I’m not really THAT mum who is an awesome cook)
4. Will be ok made the night before (I’m not a morning person!)
5. Won’t take me all night (there’s usually 25-31 kids in a class + some extras for the teachers)
6. Won’t set the bar too high so the other parents don’t hear “oh, the mother of Sophia/Isabella did THIS for their traktatie!”

Now, I’m kind of in the swing of it.  My girls have their birthday in the same week, so that means I get to be an efficient factory, churning out about 60+ versions of whatever it is we have decided to do for traktaie that year.   The first year, on a tip from another parent, my girls had little islands made out of Eirenkoek.  The next couple of years, they have gone for rainbow cakes.   I even have bought some cupcake carriers – I’m a pro!

So, if anyone else is in the same position, I’m going to make this a dynamic blog post and update regularly to share some ideas including cool creations I see other creative parents coming up.  Being connected to plenty of Dutch parents or expats living in the Netherlands with kids means I have a regular flow of traktatie ideas in my Facebook news feed!  There are also lots of sites to check out.    Do you have a photo to share?  Love to see it!  Contact me.

Renee