From the town-hall balcony he announced that de kindjes dit jaar erg braaf waren geweest – this year the little children had been very good. The fact that he declares the same each year could not dampen the enthusiasm of the young crowd. Since then, kiddies have been sending drawings and letters to the Saint with wish-lists of toys and looking forward to their dreams coming true on 6 December.

Inexplicably, the Saint arrived in Schiedam in the Netherlands on the same day. So which was the real Sinterklaas? Well, according to some, it depends on the old fellow’s mitre: in Schiedam op de mijter prijkte een kruis – in Schiedam the mitre was adorned with a cross; in Antwerpen was dat niet het geval – in Antwerp that was not the case. The missing cross in Antwerp is all to do with the city’s ban on religious symbols. On the quayside, some protested against de valse sint – the false saint.

Newspapers have filled many columns with saintly comment. Some claim that the crossless saint is in fact the true saint: sinten die een kruis dragen zijn geen echte sinten maar commerciële sinten – saints that wear a cross aren’t real saints but only commercial saints. To back this up, the crossless faction note that bishops and even the pope have no cross on their mitres: de paus heeft een witte mijter met een omgekeerde T – the pope has a white mitre with an upside-down T. It’s all reminiscent of the Lilliputian smaller-end eggbreaking edict.

The extreme wing of the crossless group even claims that the real saint all those 1700 years ago would not have worn a mitre at all: mijters zijn pas na de jaar 1000 opgedaagd – mitres appeared only after the year 1000.

The present confusion arises because (please don’t read this aloud if you have children at your feet) de Sint kan niet overal zijn – the Saint cannot be everywhere. It was commercial interests that led to the introduction of de hulpsinten – the helper saints – and onnadenkend heeft men een kruis op de mijter getekend – without thinking, they drew a cross on the mitre. At least they don’t blame Coca- Cola.

So you’ll have to decide when you meet the Sint in the coming days whether he’s real or not. You could always try pulling his beard: that’s the real test.