Sinterklaas or Sint Nicolaas is a traditional figure based on Saint Nicholas. Other names for the figure include De Sint ("The Saint"), De Goedheiligman ("The Good Holy Man"), and De Goede Sint ("The Good Saint") in Dutch; Saint-Nicolas in French; Sinteklaas in Frisian; and Kleeschen and Zinniklos in Luxembourgish.
Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on the night before Saint Nicholas Day (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day itself, in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Northern France (French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois). He is also well known in territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Indonesia, and Suriname.
He is one of the sources of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus.
Other holiday figures based on Saint Nicholas are celebrated in some parts of Germany and Austria (Sankt Nikolaus); Switzerland (Samichlaus); Italy (San Nicola in Bari, South Tyrol, Alpine municipalities, and many others); parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia (Sveti Nikola); Slovenia (Sveti Nikolaj or Sveti Miklavž); and Greece (Agios Nikolaos), among others. .
