It's a national holiday, it is older than Christmas. There has been some controversy around it and I suppose that will always be. So there is this guy sinterklaas who is like santa but different. He stays in Spain during most of the year and then around begin to mid November there is this television program called het sinterklaasjournaal amd it Starts about a week before sinterklaas actually arrives in the netherlands. Then children can put out their shoe by the fireplace or the door and they sing a song and then go to sleep and the next morning there is a present In their shoe! This goes on until the 5th of December because that's sinterklaas' birthday. so at school it's like a secret santa. Everyone got a person from the class and they craft something and they put a present or multiple in the crafted thing and at the beginning of the day everyone puts their thing in the middle of the classroom and you go around until everyone has gotten their present. And then at home you get even more presents, they come in a big bag and it's filled to the brim. And obviously the next day you can show everyone at school your present. (This is my experience from when I was in elementary school, everyone does it different but this is how we celebrated it.)
