St Nicolas Costumes

In the course of his long life, St Nicolas has had quite a few changes of costume. As bishop of Myra he wore the ensemble of an Orthodox prelate. As the St Nicolas cult grew in the West he adopted the garb of a Roman Catholic bishop. A combination of Western traditions and folklore eventually resulted in today’s St Nicolas costume.
This exhibition features the garments and accessories of Orthodox and Catholic bishops. Also on show are St Nicolas costumes worn in successive pageants in Amsterdam.
 
Lace

The 17th-century painting of St Nicolas’s Charity, which is part of the museum’s permanent collection, shows women making lace. St Nicolas’s white undergarment is decorated with lace. Members of the national organisation for lace art in the Netherlands demonstrate the centuries’ old tradition of lace-making, supervised by Lia Baumeister-Jonker.
 
Cartoons

Numerous original drawings made by Charles Boost (1907-1990) for various newspapers give a fascinating picture of St Nicolas’s place in Dutch life in the 20th century.