Writing a Sinterklaas poem: tips and original ideas
It's 4 December, half past eleven at night. The surprise is ready and the glue is almost dry. On the sheet of paper next to it, all you've got is: 'Sint and Piet sat down to think'. Sound familiar? You're not alone, because in the weeks before pakjesavond thousands of people look for help with their poem. Below you'll find a step by step plan and tools to write it yourself, plus a few ideas that make your poem sound different from the one next door. Really stuck? At the bottom you'll find our prompts for an AI poem that actually rhymes.
Your poem in five steps
Don't start by rhyming. That's exactly where most people get stuck.
- Pick one topic. A habit or a moment from this year, like the lost bike key or the new swimming certificate.
- Write it in plain sentences first. Four to six sentences about what you want to say, without worrying about rhyme.
- Find a rhyme for each sentence. Decide which word should end the sentence and look for a rhyme on it.
- Turn them into rhyming pairs. Work on two lines at a time, not the whole poem at once.
- Read it out loud. Wherever you stumble, cut a word or find a shorter one.
Rhyming without the headache
The easiest form is one where every two lines rhyme with each other. That way you work in small pieces and don't have to make four lines fit at once.
Start at the end. Pick the word your line should end on first, then build the sentence towards it. Want to say something about football? Find a rhyme for 'ball' first, like 'fall' or 'wall', and see what story comes out of it.
Tap the rhythm. Read the line out loud and tap along on the table. If you have to rush somewhere, cut a word. If you get stuck, add one.
Put tricky names in the middle. Margriet rhymes with Piet without trying, Wolfgang is a different story. So don't put a name like that at the end of a line, tuck it in somewhere halfway.
One joke is enough. A poem gets stronger when it's about one real habit, like the socks that always land next to the laundry basket, rather than a whole list.
Handy tools
Stuck on a rhyme? These Dutch tools help if you're writing in Dutch: type a word into rijmwoordenboek.nl and you get a list of words that rhyme with it straight away. The rhyming dictionary on mijnwoordenboek.nl works the same way. If nothing rhymes with your word, look up another word with the same meaning on synoniemen.net. That one often does.
Template to fill in
Short on time? Fill in the words between brackets and you've got an opening that rhymes. Then carry on yourself.
Sint and Piet sat talking about [name] tonight,
who just can't stop [habit], try as they might.
Every single day, it's quite a show,
[what happens then], as all of us know.
So Sinterklaas came up with a plan:
here's a present, catch it if you can.
Checklist before you read it out
- Does every pair really rhyme? 'Go' and 'goal' look alike, but they don't rhyme.
- Can you read it out loud without stumbling?
- Is the joke fun for the person opening the package, not just for everyone else?
- Is the name spelled correctly?
- Does it fit on one A4? Any longer and the audience quickly loses interest.
How to start, how to finish
The first and the last verse are often the hardest. Feel free to borrow one of these and finish it with your own story.
To start:
Sinterklaas was leafing through his book last night,
and stopped at your name, tucked away on the right.
Piet came rushing in, his cheeks all red:
'Sint, you won't believe what [name] just said!'
To finish:
Sinterklaas must hurry, it's getting late,
another chimney down the road can't wait.
A hug from the Sint and a wink from his crew,
and that's all the secrets we're sharing with you.
Original ideas for your poem
The poem as a treasure hunt
Hide the present and let every verse point to the next spot. Only the final verse leads to the package itself. It could start like this:
Your present's not here, you probably knew.
Go check where your toothbrush is waiting for you.
The kids race up and down the stairs, and all you have to do is read.
A riddle for a day out as a present
Giving a day out, like a ticket to a museum or a show? Wrap it in a riddle, so the person opening it gets to guess where you're going. Drop a hint in every verse and only reveal the destination in the very last line.
You can't put it in a box, you can't have it for tea,
but you'll still be talking about it next year, wait and see.
Let them finish the poem
Leave out the last word of every rhyme and put a blank line in its place. Whoever opens the package has to guess out loud what belongs there. That often gets bigger laughs than the original.
Poems your kid writes themselves
Does your little one want to write a poem for their teacher or for grandpa? Keep it to four lines that rhyme in pairs. Help them hunt for rhyming words, but let the joke be theirs. For example:
Dear Sint, I tried my very best this year,
except the dishes, which I left right here.
Chances are you'll end up doing those dishes yourself.
Really stuck? Our AI prompts
If you do let AI help, give the tool a clear brief. Copy one of these two, fill in the brackets and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or another AI tool.
Prompt 1: a personal poem
| Write a 12 line Sinterklaas poem in English, written as if by Sinterklaas, for [name] (age [age]). Make every two lines rhyme with each other. Only use true rhymes: 'go' and 'goal', for example, don't rhyme. Keep every line roughly the same length, so the poem is easy to read out loud. Include these details: [detail 1] and [detail 2]. Tone: [funny or sweet]. Tease kindly and make no jokes about appearance. End with a line about the present: [present, or 'don't give it away']. At the end, check every rhyming pair and fix anything that doesn't truly rhyme. |
Prompt 2: a treasure hunt poem
| Write a treasure hunt poem in English for [name] (age [age]), in 4 verses of 4 lines. Make every two lines rhyme and only use true rhymes. Each verse sends the reader to the next spot in the house: first [spot 1], then [spot 2], then [spot 3]. The last verse points to where the present is hidden: [present spot]. Never name the spots directly, describe each one as a riddle a [age] year old can solve. At the end, check every rhyming pair and fix anything that doesn't truly rhyme. |
Then read the result out loud and rewrite at least the last two lines yourself. That's exactly where everyone can tell whether it's yours.
More Sinterklaas with the kids
Poem done? Below you'll find a few Sinterklaas outings to enjoy together. Find out when Sinterklaas arrives in your city on the Sinterklaas arrival page, and all the shows up to pakjesavond are on Sinterklaas with kids.