This year’s pre-Christmas Advent series will look as four Christmas characters and some of their lgbt connections. I’ll describe them in the chronological order in which the character appears during the Christmas season.
Today we’ll look at one of the more well-known gift-bringers of the Christmas season, Sinterklaas from the Netherlands. The name Sinterklaas is a variation of the name of St. Nicholas, the same person whose most famous name variation is Santa Claus. Generally, people think they are the same character, but I consider them three different incarnations of the same person, with different origins, characteristics, activities and places of operation. One lgbt actor who has made a career out of playing Sinterklaas, Fred Butter (b.1957).
There are many professional Santa Clauses, Father Christmases, Saints Nicholas, and Sinterklaases around the world who don their famous costumes. There are many countries who have actor appointed as official state Christmas gift-bringers. Even though he isn’t the Netherlands’ official state Sinterklaas (currently Stefan de Walle), Fred Butter is about as near as you can get. Playing Sinterklaas on Dutch television for many years means that for many Dutch children Fred is the person they see most often as Sinterklaas.
Fred is an actor and singer. He has appeared in many television and theatre productions, including the stage musicals “La Cage Aux Folles” (1985), “Cats” (1986-8), “Mama Mia!” (2003-6) and Disney’s “Tarzan” (2007-9). Fred played a recurring character in the Dutch soap opera “Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden” (Good Times, Bad Times).
The first time Fred Butter played Sinterklaas was in 1999 in the tv series “Het Grote Sinterklaasverhaal” (The Great Sinterklaas Story), produced by the Dutch children’s channel Kindernet. The 15 episodes were edited down into a tv movie in 2000 which is still broadcast at Christmas.
In 2008 Fred put on the bishop’s robes to play Sinterklaa again in “The Sinterklaas Club: The Great Unknown” broadcast on the Jelix channel. This 26-episode series was broadcast every day up to St. Nicholas’s Eve, December 5th.
Since then Fred Butter has been appearing on television and a public events as a professional Sinterklaas. The video above shows Fred as Sinterklaas.
In 2012 Fred was one of the judges in the second national competition which gave awards to people, events and places who have most embodied the spirit of Sinterklaas. This was organised by the Gouden Pepernoot (Golden Gingerbread) foundation and the awards were presented at a gala on St. Nicholas’s Eve, 5 December 2012.
Sadly, the Christmas spirit and the charity exemplified by gift-bringers like Sinterklaas and Santa Claus didn’t mean much to the organisers of the gala. By September 2013 they had run off with all the proceeds and the whole Gouden Pepernoot initiative disappeared with it.
But let’s not end on a sad note. The week after the 2012 Gouden Pepernoot Gala Fred Butter married his partner of 20 years Rud Burgman. It’s good to know there’s a happy note to end with. As a bonus, there’s a short video of Fred Butter as Sinterklaas in 2016 at the top of this article.
Next Sunday we’ll look at the links between a prominent gay right movement, pantomime dames, and Pueblo dancers.
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