The magazine Sint-Nicolaas was meant for a broad audience of children between 6 and 12 years. The publishers probably intended to print half or whole volumes of the magazine in book form. All features that were not to be published in a book, such as riddles, a letter column and competitions, were therefore printed on unnumbered orange sheets as loose inserts.

The magazine included mainly little stories about emotions and events in a child’s life, such as faking illness in order to skip school, being friendly with animals, playing with dolls, going on a journey, or being naughty. The poems in the magazine had more or less the same drift. In addition, the magazine also wrote about real live animals. Sint-Nicolaas was written in a slightly patronizing tone.

Every month, the readers – divided in two age groups – were invited to take part in a contest. Once a year, in October, there were ‘charity contests’: the participants had to send in handicrafts of various kinds intended for sick children lying in the hospital of The Hague and other places. Participants could win a prize, but the emphasis was on participating in the contest and doing a good deed for those less fortunate.

Among those contributing to Sint-Nicolaas were Christine Doorman, Thérèse Hoven, Truida Kok, Titia van der Tuuk and Agatha Snellen. The illustrations were professional in quality with realistic and sweet, often full-page pictures; once a month the magazine included a full-page color illustration. Most of the illustrations came from abroad.

Digitized: vol. 3 (1896) – vol. 4 (1897), vol. 7 (1900)

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