Birth traditions in the Netherlands, Germany and France: muisjes, storks and dragées
Visitors to a new Dutch baby are served beschuit met muisjes, a rusk topped with sugar-coated aniseed, and at a French baptism the godfather or godmother often hands out dragées, sugared almonds. In Germany, some districts have given families a fruit tree to plant for their newborn. And the Dutch story of the stork that brings the baby probably came over from a German folk tale.
What is beschuit met muisjes, and why do the Dutch eat it?
Beschuit met muisjes is a round Dutch rusk, buttered and covered in muisjes: aniseeds coated in sugar. Dutch Wikipedia puts the custom in one line: it is eaten in the Netherlands especially when a baby has been born. Visitors who come to see the baby get it.
Ineke Strouken, then director of the Dutch Centre for Folk Culture, told the newspaper NRC in 2007 that the tradition probably began in the seventeenth century. A new mother was given kraamanijs, crushed aniseed, to build up her strength, and the visitors were treated too. In the eighteenth century, the article goes on, people began to coat the seeds in sugar. With its little stalk, the seed looks like a mouse.
The rusk and the muisjes only became a fixed pair later. Around 1920 the combination was still no tradition, according to the same article; it took off after 1938, when the maker De Ruijter presented a giant tin of orange muisjes at the birth of Princess Beatrix. Dutch Wikipedia adds that the tin went to Soestdijk Palace, and that orange muisjes have been a tradition at the birth of a prince or princess of Orange ever since, sold in supermarkets for a short while.
Beschuit met muisjes became a national birth custom only after 1938, when De Ruijter brought a giant tin of orange muisjes to the palace for Princess Beatrix.
De Ruijter produced pink-and-white muisjes industrially from 1860. The blue ones for a boy were only introduced in 1994, writes the Dutch history magazine IsGeschiedenis. In 2010, De Ruijter's marketing manager told the broadcaster NOS that 60 million rusks with muisjes are eaten every year, roughly evenly split between pink and blue. Strouken, for her part, said that in 2002 the custom ranked second in a top 10 of rituals, just below Sinterklaas.
Why does the stork bring the baby?
In German folklore, the stork (Klapperstorch) brings babies it has found in caves, ponds or marshes, carrying them to the parents in a basket or dropping them down the chimney, as the German Wikipedia article on the white stork tells it. The Dutch natural history museum Natuurmuseum Brabant says that by the nineteenth century people believed the stork brought the whole baby, dropping it down the chimney or handing it to the mother, and that the bond between stork, birth and luck still shows on birth announcements today.
In the Netherlands the story existed in the eighteenth century, but it only became truly popular in the twentieth, according to IsGeschiedenis. The magazine thinks it probably came over from Germany, and that the birth of the future Queen Juliana in 1909 made it more popular still. It also lists a stork in the garden among the customs that go with a birth.
Why do some German families plant a tree for a newborn?
Planting a tree for a newborn is an old custom, and some German districts have paid for the tree in recent years. The Bamberg district in Bavaria offered every baby born there from September 2019 a fruit tree, regional news site inFranken.de reported in 2020: families could choose from 14 varieties, among them apples, pears, sweet cherries, mirabelles and plums. According to the article, the scheme draws on the long tradition of parents planting a tree for their child.
The Recklinghausen district in North Rhine-Westphalia ran a similar scheme in 2024. Its leaflet for that year says the district head gave every child born that year a "Vestisches Geburtsbäumchen", a small birth tree in one of several old regional fruit varieties.
Why are dragées handed out at a French baptism?
A dragée is an almond covered in a thin layer of sugar, often linked to the town of Verdun, and it is traditionally offered at baptisms, weddings and communions, French Wikipedia notes. The Catholic Church in France explains in its own guide to baptism that the parrain or the marraine often offers dragées, a tradition dating back to around the tenth century.
Its page gives the reasoning too. The almond is a fruit wrapped in a shell, a symbol of fertility and life, and originally the godfather threw handfuls of hazelnuts and almonds as everyone left the church. Dragées later took their place. The page calls it a rite that welcomed the child into the community, and says the custom still marks the festive side of a baptism today.
How did the Dutch geboortekaartje and the French faire-part begin?
From the 1950s, IsGeschiedenis writes, more and more people in the Netherlands sent a geboortekaartje instead of the birth letters that were already usual, often with a cabbage or a stork on it.
In France the card is the faire-part de naissance. The Larousse dictionary defines a faire-part as a printed letter announcing an important family event, a death, a birth or a marriage. According to French Wikipedia, the birth version is a small card traditionally sent by the parents, which family and friends receive in the weeks, or even months, after the birth. Its two fixed elements are the baby's first name and the date of birth.
| Country | Custom | What happens | Dated by our sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | Beschuit met muisjes | Visitors eat a rusk with sugared aniseed | National custom after 1938 |
| Netherlands, Germany | The stork | Folklore says the stork brings the baby | Popular in the Netherlands in the 20th century |
| Germany | Birth tree | A tree is planted for the newborn; some districts have paid for it | Bamberg from 2019, Recklinghausen in 2024 |
| France | Dragées | The godparent often offers sugared almonds at the baptism | Around the 10th century |
| Netherlands | Geboortekaartje | A printed birth card, often with a stork or a cabbage | Spread from the 1950s |
| France | Faire-part de naissance | A small card the parents send, received weeks or months after the birth | Not dated |
Which keepsake fits these customs?
The muisjes get eaten and the dragées handed out; the card is the custom you can keep. Our birth cards come as folded A5 cards or flat A6 postcards, each with its own envelope, and every design is also available as a framed poster or on canvas. If you are still choosing the words, our guide to birth announcement wording has examples, and the birth flower for each month gives the card a seasonal touch.
When you are ready, design your birth cards with your baby's name and date of birth.