Give your Christmas list a theme

Your brother wants to get you something decent this year. He opens your Christmas list and finds a phone case, a Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook, a pair of hiking boots and a candle. He closes it again and buys you a voucher. Give the list a theme and he knows in two seconds whether he is shopping for your kitchen, your camera bag or your sofa.

A theme does the thinking for the giver

A list with a theme tells people what you are into right now. Someone with a small budget and someone happy to spend a lot can both find something that fits, and neither has to guess whether you would rather have a gadget or a jumper. It also stops duplicates. Once the family has seen "the kitchen list", nobody buys you headphones.

Build the theme around a hobby

Say you took up photography this year. The list could hold a 50mm lens, a Peak Design strap, a year of Lightroom, a book of Saul Leiter's work and a half-day walk with a local photographer. Someone who runs might list a Garmin, a merino base layer, a foam roller and a place in the spring 10k. A reader can narrow it down to one genre, then add a clip-on reading light, a pair of bookends and a wool blanket for the armchair.

Put the small things that get used up on there too. The film, the chalk for the climbing bag, the good coffee beans. Those are the gifts a cousin on a tight budget can actually buy, and once they are used up, nobody feels they gave you clutter.

Build it around where you are in life

Someone who moved into their first house in September can theme the whole list around the house: a decent chef's knife, proper curtains, a spade and some bulbs for the garden. A graduate starting their first job might put down the things nobody buys themselves at 23, like a good winter coat, a desk lamp and a leather bag that survives a commute.

Parents with young kids tend to go for things the whole family can use, like a big box of Catan or four sets of waterproofs. And a couple whose last child has left home can put a restaurant voucher, theatre tickets and a cookery class for two on their list without any embarrassment. They have the pans already.

List things to do if the cupboards are full

If your cupboards are full, the list can be made up entirely of things to do. A weekend of walking in the Lake District, a climbing course, a ticket to a gig in March. A "make something" theme might have a pottery evening, a bread-making day or a box of decent watercolours with a course to go with them. A local theme works well for people who have just moved to a new city: a museum membership, a voucher for the restaurant on the corner, tickets to the small theatre nobody has heard of yet.

Practical wishes still count

A winter theme could be a soft throw, good tea from a proper tea shop, a warm pair of slippers and a dressing gown you would not have bought yourself. An "organised life" theme is a Leuchtturm diary, a set of decent storage boxes and a label maker. A self-care theme can hold bath salts, a year of a meditation app and, honestly, a good pillow.

With practical gifts, put the better version on the list. You would buy the cheap slippers for yourself anyway. On a wishlist, go for the pair that costs five times as much.

Setting the list up

Spread the prices so there is something for a small budget and something for a big one. Write two lines at the top explaining the theme. It gives people a starting point, and they often come back with something you had not thought of. If you have two real interests, split the list into two sections instead of squeezing a tent and a stand mixer under one heading.

When you are ready, create a Christmas list around whichever theme fits this year and add the note at the top. Then it is ready in November, when your brother asks what you would like.