Keeping Sinterklaas and Christmas lists apart

Sinterklaas falls on 5 December in the Netherlands and the morning of the 6th in Belgium. Christmas follows three weeks later. In a family that celebrates both, the most common complaint is the doubled gift: the same Lego set from Sint, then again under the tree from a different aunt. It happens even in families that plan carefully, because the two lists live in different heads.

One list per celebration

Making a separate wishlist for Sinterklaas and another for Christmas solves most of the problem on its own. Whoever is buying sees which present belongs to which day, and nobody buys the same thing twice.

Sinterklaas gifts are smaller by tradition: something that fits in a shoe, a book, a chocolate letter, one toy. Christmas is where the bigger, longer-lasting things go. Let that difference do the sorting.

Put the date and the name of the celebration in the title of each list and, where you can, share them with different people. In many families the grandparents take Sinterklaas and the parents handle Christmas morning, or the other way round. Follow the split your family already has instead of inventing a new one.

What goes on which list

For Sinterklaas:

• Books and comics (a new Suske en Wiske, a Donald Duck subscription)
• Small things: a Lego Speed Champions car, a phone case, a head torch
• Socks, a scarf, pyjamas
• Food: a chocolate letter, speculaas, a bottle of proper olive oil, a bag of coffee beans
• Craft and hobby supplies, a sketchbook, a set of fineliners

For Christmas:

• Electronics: headphones, a Kindle, a games console
• Experiences: concert tickets, a spa day, a weekend away
• Bigger household items: a reading chair, a good lamp, an espresso machine
• Jewellery and watches
• Big hobby gear: a racing bike, skis, a keyboard

For the borderline items, a simple rule works: small things go on the Sinterklaas list, anything bigger goes on the Christmas list, unless it is chocolate.

Coordinate with family and friends

With two gift days three weeks apart, people need to see what is already taken without spoiling the surprise. Splitting by group is the simplest way. Grandparents do Sinterklaas and parents do Christmas morning, or the school friends do a Sinterklaas swap while the colleagues keep their Christmas party.

For the colleagues, organise a Secret Santa for Christmas with a fixed budget, and keep Sinterklaas at work to a poem or a small surprise, if you do it at all. Two draws with the same people in the same month start to feel like homework.

Split the budget once, in November

Set one figure for the whole season, then divide it. A split of roughly 30 percent for Sinterklaas and 70 for Christmas works for most households. If Sinterklaas is the bigger day in your family, turn it around.

Sinterklaas is the smaller occasion on purpose. A book and a chocolate letter make a complete Sinterklaas gift, and there is no need to make it bigger because Christmas is coming. When something on the Sinterklaas list is bought, the buyer reserves it, so the same item does not creep onto the Christmas list.

Shop in order

Start with Sinterklaas in early November, because it comes first. Wrap those presents the week you buy them and keep them away from the Christmas ones. Different wrapping paper for each day is a simple trick that stops a Sinterklaas gift from turning up on the 25th.

Finish the Sinterklaas shopping by 1 December, then give Christmas your full attention. The three weeks in between are enough, and far better than doing both piles in the same weekend.

Once the family has the Sinterklaas list, create a Christmas list and start filling it with the bigger things. With two lists from the first day, the presents stay apart as well.