A Sinterklaas wishlist people actually use

In the Netherlands the presents arrive on the evening of 5 December; in Belgium the shoes are full on the morning of the 6th. Either way, somebody has to buy them, and in most families that somebody is working from a scrap of paper that says "socks, a book, something nice". A better list takes twenty minutes and changes the whole evening.

Mix the useful with the purely fun

Start with the things you keep meaning to buy and never do: leather gloves, a decent pair of wool socks, the peeler that actually works, a new phone case. These get used every day and they show the giver read the list.

Then add the things nobody needs: the novel your colleague would not stop talking about, a box of Tony's Chocolonely in the flavour you like, a card game like Skull or The Mind, a print for the empty wall in the hall. A list with only useful things on it reads like a shopping errand. A list with only fun things on it reads like a child wrote it. Both, in equal measure, is what a Sinterklaas list should look like.

Cover a range of prices

Sinterklaas budgets vary more than Christmas ones. Between siblings it might be €10, between partners €50, and in the surprise draw at work €7.50 precisely. Put things on the list for all of those.

Under €10: kruidnoten from the good bakery, patterned socks, a notebook, a bar of proper chocolate. Between €15 and €30: a book, a houseplant in a pot, a good hand cream, a bottle of something. Above that, one or two things that several people could chip in on together, such as a cast-iron pan or a pair of headphones. When you create a wishlist online, the family can contribute to one bigger gift on the list without a group chat spiralling over who pays what.

Skip the vague entries

"Books" gets you the wrong book. "Clothes" gets you a jumper in a colour you would never choose. Write down the actual thing: "the new Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, paperback", "black merino beanie, not the ribbed kind", "moisturiser for sensitive skin, fragrance-free".

Paste the link where you can, with the size and the colour. It looks fussy on paper. It is also the one piece of information the giver needs to buy with confidence, and it saves the exchange at the counter on the 7th.

Some of the best presents are not objects

Sinterklaas is the one occasion where a poem and a home-made surprise count for more than the parcel. A list can say so. "An afternoon at the sauna together", "help painting the kitchen", "a batch of your speculaas" are legitimate entries, and for a friend on a tight budget they are a relief to read.

Tickets work the same way: a concert in February, a season ticket for the swimming pool, a museum card. Nothing to wrap, and it lasts longer than the pepernoten.

Update it, and send it early

A list written in early November and never touched is out of date by the time anyone reads it. Go back through it in the last week of November: take off what you bought yourself, add what you noticed in the meantime.

Then send the link, by the 20th of November at the latest. That leaves two weeks for people to order, and it gets you out of the "so, what would you like?" conversation at Sunday lunch. Send it to the people who buy for you, with one line: "made a little list, in case it helps".

The surprise on the 5th survives a list; the wrong presents do not. You can create a wishlist tonight and have it with the family before the Sint is even in the country.