The Secret (behind) Santa

The month of December brings us another opportunity to offload our crap trinkets on our unsuspecting friends and family. There's Christmas, Sinterklaas (if you live in Holland that is), and if you're really unlucky birthdays. Altogether it is a good thing christmas bonuses get paid out now indeed.

Of course this brings the discussion to gifts, or more accurately the process of buying gifts. The person you're buying the gift for obviously is leading what you pick for him or her. However I've found that the length of the relationship you have, is just as important.

• If you just got to know someone within the last 6 to 12 months or so, you can pretty much get away with something from the souvenir shop, or the bargain bin: budget eau de cologne, wine from the supermarket, a paperback
  
• If you're friends for some time now - say between 1 and 5 years - you probably need to team up with your pals; the gifts you buy are not elaborate, but probably too big or expensive to buy alone: toaster ovens, jewelry, gadgets
  
• If your relationship goes back for five years or more then there's an issue: there's not a lot you can still give that you haven't given before (try buying your wife a 27th anniversary gift, you'll see what I mean); now the gifts become less material and more immaterial: dinners out, vacations, concert tickets, spa treatments

N.B. The total dollar amount of the gift is not in any way an indicator of the length of the relationship (although if you're buying a $ 100 necklace on a first date, you are either Donald Trump, or you completely missed the point). And milestones (25th and 50th anniversaries, lustra) obviously call for something special, no matter how long your relationship.