St. Nicholas Day (Nikolaus) Gifts: What Goes in the Boot on 6 December

The custom, briefly

If you have a German-speaking partner, a child in a German school or kindergarten, or you've just moved to Germany, Austria or Switzerland, 6 December will find you sooner or later. It is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, who was bishop of Myra, in what is now southern Turkey, in the first half of the fourth century. 6 December is traditionally given as the day he died; the year is uncertain. On the evening before, children set shoes or boots outside the door, and overnight they are filled — traditionally with nuts, tangerines, chocolate and gingerbread.

Who comes along with Nicholas depends on the region: Knecht Ruprecht in northern and central Germany, the Krampus in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol. And the golden balls Nicholas is often shown holding come from a legend in which he threw a lump of gold through a poor man's window on three nights running, so that each of his three daughters had a dowry. It's a good story for the moment the first tangerine rolls out of the boot.

What traditionally goes in

The contents have barely changed in generations, and that's the point — children look forward to the smell of tangerines and gingerbread more than to any toy. The classic filling:

• Tangerines or clementines — the cheapest and healthiest filler, and they make the boot heavy and round.
• Nuts in the shell — walnuts, hazelnuts or peanuts, ideally with a nutcracker to keep everyone busy for the morning. Not for small children; more on that below.
• A chocolate St. Nicholas — one you'd actually want to eat yourself rather than three from a multipack.
• Lebkuchen (German gingerbread), Spekulatius (spiced shortbread cookies) or Printen (Aachen-style gingerbread) — whichever your family, or your partner's, grew up with.
• One small thing to keep — a thin book, a small game, pencils, warm socks.

How much to spend

We found no current per-person figure. For 2025, the German Retail Federation (HDE) expected Nikolaus sales of just over €1 billion; in the survey behind that estimate, run by IFH Köln among about 1,000 people, roughly one in three planned to buy something for the occasion, and most of them meant to spend the same as the year before. Food and toys were the most popular boot fillers; people also bought books, stationery, clothing, perfume and cosmetics, and flowers.

The most recent per-person number we could find comes from the HDE's 2019 survey: an average of €26 for one's own children and €21 for a partner. That's an average across people who buy anything at all, and it is several years old — treat it as a ceiling, not a target. A boot of fruit, nuts, chocolate and one small extra usually costs well under that.

More important than the amount is fairness: set a per-boot limit in advance, and make it the same for every child. Siblings compare very carefully in the morning, and an uneven boot is remembered long after its contents are gone.

Ideas by person

The basic filling stays the same for everyone; what changes is the one small extra on top.

• Toddlers under three — a board book, a bath book or a soft toy with no detachable parts. Instead of nuts and lots of chocolate: a tangerine, a cookie, done.
• Kindergarten age — chunky crayons, modeling clay, stickers, or a reflector for their coat that genuinely gets used on dark December mornings.
• Elementary-school kids — a comic, a small card game, a flashlight for reading under the covers.
• Teenagers — their favorite chocolate instead of the family pack, plus something practical like a charging cable or lip balm, or a handwritten voucher for a cinema trip.
• Your partner — one really good bar of chocolate, a winter hand cream, and a note with a date: the Christmas market, just the two of you. If they grew up with Nikolaus and you didn't, filling their boot is a small gesture that lands far above its cost.
• Parents and in-laws — home-baked cookies, a printed photo from this year, a good tea. Grandparents who live far away are often happier with a small Nikolaus package than with one more Christmas present.
• At the office — a plate of tangerines and chocolate St. Nicholases in the kitchen instead of individual gifts. If the team is already doing Secret Santa, that's plenty.
• In a shared apartment — everyone puts one shoe in the hallway and draws a name to fill someone else's. It's Secret Santa in miniature; agree on a limit first.

What to leave out

Most boot mistakes come from good intentions. Three of them are more than a matter of taste.

• Big gifts brought forward — a tablet or the expensive toy in the boot pre-empts Christmas and sets a bar you'll have to clear again every year.
• Too much sugar — one chocolate St. Nicholas is enough. Fruit, nuts (at the right age) and the one small extra fill the rest. Otherwise small children eat before breakfast what was meant to last the week.
• Nuts for toddlers — Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warns that the risk of nuts or nut pieces getting into small children's airways is significantly higher than the risk from swallowed small toy parts. The German association of pediatricians (BVKJ) advises not giving nuts or almonds to children under four.
• Small parts for under-threes — a toy carrying the warning "Not suitable for children under 36 months" (required by the EU Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC) does not belong in a toddler's boot. That goes for an older sibling's boot too, when both unpack together.

The rule of thumb: edible, useful, surprise

If you don't know where to start, put in exactly three things. Something edible, because that's the heart of the custom. Something useful that gets used before Christmas — gloves, a notebook, pencils. And one small surprise that shows you thought of this particular person: the sticker that's missing from their album, a note with a joke, a day out planned for January.

The rule keeps the budget small on its own, makes sure the boot never looks empty, and leaves Christmas room to breathe. It works just as well for adults.

Timing: shopping, mailing, filling

In 2026, St. Nicholas Day falls on a Sunday. The boots are filled on Saturday evening, so anything ordered online should be in the house by Friday at the latest — counting on a Saturday delivery is cutting it fine, and in Germany shops are normally closed on Sundays.

Buy the tangerines and chocolate in the week before. If you're mailing a Nikolaus package to grandchildren or godchildren, check your carrier's delivery times in late November and allow a few days' slack. And if you're thinking ahead: the boot is the first deadline of the season — the Christmas ones are in our guide to when to start Christmas shopping.

Sources

Custom, date and companions: Wikipedia, "Saint Nicholas Day" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day) and the German article "Nikolaustag" (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaustag). Sales, survey and popular gift categories for 2025: HDE press release "Nikolaus: Einzelhandel rechnet mit Milliardenumsatz", 2 December 2025 (einzelhandel.de/nikolaus). Per-person spending in 2019: HDE survey, as reported by FashionUnited on 3 December 2019. Nuts and toddlers: BfR press release 37/2009 of 22 December 2009, and the BVKJ recommendation as reported by Deutsches Ärzteblatt on 23 December 2013. Toy warning: Directive 2009/48/EC on the safety of toys, Annex V.