gogtrial34987: Thank you, PaterAlf and skimmie, for what looks set to be a new tradition forming right here!
*dofs hat, and hopes it'll show up soon*
I'll be in for the giveaway, as I love surprise gifts, but I don't lack in anything, so I'll also be perfectly happy just being here to share and read stories.

The thing that's probably most distinctive about Christmas in the Netherlands is that it follows less than three weeks after the celebration of Sinterklaas, which is (or at least historically has been) by far the bigger gift giving event here (it's also celebrated a bit in surrounding countries, but nothing on the scale seen here). The celebration of Sinterklaas comes complete with its own decorations and traditions and red-hatted white-bearded guy (who's a major origin source for Santa Claus). Still, commercialism isn't going to let a trifling thing like that stand in the way of making a healthy profit, and so the very next day after Sinterklaas has disappeared, all shops transform overnight, putting away one set of decorations for the next. It used to be that the selling of Christmas trees would also start then, but I've seen them out since last week already.

A Christmas "gift giving" tradition which might be relatively unknown outside the Netherlands (at least, I don't think I've heard of it being practised widely in other places) if that of the "kerstpakket" (christmas package), which is a single large carton box with a fancy print on the outside to make it look like being contained in wrapping paper, which will be stuffed to the brim with more-or-less exotic / premium types of long-lasting food (specialty jam, spreads, figs, wine, crackers, tea, cookies), and one or two non-food items like wine glasses or candles. Pretty much every single large company in the Netherlands gets these for every single one of their employees, and so in the last week before Christmas, you'll see boat loads of people carrying these boxes flowing into the commuter trains at the end of their work days. I think the peak of this tradition was maybe 15-20 years ago, with it becoming noticeably less extravagant since then, and some companies moving over to giving vouchers or charitable donations in the names of their employees in order to reduce waste, but it's still common enough to be remarkable. I have happy childhood memories of helping unpack these boxes when my father brought them home each year, and when as a teenager I worked at the local supermarket, I got to bring home my very own box to rival his.