For Nikolaus, we use our own boots and we do not buy any red, shiny, plastic „Nikolausstiefel“. And of course, each kid has to polish their boots, because otherwise Nikolaus may not put anything in it if the boots are dirty . Then, each child puts one boot right next to the door (Nikolaus does not have much time, and he does not want to be seen). Somewhere we have one Nikolausstiefel (not sure who gave it to us), but I would not buy any of those anymore, all cheap plastic and I do not want to know how toxic that was for the people who produced it in China and how harmful it may be here (for us and for the enviroment).
What’s fun for the cookies/candies: instead of plastic bags (I really do not like them anymore after all those news regarding bisphenol A and other stuff in it), you could just buy a whole bag of „Butterbrotbeutel“ (you can get them in any supermarket). They are made out of white paper (you can get it even from FSC-certified forests). Then, you can decorate those, e.g. the kids could start to draw things on them, or you use stamps to decorate. We do this for birthday parties for the little give-away bag and more and more people we know here in Schwabing/Maxvorstadt do the same.