Who do you give to this season? (not family/friends)

[KarenAylwood]

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about a recycling man who left cards and self addressed envelopes at his customers houses for Christmas. Pretty much asking for a tip. I've never done anything like this before (ETA tip someone like this, not ask for a tip myself ).

I always put together nice gifts for my son's daycare teachers and give something to the Director and Assistant Director at his school. There are a bunch of floater teachers too so I was thinking about doing something for them but I'm not sure if I can swing that.

I don't generally give things to coworkers (don't have the money for that) but participate in our holiday potluck and white elephant, and give cards to those I'm close to.

I don't have a hair stylist or masseuse or any other person I go to for things. No newspaper delivered. No dairy delivery. We have a mailwoman and get packages every so often from fedex or UPS but I don't know any of these people by sight and there's a lot of holiday help this time of year. Our mailwoman is super grumpy too and doesn't deliver on time always, I think because she's annoyed with all the construction in our neighborhood, it makes things hard for her. Not to say she's not doing her job, she's just not going above and beyond to what I think would deserve a tip during the holidays.

Who do you give to this season? Do you give to the mailman, garbage and recycle people? Anyone else? I'm not sure how customary it is and honestly the mailman probably makes more than I do at this point My parents always gave to the newspaper delivery person but it was the same person every year and they brought it to their door rather than throw it at the base of the driveway.

 

[havaneselover]

Swim coaches and my co-worker who I carpool with. That's pretty much it. I had to simplify life and cut back after my divorce.

 

[momplus3]

I do exchange gifts with co workers but I work in an office with 2 other people. We set a limit of $25 per person. I also give out cookies/fudge to neighbors.

A little note - I delivered newspapers for 8 years and truly did appreciate when I received tips from customers.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I work in a very small office within a large university. It's just 3 coworkers that I work with directly, so I always get gifts for them. DH just started his job at the same university, but his office is huge and he seemed to want to buy something for tons and tons of people. I told him that the practice in his office might be not to gift at all, since it is so large and they do office potlucks, etc. But he really wanted to gift to some people, so I told him that he could take 6 of the gift baskets that I was making up. I will also give a gift to our pet sitter, which I do every year. I don't know my mailman. We get a newspaper delivered one day a week, so I don't feel compelled to gift anything to this person (though they did leave a card with their address in the paper on Sunday).

This year I bought Popcornopolis gift baskets from Costco and attached cute gift tags with Redbox codes for a holiday "movie night" theme. They cost me about $9 each and I think they are quite cute. I hope people like them.

ETA: DH will be baking french macaroons to share with everyone in his office, to make up for those he doesn't give a gift basket to.

 

[AquaDame]

No one... we give new toys to charities, but my coworkers don't do gifts or anything and no one in my family growing up gave to mailmen or anything either. We never see or interact with them since we're at work. We'll bring in treats but we do that year round when we feel like it.

 

[2China2009]

At our church we selected to little one's off the Angel tree. The only request was a pair of pants and a shirt. So my girls and I headed off to Target and bought the little boy and girl 2sets of pants and shirts, socks, winter coats and a play doh activity set for each.

I buy for 2 teachers. This yr from Target they were having 25% of all beauty supplies and they had nice EOS hand lotions 3 in a Christmas box. So each teacher will get that with a small Bundt cake.

My office is small also,but I would only buy for certain people. Our local bakery makes these Colache xmas trees that are very popular. I am going to pick some of this up. I try to keep it very simple.

 

[TwoMisfits]

If you take out family and friends, then just the Angel Tree kids we picked for Christmas. I volunteer and run many activities for kids/teens all year and my husband is a volunteer teacher for tweens/teens in his spare time, and we have never gotten gifts from those who enjoy our free work (nor do we expect them). I actually prefer it this way b/c I don't need to add 15-20 gifts more per Christmas in order to gift out every teacher, tutor, co-worker, service provider we have...that gets expensive and worthless at the same time (b/c as I said before, who needs another mug, and if it's just gift cards, why not just tip them when you're getting services?)...

 

[DawnM]

Nope, not the letter carrier or the trash guy or the UPS guy. They often change hands anyway.

At work, no, I don't plan to.

 

[ImDMous]

I add a little extra to my hairstylists' tip the visit before Christmas and I will tip the Schwan's guy if we have a delivery close to Christmas. That's about it besides family and friends.

 

[pearlieq]

We give a holiday tip anyone who provides regular, personal service to us. This year that pretty much means the cat sitter.

Our trash/recycling has always been contracted by the county and, frankly, they're not that great. In the past I've given holiday tips to the nail salon worker I saw every couple of weeks or our favorite waitress at a restaurant we frequented, but we've moved so there's really no one that fits that category anymore.

 

[Canooknic]

My children's teachers + a box of cookies/baked goods for the school staff room, my hairdresser is one of my good friends so I just take a good bottle of wine with me for my appointment before Christmas, I leave a small gift card/box of chocolates in my mail box for our post lady- I do a lot of online shopping so she deserves a little thank you!!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Growing up, my parents only tipped the newspaper person, and I think that was because it was always the same person. I've never left a tip for my mail person, because we always have different people delivering our mail. My parents usually got a candle for each of my teachers, and my bus driver always got a pair of fun holiday earrings (she was known for wearing wacky earrings). I think we did my dance teacher, too, but nothing much. Maybe a candle also or a body lotion. I imagine I'll do about the same thing when we have kids. My husband and I don't do for coworkers, I've learned from my parents' experience that once you start it over the years it can get out of hand with making new friends and feeling like you can't buy for one person and not another and so on. Instead, I usually bake a holiday treat a few days before the holidays for each of our workplaces and we bring in something everyone can share. I don't usually get my hair done by the same person each time, so I've never tipped extra there. Other than those, we usually donate a few items off of the wish list from the shelter where we adopted one of our cats. This year we donated a litter box and a cat hammock from their list. I think it totaled to like $11 and Amazon shipped it right to them.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

My boss gets a nice gift from me.
Mail carrier and garbage men get cash.
Cleaning lady gets cash.
Massage tech gets cash.
Hairstylist gets cash.
I would love to be creative and give something more personal, but one of my first bosses 20 years ago said "nothing says Christmas like cash".

 

[wendow]

I usually put together a 'care package' for our mail/UPS/Fedex carriers. I am a HEAVY online shopper so I like to give them a small something.

My dh gives to his employees and that is usually out of our personal money as he works for a non-profit and they don't have budget for gifts. Usually $25 gift card and he has 6 employees.

We usually don't give to teachers b/c we do a part-time homeschool program and between my 4 kids, we have 14 teachers. Nor do we typically give to activities teachers. It would just be way too costly with the number of different teachers we have and I wouldn't pick and choose.

We give a lot to various charities that we support all year but make extra gifts at Christmas, as well as adopting a few kids from the Angel Tree at church.

As a side note, my dh & I are volunteer teachers for a program that is weekly and runs 9 mos of the year. This is our 10th year. We occasionally have a child bring us a gift and while I enjoy what they give us, it is never expected nor do I wonder why others don't. I think most people understand that finances are tight for so many.

 

[Hikergirl]

Just toys for tots

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about a recycling man who left cards and self addressed envelopes at his customers houses for Christmas. Pretty much asking for a tip. I've never done anything like this before (ETA tip someone like this, not ask for a tip myself ).

I always put together nice gifts for my son's daycare teachers and give something to the Director and Assistant Director at his school. There are a bunch of floater teachers too so I was thinking about doing something for them but I'm not sure if I can swing that.

I don't generally give things to coworkers (don't have the money for that) but participate in our holiday potluck and white elephant, and give cards to those I'm close to.

I don't have a hair stylist or masseuse or any other person I go to for things. No newspaper delivered. No dairy delivery. We have a mailwoman and get packages every so often from fedex or UPS but I don't know any of these people by sight and there's a lot of holiday help this time of year. Our mailwoman is super grumpy too and doesn't deliver on time always, I think because she's annoyed with all the construction in our neighborhood, it makes things hard for her. Not to say she's not doing her job, she's just not going above and beyond to what I think would deserve a tip during the holidays.

Who do you give to this season? Do you give to the mailman, garbage and recycle people? Anyone else? I'm not sure how customary it is and honestly the mailman probably makes more than I do at this point My parents always gave to the newspaper delivery person but it was the same person every year and they brought it to their door rather than throw it at the base of the driveway.

If the garbage men would quit leaving my trash cans in the road and running over them, I would give them something. I'm on my 3rd set of cans since January, so nothing for them. Also, they do the recycling, and they are lazy (I'm only allowed 2 recycle bins, and they want everything separated...paper in one, cardboard in another, glass in something else, cans in another, plastics by themselves....how am I supposed to do that with only 2 bins??? I used to use a cardboard divider to separate the cans/glass/plastics in one bin, and put the cardboard on top of the paper in the other, but they said that it was too much work for them to separate...).

The mailman changes 3x weekly so to make sure I get all 3, I just buy several boxes of chocolates (small ones) and top them with a bow and leave them in the mailbox on the day that person delivers.

I used to do for the kids teachers, but now that DS is in middle school, he's said no more.

ETA: we do several charitable gifts. DS does a shoebox gift through the scouts/church; we do Toys for Tots (buying while on sale throughout the year) and if we have the money, we'll do Angel Tree gifts. I don't do Salvation Army or Red Cross (the first wasn't there to help us when we needed help, and the other spends too much on the upper management).

ETAA: We all did the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange again. Not sure what I'm getting, but my giftee asked for a couple of movies, so I sent those, plus one I chose (Goonies/Galaxy Quest/Christine), a Dalak bottle opener that talks, and a couple of cat and dog toys for their furries.
DH did a SS gift exchange at work, as did DD#2. He ended up with a bottle of Manhattens; she got some Disney items (she works at the Disney Store).

 

[Imagineer5]

The only "extra" person we're giving to is our daycare provider, and I'll be paying her in cash 1 week's daycare costs.

Aside from that, our mailman leaves stuff in the rain so he is out, and I can't imagine getting a self-addressed envelop ready for tips from our recycling guys! wow!

I have lots of coworkers and no one does gifts, so that's easy too.

 

[KarenAylwood]

The only "extra" person we're giving to is our daycare provider, and I'll be paying her in cash 1 week's daycare costs.

Aside from that, our mailman leaves stuff in the rain so he is out, and I can't imagine getting a self-addressed envelop ready for tips from our recycling guys! wow!

I have lots of coworkers and no one does gifts, so that's easy too.

Yeah, it was on the Bobby Bones show (country). They are pretty funny and it's generally clean humor. The one guy was ranting and raving about how ridiculous he thought it was. The others on the show said it wasn't a big deal but they all said they didn't usually tip people like that. I would be blown away if the recycling man left me a self addressed envelope like that. If he went above and beyond, I'd find a way to give him a tip if I wanted to.

 

[MomToOne]

Gardener - cash=one month's standard charge

Coworkers - just a few people, something small (I spent about $4 each this year, although I maximized that through savvy shopping)

DDs friend who tutors her in PreCalc - gift basket of various things DD thought she'd like. I pay her $20 a week for 15-30 minutes of helping DD with homework 3-4 days per week, but given the way her help saves DD and I from many battles (I was not cut out to be a teacher!), I wanted to get her a gift too

Various charity toy drives

And any Salvation Army bell ringer I come across always gets a few bucks!

ETA: I do love my mailman (I'm maybe one of the few that seems to say that LOL). He's great with package deliveries - doesn't prescan them, gets them out on his route the day they hit the post office, actually knocks on the door and waits to see if anyone answers, leaves it in the designated "safe" spot if no one is home. I can't ask for anything more! So I've been debating getting him a small gift card this year, I know they have a limit to what they can accept.

I don't tip my hairstylist any extra at Christmas because I tip 20% all year long (and she's not cheap). That's enough!

 

[mommajo143]

My children's teachers + a box of cookies/baked goods for the school staff room

We also send a basket of goodies to our school - one basket for the office staff & one for the cafeteria ladies & janitor. I enjoy baking so I tend to bake & give away to a wide range of people throughout the season, but it's basically when I feel like it rather than an obligation to gift items to a ton of people. We do always give a gift to teachers; it's usually a jar if jam or pickles or relish or salsa we put up over the summer. Some past teachers have gently nudged for extras after we left their classes so I feel like it's a gift they enjoy & it's basically free - we can from our garden all summer regardless.