MetaChat - Do You "Take Care" of People for the Holidays?

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22 December 2009

Do You "Take Care" of People for the Holidays?

Gaspode: 1. Just finished putting together all the envelopes for doormen, handymen etc. in our apartment complex. Nearly $500. Gulp.

I was going to ask this question, and→[More:] saw G's comment. I left a Blockbuster gift card in my locker at the gym for the guys who puts our laundered gym clothes back in them, and do other stuff around the locker room. It'll be random, which of about 5 guys actually get it.

This is the only thing I am doing along those lines this year, but I hear that people in NY and possibly other big cities have a long list, as Gaspode mentions.

Does anyone else take care of people who serve you throughout the year? And how?

post by: danf at: 13:53 | 31 comments

I've never done that.

posted by JanetLand 22 December | 13:56

I don't really have anyone I can think of, other than my landlord, who I've never given a gift. His family owns the property, so they're already getting my rent money. But he is a really attentive landlord and I appreciate that, particularly when I hear how horrible some friends' landlords are. Maybe when I move out, I'll get him a gift. Although that's weird, too. Bah. I don't know.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 22 December | 13:58

Building with a large staff, you're expected to throw in a Holiday bonus if you're a shareholder. I just give em all $20s which works out to about 240 smackers. I don't have a big enough relationship with anyone else to justify a gift but when we did have a Monday Cleaning Lady - we included a $50 Holiday bonus.

posted by The Whelk 22 December | 14:01

No, that sounds very Victorian. Didn't know it was still done but then I've never lived anywhere with staff.

posted by octothorpe 22 December | 14:01

When I lived in Atlanta, one bus driver on my route was almost always on time, would stop short of the bus stop if I was hurrying to it, and was always in a good humor. I put $10 in a card for him that year.

posted by Ardiril 22 December | 14:03

I take that back, there was a grounds crew at the condo complex that I lived in in the 'burbs but we never got them presents. I guess we were bad condo dwellers.

posted by octothorpe 22 December | 14:04

And that doesn't count the gifts to the kid's daycare teachers. Which always sends me into a loop. I mean, the doormen etc. are easy - cash in a card, but you don't give your teachers cash. And I don't really know them... I hate giving stuff that people might not like. (which is why they are getting gift cards to the closest cupcake shop... even better bc we've seen them eating cupcakes from there before)

posted by gaspode 22 December | 14:08

I usually do bring gifts (not money, for reasons both policy-based and financial) to a few people: my bus driver, my librarians, the AA in my university department. But in my small city, these are people who know me by name, who are willing to accept my homemade goodies because they know I'm not some random loon... but rather a specific and known loon.

One year, I tried to tip the water department workers who spent a week in a water-filled hole on the main street, repairing the pipes to our building record-breaking-cold. Working overnight. In January. During a record-breaking cold snap. They cheerfully refused the cash, though they did gladly accept hot coffee and snacks.

I sent their department a letter of thanks (to keep in their files, come time for raises and promotions) and a box of sugar cookies.

posted by Elsa 22 December | 14:15

I tip my hairdressers more than usual in December and some years we give the UPS man and garbage men cash gifts. My kids' teachers and piano instructor got Panera Bread gift cards this year. Their music teachers got blown glass treble clef necklaces because my husband sells them -- easy.

posted by LoriFLA 22 December | 14:23

Hairdresser always gets a gift (usually something cooking-related costing about £10, a little gadget or a recipe book or something).

Vet gets a bottle of red wine, again about £10.

Guy next door (not Hell Neighbour) gets a £20 gift voucher - he has someone mow the front lawn throughout the year and won't allow me to share the cost. To come home from work and find the Lawnmower Fairy has been is far beyond rubies.

This year I also gave my builder £100.

posted by essexjan 22 December | 14:31

I tip my hairdressers more than usual in December

Geez, that's right, LoriFLA. I didn't even think of those tips. Yeah, I do that too, or used to, in my previous life:

- When I used to dine out regularly and had a regular bar, I always gave a big holiday tip to my regular servers/bartenders, and often a packet of cookies or something. Ditto for the coffeehouse baristas.

- When I had a particular barber, I would give her a big tip and usually a small gift (though we were friends, too, so that's not quite what you're asking).

- I gave a small gift to my mail carrier, who delivered both to my home (drop-off) and to my work (handing it to me in person), and to my UPS person (same deal).

and so on.

Essentially: anyone I did not routinely tip year-round, I gave small gifts. Anyone I did routinely tip year-round got a great big tip and often a small gift.

posted by Elsa 22 December | 14:32

I know in college, we would all chip in a massive amount and get flowers and movie tickets or a dinner gift certificate for somewhere nice for our housekeeper and her husband. We also send a huge ass bouquet when we found her husband passed away. She was a badass housekeeper.

I hadn't thought to tip anyone at my condo place. Hrm.

posted by sperose 22 December | 14:40

"When I used to dine out regularly and had a regular bar"

I am generally not one to frequent any one establishment, and the few I did had too many rotating staff.

posted by Ardiril 22 December | 14:42

For a long time I lived in a building with a doorman/security/maintenance crew. It would have been poor form to not give them money at Christmas time. Other than that, I have never given extra, although when I was a youngster, my parents would frequently give money to our postman and paper delivery boy at Christmas.

posted by msali 22 December | 14:49

My grandparents did this when they were still living in NYC. Always a 6-pack of Knickerbocker beer for the guys on the garbage truck. As a kid I noticed that he always "gift wrapped" his trash year-round in a process that involved paper grocery bags and twine from the drawer that had bits of saved string, rubber bands and foil.

I guess I'm a Grinch. When our pool guy (and by "our", I mean my in-laws, whose pool house we were living in at the time) left us a self-addressed, stamped Christmas card presumably to fill with a tip, it was ignored. We did tip the emergency plumber who came on Christmas Eve one year on top of paying double the hourly rate.

posted by simbiotic 22 December | 14:56

I baked cookies for the garbageman in Baltimore one year. He always waved at my toddler son and called him Buddy, which is huge when you are 18 months old and think the garbage truck is the single coolest thing on the planet.

posted by mygothlaundry 22 December | 15:12

Oh, our bartenders! We *are* inclined to frequent a regular bar, and give our bartenders a nice tip on christmas. Last Christmas day we were there (with our 4mo baby) for about 3 hours with some of the other regulars. It was lovely. Marty made me sea breezes all afternoon. I pretended it was summer and i was home.

posted by gaspode 22 December | 15:19

I give gift cards to two guys who work at my post office. I sell stuff online and each of them has saved me at least 2-3 hundred dollars a year by suggesting various ways of mailing things for less money. They've also saved things for me that I've left there, have given me freebies, have done countless little thoughtful things for me.

posted by iconomy 22 December | 15:41

It's fairly common here (although it seems to be dying out) to put a six-pack on top of the rubbish bin around this time of year for the garbage collectors. it's possibly dying out because the collector just drives an automated truck and never gets out of the cab, unlike the old days, when there were two (or more) on the crew and they had to lift the bins into the back of the truck.

It used to be common knowledge that they remembered who left them a six-pack and who didn't. If you did, you could get away with cramming your bin to overflowing or stacking a bit extra beside the bin for the whole year and they would happily take it away. If you didn't, well, you ended up with any extra rubbish left sitting where you put it (or worse).

This year, I wrote a card for all my staff (~60), including a short personal message and put an 'instant cappuccino' sachet and a chocolate in each envelope. Very much appreciated and only cost ~$50. Last year, I included a $2 scratch-it ticket, but I only had half the staff then - also very much appreciated (especially by those who won money).

posted by dg 22 December | 16:35

I feel bad that I never tipped the staff at my apartments in NYC and DC. But I just didn't know the protocol. I mean, I knew that tipping was common...but I didn't really know the names of more than one or two people. And I wasn't sure how to divide between individuals--especially since I was a very low maintenance tenant. And do I need a card too? Do I have to seek out each person and have a little awkward conversation?

It made me feel like Larry David in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I wish they would have just given me a Christmas card with one of those gratuity envelopes so I could just my money in there and let them distribute it.

posted by mullacc 22 December | 17:41

My 94-year-old, non-drinking mom does the six pack for the garbage collectors, too (one six pack each). I'm amused at the thought of her buying the beer, not to mention setting it on the lid of a can. I always wondered, why beer? (I mean, why not beer, but I didn't know it was a thing.) Message: stay outta the way of garbage trucks first collection day after Christmas. (I bet a lot of mailboxes are lost that way.)

posted by Pips 22 December | 19:50

Hmm, it's hard to imagine a six pack of beer lasting long enough in the alley behind my house for the garbage men to get it. I'd have to sit there and guard it until they showed up.

posted by octothorpe 22 December | 21:32

I wish they would have just given me a Christmas card with one of those gratuity envelopes so I could just my money in there and let them distribute it.

At my cousin's building, she gets a sheet with everybody's name and picture on it, so it's clear who all needs a holiday tip.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 22 December | 22:30

I love this thread, I had no idea that this all went on.

posted by octothorpe 22 December | 23:06

I gave my manicurist a bigger tip, and I gave the guy who drives the shuttle bus that gets me to work every day a Starbucks gift card.

posted by Twiggy 22 December | 23:08

When my brother and his wife lived in New Orleans, they used to tip the police at the holidays. They would take up a neighborhood collection, and each household would throw in like $100. The total gift was in the thousands.

This was considered de riguer, a way to ensure a good and protective relationship between the profoundly underpaid NOLA police and your neighborhood. Amazing.

posted by Miko 22 December | 23:21

For teachers, I give them a thank you card with a picture of them with whatever kidlet they had in their class. I take the USB stick to the drugstore and print them instantly. That always goes over well.

posted by lysdexic 22 December | 23:35

I've gotten the tip list at both places I've lived in NY. The prick of a super who was there when I first moved into the condo crossed his name off after the first year (like I needed a reminder not to give him anything).

The bartenders where I come in a few times a week have gotten 50% tips since the 2nd week of December ( when I read that this was appropriate).

I stopped giving the mailman anything (one isn't supposed to give cash) after he mangled a crucial package.

posted by brujita 23 December | 01:28

I don't understand the question.

posted by Eideteker 23 December | 11:34

I honestly haven't even had the money to do christmas cards for my friends much less gifts for the garbage collectors and mail carriers. I'm really sick of being broke, but the end is almost in sight.

Last year I gave a lot of gift cards to people, and movie passes. Which is kind of a jerkass move on my part since I got both for free from work and always had a ton on hand. But I figure two free movie tickets is two free movie tickets, even if I didn't buy them or anything.

posted by kellydamnit 23 December | 13:38

Last year I gave a lot of gift cards to people, and movie passes. Which is kind of a jerkass move on my part since I got both for free from work and always had a ton on hand.

Disagree! Unless by "jerkass," you mean "awesome," in which case: Agree! However you came by them, they're useful and fun, and when you pass them on, you're being generous.

I love getting movie passes especially, and I don't care one little whit whether they're regifted or bought for the purpose. Either way, I get to go to the movies!

posted by Elsa 23 December | 13:52

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