For those of you who have regular house cleaners (not a service like Merry Maids, but an individual), hairdressers, lawn caretakers, or any other service provider who performs a significant, regular personal service, what do you do about an extra tip, gratuity, gift, or the like, at Christmas?
I’m assuming the Christmas “bonus” would depend on how long you’ve been with this person, how often you see them, how much you regularly pay for whatever they do, and how personally *related *you feel to them.
I’d appreciate some guidance/stories/examples on this topic.
I’ve had a cleaning woman that I LOVE for about 8 months (I’ve only been in this house for 11 months), which isn’t all that long, but she’s fabulous and a perfectly lovely human being. (She replaced the guy that I fired when I discovered that his helper --his adult son-- had stolen about $2,500 worth of silver. Grrr.) She comes every other week for $65 and I’m thinking at Christmas I want to give her $100-- is that too little? Too much?
What about hairdressers that you go to every six weeks for years and years… what do you do for them (if anything) at Christmas? Booze, theater tickets, cash?
We pay our very wonderful cleaning lady $80/week, and she’s been with us maybe 3 years. I’ll probably give her $150 this year, and pay her for Thanksgiving and Christmas week.
She is, however, the only cleaning lady I’ve ever had that I’d 1) give that much of a bonus to ($100 would be more like it) and 2) pay her for weeks she doesn’t come. She’s really that good at her job, and we don’t want to lose her. Part of the holiday pay is a little bit for me, too: she relies on her weekly income, and I know when we tell her that she can’t come on her normal Thursday because it’s Thanksgiving, she’ll want to rearrange her schedule and come another day because she needs the money. It’s easier for me just to pay her than to have to figure out a time for her to come in an already-busy week, plus it makes us all happy, so it’s an easy win-win situation.
We give our cleaning lady an extra week’s pay. We actually give it to her early, around Thanksgiving, so that she’ll have it for her Christmas spending. I don’t think it matters how long she’s been with us (although it’s around 15 years.)
We also give small cash gifts ($25 - $35) to our mail carrier.
I have never spoken to or even seen my paper delivery people. I signed up for the newspaper at a local supermarket. Every December they’ll include a Christmas greeting card in one of the Sunday papers, along with a note to please contact them if we’re having any issues with our service. I take the hint and throw twenty bucks into a greeting card and mail it to the address provided.
I think that’s the only holiday tip I have given the last few years.
Not booze–what if they don’t drink? Not theater tickets–what if they don’t like the show? Cash (or a gift card to a store you know they frequently go to) is the way to go here.
Like CKDexterHaven, we give our housecleaner an extra week’s payment.
I’ve been seeing a trainer at the gym once a week for the past couple of years. Given that I spent the first 47 years of my life generally avoiding exercise like the plague, and am now more fit than I have ever been, I feel it’s worth it to give her a decent end of year gift. Last year, it was a $150 Amazon gift card (the cost of about 2.5 45-minute sessions). I’ll probably do the same this year.
We build a tip into our newspaper subscription, so I don’t think we’ll give the carrier anything extra. Probably will leave a little for the milk delivery guy, and maybe some cookies for our mail carrier.
We make Christmas fudge. We give some to the local fire department, the folks at our pharmacy, the mailman and one of Madame Pepperwinkle’s doctors, along with family and friends. Seems to brighten everyone’s face.
This is my first year living somewhere with both house cleaners and a regular mail carrier. I’ve been thinking about the holiday tip thing ever since I moved in (late April).
I’ve never met my house cleaners: I use a small local company, and I don’t even know how many people show up every other week (and I don’t think it’s the same people every time). I’m thinking about calling the owner of the company and asking him for tip guidance.
I also don’t know what to do for the mail carrier, but I figure I’ll ask one of my neighbors for help with that.
Thought I’d give this a bump now that we’re closer to Christmas, and the question is more immediate than when I first asked. See if anyone else cares to weigh in.
Give it to them at least a week before Xmas. At least. Shopping is expensive.
No housekeeper, but if you LOVE her, I’d double that tip. Just me.
Can mailmen (ours is male) take a tip?? Because we love ours.
Newspaper person who is apparently several different people who all throw the paper in a different place so we have to search it out depending on the day-you’re on you own.
Mani/pedi woman ( I have a regular I love) - $50. It’s a very inexpensive nail place, and I tip her well all year.
We only really have a dog walker to tip, as my housecleaner is my MIL and she gets paid well, plus my husband tips her every time. You have me wondering if we should tip her anyways though…
This year I got my dog walker a bit of a personalized gift. A pair of really nice Lululemon gloves, a $20 gift card to Starbucks, and a jar of Body Shop body butter. About $60 worth of gifts. Last year I just gave her $50 cash. If I didn’t know her by association (she’s a cousin-in-law’s cousin), I probably would have just stuck with cash, or maybe cash and the gloves.
When my folks lived in NYC, they tipped the building super, the janitor, the mailman, the newspaper guy etc. I live in the Midwest in a rural area 45 years later and I’d say that custom is not as prevelant here.
We do have house cleaners, two ladies every two weeks, and this year they each received a $50 gift card. I also tipped my rural mail carrier and UPS guy with $25 gift cards. I know them both by name and we wave when we pass on the road or in town. They both deliver packages on a regular basis and take good care of us.
We tip the sanitation guys $20 each and the recycling guys $10 each. Recycling is bi-weekly. The paper delivery person gets $20, my wife’s hairdresser gets the cost of one visit as a tip, and her personal trainer gets one week’s pay extra. Mail delivery I don’t tip, they’re not supposed to accept cash or gift cards, and I don’t even know who brings the mail, we’ve got one of those group mailboxes a bit down the street. I think that’s it for holiday gifting.
