Are there any people that you tip or give an extra tip to during the holidays?
My husband, King of the Tippers made a list so he can get cash at the bank for envelopes and I think he gets a bit carried away, but maybe most people do this.
Not huge amounts, but he tips the mailman, newspaper guy, guy that cuts his hair, he gets his gas at the same gas station so gas station guy, the two garbagemen, and a man that sometimes does work around the house. I know there’s probably more.
While it’s a nice gesture, I told him he’s the only person I know that tips the garbagemen but he said everyone does. Do they?
I give the newspaper lady a tip because she sends me a Christmas card almost begging for it. I give her a twenty and she is so grateful that my paper actually lands on the porch all the way to New Years.
We tip the newspaper person (no idea who it is, someone cruises by in a sedan at 4.30 am and a paper hits somewhere in the area of my house). We give the mailman a gift, last year it was a pair of gloves. Don’t know what this year. He made a point of thanking us.
I would not interfere with your husband’s activities.
30 years ago I learnt that the secret of a good (male) haircut is to go to an inexpensive barber and grossly over tip.
With restaurants, if one is going to go back, then a generous cash tip is a pretty good investment.
With the garbage men I’ve noticed that waving a note and saying ‘any chance of losing this crap for me’ gets an enthusiastic response.
I suspect that you are going on a cruise, in which case your husband has been checking up on etiquette and has probably decided to short circuit the system.
If that is the case, then post confirmation, you’ll get some recommendations.
Your husband might be dumb, alternatively he might be very smart
Heh…my dad just told me he got a BIG ASS FLYER in his paper that was an obvious extortion announcement. He said his paper is fucked up and down by the road every morning, so he’s not giving him anything.
I don’t tip anyone extra at the holidays. Although I did give my hairdresser a pair of hand-made earrings in a Christmas design. But she makes jewelry, too, and we discuss it all the time.
I think the world of our mailman. Super nice guy, loves to talk NFL, is a musician in his church, etc. Just as good as they come and nice to visit with a couple of minutes each week. Last year I gave him two HUGE fresh ribeyes and he really seemed to appreciate that.
The garbagemen are always different. I’m not sure what to do for them… maybe something smaller but quarterly.
I don’t tip the gas station because it is self serve. I do tip the rest as well as my pool guy, babysitter and cleaning lady. Garbage men are always tough but I put an envelope of 12 five dollars bills taped under the cover with To The Trash Collections: Happy Holiday and Thank you written on the envelope. (There are three guys)It always disappears. I give my mail carrier a gift certificate for dinner because he really isn’t supposed to accept cash. My hair stylist I give double the usual fee same with the cleaning lady, handyman, babysitter and pool guy. All total, I probably tip around five hundred dollars at Christmas but it is well worth a thank you for all the stuff these people do to make my job as a working mother that much easier.
We take our own trash to the convenience center, we don’t take paper, I don’t have a regular hairdresser, I pump my own gas, and I’ve never tipped a letter carrier in my life. I suppose if I got a lot of big packages all year, I might think about it, but I’m willing to bet whoever puts the junkmail in my mailbox is making more than minimum, so no tip.
Nope. I have no idea who our mail carrier or trash removal people are. I get my hair cut by whoever happens to be working when I go so no regular person to holiday tip. Can’t really think of anyone else either.
My friend’s mom used to give our mail lady a bottle of wine each year. My parents were never home when the mail came so they didn’t even know if it was a man or woman or anything. I’ve trained them to be above-average tippers on the regular, however. If I go out to eat with them, dad defers to me about tip amounts. It’s been a long time since they’ve worked thankless jobs, but luckily they were never cheap tippers. I personally have no one to tip but the pizza guy - tomorrow night he will get a nice tip because it’s crappy out and cold and the delivery of pizza tomorrow night will get me fed without having to cook so I can cram and watch CSI.
I tip anyone who does any kind of regular work for me, for example the lady who waxes my eyebrows will get a good holiday tip on top of the tip I usually give her. I have never seen my postal person and I live in an apartment complex so I don’t even know how to tip them if I wanted to, but I know that when I lived in a house there was a tip for the mail man, garbage men, for the pool guy, if you have people cutting your lawn regularly they should also get tipped, etc.
Phew, two countries divided by a common language and all that, I read ‘holiday tipping’ as talking about tipping waiters when you go abroad on ‘vacation’ as you’d put it.
What you call ‘holiday tipping’, we over 'ere in Britland call ‘the Christmas bonus’. I give my Polish cleaner £20 (that’s nearly $40 at current exchange rates) - I can’t avoid it, as a week before she always leaves me some orrible Polish chocolates as a reminder.
I don’t tip any other housecallers as I’m always out at work when they come by, but I know my Mum gives cash to the binmen and the paper boy (who actually manages to get the newspaper through the letterbox - it sounds from this thread that you lot are being shortchanged by your papermen).
It’s always been the practice in our family to tip the paperboy, milkman, postman, and dustbin men at Christmas. When I did a paper round, probably about half of my customers left a small Christmas tip. I only get my hair cut 4 times a year and can only afford a small tip each time, nothing extra for Christmas.
The chances of my husband going on a cruise are slim to none, so that idea is out.
He’d break out in hives if he was away from a golf course for more than a week. I consider myself pretty generous, but he tips people that would never occur to me to tip.