Just a thought for the garbage men. If you are around when they pick-up, you could have some breakfast in bags for them. we have the same three every week and when I am on vacation, I either run to McD's to get them something or make them smoothies here and put them in cups they don't need to return. I am thinking that when I am off for winter break, I will head out with coffee or hot chocolate. That may be a little trickier since in the summer, they can sit what I give them in the cab of the truck and have it whenever. That doesn't work so well with something hot, but we'll see. They are so wonderful and I want them to know how much we appreciate all they do. They told me this summer that no one has ever done anything like this before. They also don't get any sort of bonuses at the holidays, so I figure feeding them is a nice thing! Maybe loaves of yummy bread would be good.

I always give money to our milkman who really needs it and to our postal carrier who probably doesn't. :)

I've had the same paper boy for 7 years (before that it was his older brother) and I always give him a generous tip. He not only places my paper right in front of the door but also brings up the other 2 daily papers from the bottom of the driveway.

I don't tip the postal carrier - their regulations state that they may only accept non-cash gratuities with a value less than $20.00. And I don't tip the trash collectors. I tip my hair dresser 20% each month so I don't see any reason to give another tip at the end of the year.

Perhaps I should add that our trash collectors make more money than my college educated daughter - the mailman too.

But if your service people have been helpful then a gratuity would be appropriate. Why not give them an Am Ex gift card, or one from the local bank then they could purchase anything.

Thanks for the ideas so far. Keep 'em coming. I'm not usually around when the G-Men come thru, so it is kind of tricky to leave something out. They come on Mondays when I am already gone. Additionally, our house is on the same street as the playground entrance to an elementary school, so I have to be careful of setting anything out and leaving it. This is a big part of my dilemma for them. We also have separate drivers for household pick up and weekly alternates between yard waste and recycling.

Milkman? Really? I had no idea they still existed! Guess I learned something new today!
:-D

I was going to say the same thing about milkmen - we don't have them here - produce deliveries either.

We also have a P.O. box, so no mailman and as we live in a rural area way back off the road (would not want to roll a garbage bin to the road), we don't do garbage pick up. We take ours to a recycling center.

I do give my hairdresser and the wonderful gal who grooms our pup a cash gift plus a little something like a pound of special coffee, chocolates, etc. I also tip each visit but both do an excellent job and I just like to do something for them.

tina

Covington, perhaps you can call the garbage company and ask them how you can give a gift to your specific G-Men?

I've always given my mail lady home made cookies with chocolate; M&M's & chocolate covered cherries thrown in. I'm not sure what I gave my new mailman the 1st year; I'm pretty sure I baked; last year I did not; he got fresh fruit. He'll get cookies this year. I always make sure my mailbox is easy to get to; if it's snowing & he's due to come; I make sure I shovel the mailbox 1st; so I'm probably giving him the best gift with making sure he doesn't have to struggle to deliver. He's got it pretty bad because a lot of people do not shovel their boxes.

Our trash guys don't even get out of the truck; the recycling guys normally don't either unless their truck is down. At our old house we used to tip the trash guys if we had a big load.

Gift cards are always good; especially if you have a convenience store close by; chances are they all go there for lunch & drinks. I'll have to ask my old post lady if they're allowed to accept them.

OT: I think home milk delivery may be coming back now that people are realizing they don't want all the hormones, etc. that are often found in meats and milk. We live in northern VA just outside Washington DC and I was thrilled to find a farm in Maryland that delivers to our area. Our milkman's family lost their own farm, so he delivers for someone else and works on their farm, too. We get milk, yogurt, eggs, meats, eggnog, cider, ice cream, and lots more. I love it. Just like when I was growing up. Have to go to the farmers' market for produce, though.

Everybody gets cookies. Our budget is real tight, too. It's mostly because we choose to have me be a SAHM. While we can't really afford large tips, I do bake quite a bit. I bake a large tin of cookies for the mailman, garbage collectors, and recycling guys. I get my news online, and cut my own hair so no newspaper boy or hair stylist.

Yes, trash collectors are paid relatively well, but they always receive cookies. I'd like to think that my cookies are the reason why I've never had to chase my trash can down the street. The lid always is placed back on and the can is left up in my driveway not at the curb. I've seen my neighbors' cans rolling down the street. One time when I was sick as a dog(and looked it too,) I heard the truck rumbling up the street and was trying to get my shoes on when I saw the trash guys walk all the way up my driveway to grab my can, empty it, and walked it back up to the garage. He smiled and waved to me in the window.

Thanks everyone! Great ideas. I love the idea of homemade treats, but wonder how people feel about getting them from "strangers." Thanks Marlene for the suggestion to call the collection company - that's a good idea.

If I continued the idea of food, but not necessarily homemade for sanitary concerns, fruits (tangerines) or maybe coffee or candy?

Our produce is part of a community supported agriculture project (organic). The dairy also offers butter, eggs and other products. They have organic options as well.

Costco has some great items for gift giving at all price points. (I agree that homemade items can be iffy gifts to strangers,)

Some years I have given homemade jams or bakegoods. This year I made bags that I filled with homemade soap,and dish rags.plus a candy cane. I give to mail and paper ladies and my propane company (18) and 2 or three other people who have been extra kind or helpful to me. That makes 25 small gifts I work on thro the year. The paper lady gets a tip when I renew the paper for the year,and on postal carriers day she gets gas card or money.

I was going to tell youBout the cute little tapestry bags mom makes...but she beat me to it. I had a bunch of fabric samples from a high end furniture store that she finally put to use when she made the bags. They really are as cool as the gift of soap and everyone loves the dish rags.

In Alaska I leave a case of wine with a big thank you lable and bow on it for the trash guys. Here I don't know...I'm not overly impressed with the service (throw the can around...often forget us etc) so I think I'll leave that one off. I do need to pick up a treat for the mail man though. He's a doll and delivers a lot of packages and always at the right door (ups and fed ex don't care which door they leave things at despite being asked many times).

Can I piggy back on this one? Here's my tip delima. The gardener gave me an excellent rate (15 per hour) and said that if I liked his work I could tip him come holiday time. I love his work....what the heck do I tip him?

And did any of you do gifts or things for school? My son is in preschool now and I purchased a couple of boxes of fun art supplies but was thinking of including a gift card or something for snack purchases etc.....is that normal?

Wow, Igloochic, can I get on YOUR Christmas list - LOL.

Back in the day when we lived in Florida and had a yard man, an extra two weeks payment was the norm. But that wasn't a gardener or a landscape architect or landscaping service. Mowing, weeding, edging, sort of thing. HTH

I'm still working on what I'm going to do, but I am LOVING everyone's suggestions. Maybe not this year, but "in the file" for the future.

Ahhhh geeze covington...I'm supposed to tip the guy who mows too! Dang living in a townhouse was so much cheeper. Lol jump on the list...it's getting longer by the day heh heh.

Ok, looks like I now need to grow the list of people I give something to based on this.

I really think we need to do soemthing for the UPS guy. He is great, although now during the holiday season we've not seen him as they seem to have added some people to help I think.

I'm wondering too what is reasonable to give as I don't have the time to anything homemade. I'm also running out of my holiday budget.

Did I give to little to my daughters daycare teachers? I gave a $50 VISA card to the main teacher. The only one I ever see (drop off/pick up, but there is another teacher that was recently added which I think is there during lunch/nap time. I gave her a $25 VISA card. Then I did the same to the schools cook. My daughter has special dietary needs due to allergies.

I had no idea what really to give, but had a total of $100, to spend based on how we split up the holiday budget, but maybe we should have split it differently.

I always find this soo hard to determine.

As far as school goes, our school puts up a "Teacher Wish List" and I went off that last year (DS was in KG then). His teacher had a bean bag chair on hers and I went to a place in town that sells really nice toys and school items for teachers, they had a really nice bean bag, about $140.00, I think) that I thought would withstand all those kiddoes and it was really bright and colorful.

This year DS's first grade teacher put up gift certificates to that same store, among others. The whole school got new Smartboards in each class, so I got her a "Zorb" that you attach to your computer and it can go on the Smartboard also, it's a science thing that magnifies and the focus is unbelievable! My son went crazy over it, so I bought him one for Christmas too. They were about $60.00. I think they are going to be the craze for teachers this year! I also got her a Lang calendar, to make it a little more personal-only $20.00.

DS has two music teachers-who are SO GOOD at what they do, so they will get a $25.00 gift card each. (Since there are two of them).

I have a friend who goes TOTALLY OVERBOARD on teacher gifts, it's almost like she is trying to brown nose, well, she really is, actually. But, she does give sizeable donations to the school and teachers too. Last year she bought one of her teacher's an iphone and a $200.00 ATT gift card to go with it. I don't mind giving more for the gift, if it is for the classroom itself, but, I personally think that is too much.

Wow, Olliesmom. I'd have to say I agree with your assessment about your friend. No offense, but that kind of gift seems inappropriate to me. Maybe if you are in a VERY exclusive school, but even then, I'd still say no. That's just not something to give to an acquaintance. Even if you have a differently-abled child with a one-on-one aide, it still seems overboard.

My parents were life long educators in the public school/university setting. They would never have accepted a gift like that, probably would not have been allowed to. That level of gifting seems off-base to me.

Lyfia; I've given to UPS & Fed Ex because they were my regular guys; I used to build computers so one or the other was always dropping something off. I wish I could remember what I gave them; almost positive it was a gift card for the store up the street because they all go in and out of it all day. I know I ordered something early just so I could hit the UPS guy before they brought holiday help & I may not see him until after the holiday.

I used to keep holiday chocolates- whether they were Andes candies or large chocolate bars. I figure if they didn't eat chocolate; they can give it to someone else lol