{"id":7756,"date":"2009-12-10T05:00:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=7756"},"modified":"2023-09-28T15:24:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:24:49","slug":"a-brief-guide-to-holiday-tipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/a-brief-guide-to-holiday-tipping\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Guide to Holiday Tipping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m getting more requests this year for holiday tipping info than ever before. For example, Nina wrote: &#8220;Can you provide some guidelines for Holiday Tipping Etiquette for the holiday season? I&#8217;m at a complete loss&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mysza\/2080895858\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"In some places and for some people, holiday tips are expected. Photo by mysza831.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2080895858_0fd6ba8a88.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"3\"\/><\/a>To be honest, I don&#8217;t know much about holiday tipping. It&#8217;s not something I was raised with. I covered it briefly in my guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/basic-tips-on-tipping-how-much-and-to-whom\/\"><b>how much to tip<\/b><\/a>, but I&#8217;m basically as in the dark as Nina is. To learn more about the subject, I did a little research. I learned that in some places and for some jobs, holiday tipping <i>is<\/i> customary.<\/p>\n<p>The December 2009 issue of <i>Consumer Reports<\/i> includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/gift-giving\/tips-on-tipping-this-holiday-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">survey on holiday tipping habits<\/a>. Housekeepers are by <i>far<\/i> the most commonly tipped profession. A full 75% of folks tip their cleaning person \u2014 and no wonder. More than half tip their child&#8217;s teacher. Other than that, holiday tipping is more sporadic. (Only 8% tip the trash collector.)<\/p>\n<p>Here are some general holiday tipping guidelines:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Holiday tipping is <i>never<\/i> required. Even when it&#8217;s the social norm, you shouldn&#8217;t tip if you can&#8217;t afford it or you don&#8217;t feel the person deserves it.<\/li>\n<li>Tipping tends to be more common (and on a larger scale) in big cities than in small towns. The best way to determine the etiquette in <i>your<\/i> area is to ask around.<\/li>\n<li>In general, you should consider giving a holiday tip to the folks who take care of your home and family, especially those you see often. The more often you see someone and the longer you&#8217;ve known them, the more you should tip. (Someone who works in your home regularly \u2014 such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/how-i-made-my-peace-with-hiring-a-housekeeper\/\">a housekeeper<\/a> \u2014 usually expects a tip.)<\/li>\n<li>For personal services like manicures, massages, pet grooming, and fitness training, tip up to the cost of one session, but <i>only<\/i> if you see the same person regularly. For example, if you get a $60 massage every six weeks, your holiday tip should be about $60.<\/li>\n<li>Public servants are <i>not<\/i> allowed to accept cash tips in the U.S., but it&#8217;s acceptable to give a non-cash gift of up to $20. You might give a plate of cookies to your mail carrier, for example, or a book or a gift certificate to your child&#8217;s teacher.<\/li>\n<li>When you give a tip, include a card or a hand-written note thanking the person for their service.<\/li>\n<li>If you tip cash, crisp new bills make a better impression than old wrinkly ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a list of people who often receive holiday tips and what they typically receive:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Babysitter: one week&#8217;s pay<\/li>\n<li>Nanny: one week&#8217;s pay<\/li>\n<li>Housekeeper: one week&#8217;s pay<\/li>\n<li>Gardener: one week&#8217;s pay<\/li>\n<li>Doorman: $10 to $100, depending on what they do for you<\/li>\n<li>Garbage collector: $15 to $25<\/li>\n<li>Janitor: $15 to $25<\/li>\n<li>Newspaper delivery person: $15 to $25<\/li>\n<li>Parking attendant: $15 to $25<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is just a list of people who <i>commonly<\/i> receive holiday tips. <b>Tipping service people with whom you have regular contact can build goodwill.<\/b> Everyone likes to feel appreciated; we tend to remember the little gestures others make on our behalf. If you want to tip the bus driver, go ahead. Use your best judgment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"highlight\"><i><b>Further reading:<\/b><\/i> The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/your-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>New York Times<\/i> Bucks blog<\/a> recently ran a series on holiday gift-giving and tipping etiquette. You can read <a href=\"https:\/\/bucks.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/12\/01\/answers-about-holiday-gift-giving-and-tipping-etiquette\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part one<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bucks.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/12\/02\/answers-about-holiday-gift-giving-and-tipping-etiquette-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part two<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/bucks.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/12\/03\/answers-about-holiday-gift-giving-and-tipping-etiquette-part-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part three<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p><b>What&#8217;s <i>your<\/i> experience with holiday tipping?<\/b> Is it customary in your area? Who gets tipped and how much?<\/p>\n<p><i>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mysza\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mysza831<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m getting more requests this year for holiday tipping info than ever before. For example, Nina wrote: &#8220;Can you provide some guidelines for Holiday Tipping Etiquette for the holiday season? I&#8217;m at a complete loss&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mysza\/2080895858\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"In some places and for some people, holiday tips are expected. Photo by mysza831.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2080895858_0fd6ba8a88.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"3\"\/><\/a>To be honest, I don&#8217;t know much about holiday tipping. It&#8217;s not something I was raised with. I covered it briefly in my guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/basic-tips-on-tipping-how-much-and-to-whom\/\"><b>how much to tip<\/b><\/a>, but I&#8217;m basically as in the dark as Nina is. To learn more about the subject, I did a little research. I learned that in some places and for some jobs, holiday tipping <i>is<\/i> customary.<\/p>\n<p>The December 2009 issue of <i>Consumer Reports<\/i> includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/gift-giving\/tips-on-tipping-this-holiday-season\/\">survey on holiday tipping habits<\/a>. Housekeepers are by <i>far<\/i> the most commonly tipped profession. A full 75% of folks tip their cleaning person \u2014 and no wonder. More than half tip their child&#8217;s teacher. Other than that, holiday tipping is more sporadic. (Only 8% tip the trash collector.)<\/\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31921],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}