Tipping for Christmas
 

How much do you tip at Christmas for services such as lawn mowing, yard maintenance, housekeeping, paper delivery?

This topic comes up every year. You can do a search of last year's thread. But, to me, tipping at Christmas is a personal decision that needs no input from others, but I am sure many posters will provide it.

I agree with 123.
Anything given will be appreciated.

To each his own, why would you need a list?

Exactly. But, watch, this thread will go on ad nauseum.

Would be nice to know what others think is reasonable. Never met the paper delivery guy but he does get the job done.

No idea how many mailman service our boxes. He does manage to cram some rather larger and heavy boxes into the side panel so he doesn t have to deliver to our house.

You have had several comments with no answer. I would like to know as well.

do not forget the guys on the garbage trucks

garbage guys
 

don't forget these people

Bob our postal man $50

Tips
 

I usually go with $20 for mail carrier and lawn guy and $10 each for the three refuse guys.

Here ya go
Mail service $10-20
Hair dressers for ladies 20-50
Barbers $10-20
Lawn guys $ 20
Ups / fedex if slot of delivery's $10
Remember if you can't afford it . At least give out boxes of cookies in or chocolate even easier are restaurants gift cards from burger king denny's or whatever. Don't forget h.o.a. or gifting servers at restaurants you go to every week ! Even dollar store items are appreciated .

I think tipping all these people is way over the top. They are all getting paid to do a job excluding waiters and waitresses.

20 bucks each

Scrooge. These people get paid minimum wage and restaurant servers exist on tips. We are in the middle of a pandemic where everyone is hurting. Please tip.

Dollar Tree sells sealed packages of 2 facemaks.
One package along with 5 or ten dollars or more if desired would make a simple tip to wait staff, gate attendants, trash, mail or just someone you want to extend a kindness to. May you always have heart to do something for someone.

Bah Humbug!

We tip mail person, paper delivery person $25 each & pest control man a bit more, since he does some extra stuff for us each quarter which we appreciate.

Refuse guys come about 6AM so they are hard to catch but I will try harder this year. They do a good job & this year has been a struggle for many families

We do our own yard work

We do $50 for postal station worker, $50 for our lawn guy, and $20 to each of the guys on the trash truck

Only tip the ones I actually have knowledge of who they are. Lawn guy gets 2 month's worth of pay because he is a hard worker, does a great job and never, ever fails to show up. Hair person gets what I usually pay for my hair service because she does a good job. Dog Groomer, same thing because she is dependable and has been with me through 2 dogs and does a great job. My long time handyman will get extra if he happens to be here in Dec, which he will be. Waitress's will get a little extra around Christmas time. That's about it.

we usually give gift cards each year. Mainly because some companies (I worked for a couple) have rules regarding cash gifts and the size of gifts employees can accept. I am copying an article on the US Postal service explanation of THEIR rules for your info.

"According to the Postal Service, federal regulations allow all postal employees—including carriers—to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as a holiday or a birthday. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, may never be accepted in any amount. In addition, no USPS employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from one customer in a calendar year period.

If you decide to ignore the rule when you give, your mail carrier must reimburse you for the cost of any gifts exceeding the $20 limit, or for gifts where the value of the item cannot be easily determined. This is done in two ways: either by returning the gift itself or by sending financial reimbursement.

Here's an example of the second option: If you were to give your mail carrier a bouquet of flowers worth more than $20, they would then have to figure out the actual value and send you a reimbursement for the full value. Your intentions may have been kind, but now your mailman has to make an extra effort to research the cost of your gift and then pay you the full amount out of their own pocket. That doesn't seem like much of a gift, does it? That's why it's important to understand—and follow—the rules of gifts for postal workers.

Unacceptable Gifts for Postal Workers
Postal workers are prohibited from accepting the following items:

Cash
Checks
Stocks
Liquor
Anything that can be exchanged for cash
Anything of monetary value more than $20
Acceptable Gifts for Postal Workers
Some acceptable gifts for your mail delivery person include:

Modest refreshments such as coffee, doughnuts, cookies, or soda
Plaques, trophies, and other items intended for presentation
Perishable items such as food, candy, fruit, or flowers, so long as they are to be shared with other postal workers
Retail gifts cards with a value of less than $20 that cannot be converted to cash"

In Sumter, we changed garbage companies. These guys have only been doing it a month. It’s the past guys that should have received a tip since they did it all year. As for the others , it really depends on how hard they work for you. Have they done anything out of their normal routine for you? If so, tip more. My lawn person is great and always keeps my lawn looking good so I give him more. However, I’m constantly having to check or call back my weed guy, probably not as much because he causes me more work and time . He also only come once a month. Paper person will get a bigger tip because it is every day. I need to check the regs on the mail people because I always gave them more than the post I read. Frankly , I kind of resented that one because they are salaried and well paid much like a teacher and teachers aren’t rewarded for their work. Neither are the police and these are all federal/state employees. If the regs are right , that someone posted they definitely will be getting less from me this year. I do , however, lean to gift cards now rather than cash. My tips are between $25 and $75 depending on who it is.

Given that we, unlike millions of others, are very fortunate that the pandemic has not affected us financially, will be increasing our holiday tips this year. Our lawn crew will get $50 per person, refuse workers and paper deliverer the same, mail woman $60 (in spite of supposed USPS rules), hair folks $50 and I am now keeping a few hundred in $20 bills in my wallet at all times, for those we run across and might not have thought of ahead of time. After all, it's not like there are any rewards for those who die with the most money and since it will make no difference in our lifestyle (or children's inheritance), but may help someone buy a nicer X-mas present for their children, or pay a long overdue bill, or ?? - we feel it's the least we can do.

My husband is a retired UPS driver. When he retired 11 years ago, he was making $30 an hour with about 10 hours of overtime at time and a half every week. Along with that, UPS paid 100% of our family of 4 benefits which included health, dental, vision, life and disability. He also received 7 weeks of vacation time. He would feel bad accepting tips as a lot of his customers had less than we did. He did enjoy receiving cards thanking him for doing a great job. He also loved getting cookies. So I try to focus on the people I know a tip will make a difference for.

Don’t forget our garbage collectors that work so hard. I’m giving each of the 3 men on the truck $25
As others have said - whatever your budget allows will be appreciated

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the workers at our local postal stations contract workers, not USPS employees? If so, the rules posted earlier are moot. And to the person who posted that they are well paid...well, I think that’s debatable

According to CNN money proper etiquette is the following
Housekeeper - 1 weeks pay
Trash $15-20 each
Gardener - $20-50
Hairdresser cost of 1 cut + small gift
Manicurist - cost of 1 session +small gift
Personal trainer- $25 or up to 1 weeks pay
Massage therapist- $50-$100 or cost of 1 session
Groomer - small gift + 1/4 to 1/2 cost of 1 session
Dog walker- cost of 1 session
Mail carrier - gifts under $20
If you get regular deliveries:
UPS- $15
FedEx - $25
Paper carrier - $15-25 for weekly ; $5-15 for weekend only
Hope this helps

Why does the fedex guy get more than the ups guy?

Does the same crew do our trash pickups all year long?

Tips
 

Newspaper $50
Pool Guy $50
Dog Groomer cost of one grooming
Mail $25
Garbage $25 each
Hairdresser $50

I also agree with 123, I give to the mailman, garbagemen and anyone who provide me a service that I received during the year. I stopped all newspapers delivery's and get my news from the TV, Alexa or on line.

Union vs Non-union.

Tipping for Christmas
 

I give $20 each to our mailman, newspaper deliverer and hairdresser.

Correct. The Federal gratuity rules only apply to official Government employees, not USPS contract employees. Most workers at the postal stations are contract workers.

This may sound hard but I do not tip mail delivery people. These people make a decent living, have excellent health care and have better pensions than I have any the same goes for Fed X and UPS drivers. I do not tip my barber at Christmas as I tip him $4-5 every time I go which is about every three weeks. I do tip the paper delivery person $20 because they do not make a lot of money. I always tip at restaurants 20% if the service is good but will consider cutting this back somewhat if an when the minimum wage goes to $15 an hour for them. This tipping thing has gotten out of hand when in many stores there is a tip jar at the counter which I do not contribute to. I do not tip my lawn service guy. I pay him $900 a year to cut a very small yard where he is in and out in 5 minutes so I think he is adequately compensated. When you break it down he comes every week for 9 months and every other week for three months in winter. This equals about 42 visits a year at 5 minutes a visit. If you do the math he spends about 3.5 hours a year at my house which equates to $257 an hour more than my lawyer charges. Why would I tip him. All as I’m saying is that you need to look at a lot of these situations and in many of them there is no need for a tip. I worked as a sales person for over 35 years doing a service for my customers. I never received a tip nor did I expect one. My employer compensated me for my performance and that was good enough.

If you followed God's instruction you'd know.

Give as decided in your heart, God loves a cheerful giver.

For with the measure you use, it will be given back to you.

Nothing. I’ve never seen my lawn mowers, yard maintenance people, or whoever delivers the paper. I do see the guy who cleans the pool. I pay him almost $2,000 a year! I do my own house cleaning. All these people are paid by check or online. Sending them a tip would just go to their boss.

However, when I go to a restaurant, I’ve been tipping at least $10, always, which last night came to 40% of the check. Those waitresses really need the money. Some people I know leave 10%, or even less.

We've been tipping waiters and waitresses 20% always but since pandemic an extra $10 over that. We tip lawn crew $100 to crew leader to split with group as he sees fit. Hairdresser $50. manicure $50. Mail ??? contractor or gov employee, we don't know so $0 Trash guys don't know if they're same guys every week or not ????, so $0. Newspaper delivery $100 this person always here 365 days of year and deserves it.

The newspaper guy, the one that picks it up off the drive and brings it in the house, $100.

In the end, asking for suggestions really defeats the purpose of a gift from the heart. Otherwise, it's more like the artificial "tipping" in those kinds of restaurants where it is actually just another part of the mandatory charge.... they add it to the bill. Do what you are feeling within your heart. Do you have a special appreciation for someone who cleans your house ? You may not even be able to afford it, but you have a deep feeling that person needs the money and would appreciate it greatly, so you gift them $200 when $50 gift is considered "standard", and so on.... you've probably seen stories on the news where some "ordinary" person left a server a $500 tip for a sandwich and coffee because their heart just led them to do this for this person. Got with your heart on each gift.... it will be so much more satisfying for you and EVERYTHING will be appreciated make no mistake about that !

I have always been under the impression our postal station employees actually have nothing to do with the USPS, government, pensions, or anything associated. Have I misunderstood ? I "think" I remember an actual post office employee at the large P.O. in Leesburg telling me that years ago; I had some kind of mail mix up and when they found out it was The Villages they said those employees have no connection to the USPS ! ? Wonder which is the real story ? I have always given the person at ours a lot more than $20, usually a Dunkin' or Starbucks coffee card, a Publix card, and a gasoline card (because she uses her own car, no USPS vehicle to pick up mail).

Folks that sort our mail are contract workers.....not USPS employees.