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I guess you don't know how hygienic people are at home though. Its nothing to do with whether the kids are helping or not. It depends whether the parents have reasonable standards themselves. I bought a cake at the school cake sale one. I found a hair and a piece of broken plastic in it. Put me off peoples homemade offerings for life.

*once

Homemade cards are very much appreciated, but not food. Or mugs with knitted covers (30 years this year of school Christmases).

I dunno, I just see now why the class collection and a bath of John lewis vouchers is the way to go. It's all very sad considering that, in general, hygiene standards now are probably far higher than when we were kids. There was nothing more exciting than a homemade bun with a bit of icing on, didn't give a toss who made it.

batch of JL vouchers

Sometimes we get a homemade birds' Christmas pudding for the bird table. Love that. Think myself that a card is enough, wine for absolutely-above-and-beyond the call of duty, most of all nothing that makes the poorer/busier parented kids feel less special than those bearing gold, frankincense and Boden style home made fudge. Because they notice. And once I saw a little boy absolutely break down because he hadn't got anything to hand over and those tears were not worth any gift in the world.

The two teachers I know have binned homemade food gifts in the past.

One is a coeliac. The other is the most squeamish person I know

Well I will be making vanilla fudge; I've bought the bags from Lakeland, along with the ribbon and sparkly tag (written on by dd - that's her only involvement). I asked her to do a list of teachers - there are 16.....and in order of 'like' too!

barbarianoftheuniverse There is no hint of Boden about my fudge!

barbarian that is so sad

I make cranberry and macadamia cookies for DS's old Reception teacher every year ( he's Y4 now! ) as I know she likes them and I will always be grateful to her for giving DS such a fantastic start.

I prob won't give them to any other teachers this year, as you just don't know if they'd like them. I will give them instead to the growing number of people that I've given them to over the years that always ask for a packet

barbarian if I were that child's teacher I would give him some special nice card and some pens and ask him to do me a really special picture of himself to go on my wall at home

poor little sausage

I was going to send some home made florentines in for DD's first Christmas since starting nursery and for her portage teacher.
Thought, a) she could have helped mix the bits but then they are cooked to buggery anyway and b) they have a long shelf life.
But now I might add a note saying DD did not help (and she didn't anyway), as portage teacher has seen pictures of DD picking the apple out and eating it while we are mixing homemade mincemeat .
btw, my child is v clean.

My child will most definitely be involved in the baking! He will probably try to claim all credit when it's handed in at school.

I fear for anyone who can't cope with eating home made, I'm the one who'll always avoid the shop bought stuff with shared lunches and cake stalls.

Wine just isn't an option when may of the teachers don't drink. So hard to know which ones do and which don't.

I don't we've ever thrown away things parents have made! Cake, biscuits,

I don't drink but none of the kids who have given me wine in the past would ever know that because I was so touched that they'd thought of me that I was very grateful (I don't get many presents at my school ).

They are all aware that I really like chocolate and cake though as I possibly do a lot of examples involving particular chocolates and cakes in the run up to Christmas . Everybody knows that my unsubtle hints are very tongue in cheek and are not meant as a command to get me a present.

Oops....cakes, biscuits, one mum made chocolate truffles, made the box & everything which was very thoughtful. I think if we had any worries about the cleanliness of a certain home (ie children being sent in dirty) then we might not have been too keen, but def not binned anything on the basis of it being homemade (even with children helping - been around children & snotty noses etc enough to have a tough immune system!)

I don't see how eating something made by a child could be half as bad as standing next to them 6hrs a day 5 days a week!!! Like PP said, surely a teachers immune system is pretty robust, its not like we are talking about under done chicken or anything that could cause food poisoning! Surely anyone who cares enough to bake isn't going to purposefully be dirty / drop plastic or hair into their goodies - accidents happen but surely they are well in the minority!!!

DS is in reception and I scored some Lindor balls heavily discounted as they were in Jubilee boxes so they have been decanted into suitably Xmassy bags and have a pair of merino socks for each teacher... also have some Laura Ashley fudge and shortbread for coaches etc after a brilliant glitch on the bargains thread

If I were a teacher I'd be chuffed to have a chocolates supply lasting til Easter!!!!

Oh and a homemade card, which we have started writing 'Love From XX' in already as he can only cope with one every few days LOL and a jingly bell xmas decoration DS is going to thread together over the next couple of weekends.

I would love homemade treats!! Im a teacher and eat everything thats sent my way! Reassure that DC were not involved / carefully monitored as i really do know where young children's hands wander.... :-\

I'm a teacher and yes it depends on the family that the food is coming from! But why don't you make some really nice salt dough Christmas tree decorations you could personalise them too.

I'm a bit disappointed by this thread. It had never occurred to me that some people wouldn't touch homemade food merely because it was homemade. Ok, I'll ditch the idea for peppermint bark for DS1's teacher - he can decorate her a canvas book bag instead.

My DH is an infant teacher and loves receiving homemade food, couldn't imagine him ever throwing gifts away. Maybe male teachers are less fussy, more likely to eat anything?! He also makes him own jam and gives this out as gifts to the support staff. I'll not tell him that some of them might just throw it away.