Nursery workers - what would you like for Christmas?

[HavelockVetinari]

DS has settled really well into nursery and DH and I are so grateful to the lovely staff for being so brilliant with DS and getting to know him so quickly. We want to give them Christmas pressies of course - I thought Amazon vouchers but DH thinks that's too impersonal and we should buy posh gin or chocs. Who is right?

N.B. my reason for not going for alcohol or chocolate is that we don't know if they drink or have dietary requirements.

Not a nursery worker but could you ask to contribute to their Xmas party?

Following.

As a teacher I love a heartfelt message from the kids but that's harder with 1 yo DD.

Thanks folks. I think we'll go with Christmas cards with DS's handprint and Amazon vouchers for each with a larger amount for DS's key worker.

Would love the voucher! Would hate gin!

Are you new to the nursery? If so, check out what their policy is. Ours used to collect all presents centrally and then share them out between all of the staff. So you couldn't give a present to a particular member of staff. They thought that this was fairer as it meant that the staff who were a bit more in the background still got gifts and that they keyworker of an easy child with generous parents ended up overall with similar gifts to they keyworker of a difficult child whose parents weren't as generous (whether for financial reasons or temperament). The first year I was surprised, then I thought it made sense.

Following with interest! I saw tubs of standard celebrations, heroes etc in Tesco for 2 for £7 and I was about to jump in the bargain for nursery when I thought about how many of them they'll actually get!

Chocolate or similar luxury food. I don't drink.

My nurseries have pooled the presents to the nursery in the past and have had a mini raffle so people take one home for xmas. Presents labelled to an individual gets kept by them. It's to prevent 30 boxes of chocolates in the staff room in January.

Honestly, I always really appreciate a card saying how m hard work is appreciated as we far more moans than thanks. If you'd really like to buy a present a voucher for somewhere like costa or the cinema are welcome :)

I'd check what their policy is. Ours allows a box of biscuits or chocolates for the team but personal gifts have to be declared to HR.

An individual card and a box of something for the team is our preferred gifts in our team now.

You have to declare personal gifts? That kind of takes the fun out of it all doesn’t it. Do people submit lists of candles, keyring and mugs then?

Btw op, voucher sounds the best option.

I'd buy candles

Yep, we also have to write down how much any vouchers were for too. Something to do with bribery. Some top people got caught, sacked and prosecuted so it's a council wide policy.

We have a system at our nursery where we ask if parents would like to contribute a drawing / message from their child in a sheet of A4 paper. These are all complied into a book and enough copies made for all staff. The parents also have the option to contribute a cash amount - there’s a suggested amount per child (and this is a work nursery so we know the amount is not unreasonable given the kind of salaries folk are on) but this is not compulsory. The cash is then split evenly between all staff so they get an equal share - otherwise people in rooms with lower ratios get less. It’s a fair bit of organisation but the staff all seem really happy with it and it seems acceptable to nursery management too.
For things like moving rooms or staff leaving then parents do their own thing.

As a nursery worker I personally love gifts such as something personal from the child like a drawing. Candles are good and one of my best ones was a gift card for costa

Candles, lip balms, hand creams etc all go down well.
I worked in a nursery that allegedly shared gifts between staff equally, but in practice the pick of the gifts went to the staff who spent most time in the office.
The staff who actually did the graft (while the shirkers who sat chatting in the office got the posh chocs, champagne, vouchers and perfumes) got the toffee pennies/cheap prosecco/broken biscuits.
Guess which type of gifts I got
Gifts with named labels were more likely to end up actually received by those intended, but probably best to actually hand gifts directly to staff members rather than to management.

Please don't get a candle

Ours used to collect all presents centrally and then share them out between all of the staff. So you couldn't give a present to a particular member of staff.

This is the policy around where I live as well. Unless a gift is personalised then it gets put into a pile and given out equally between all of the staff.

Not sure it's the right thing to do as sometimes gifts have been chosen with the recipient in mind, and i'm sure parents must get cross that they don't go to person they intended. However, it does mean cleaners, kitchen workers and office staff get something as they are often left out.

That's terrible @InMySpareTime! CFs. I will definitely remember to give gifts directly to recipients.

Glad you posted this as I was wondering what to get them, DS key worker also goes on mat leave this month so need to get her something too. I do feel vouchers is a cop out usually but I want to get them something they will use so might just put them all a £10 high street voucher in a Xmas card and get his key worker a higher value one for mat leave and a gift for baby too

That's what I'm going to do @Lauren83, maybe as a PP says a coffee shop voucher or a Love2Shop voucher for £10 for each of the nursery workers in his room and £25 for his key worker.

Was also thinking it might be nice to get a big box of chocolates for the kitchen staff as they must work hard but no one sees them so I imagine they don't get thanked as much, the food at nursery is great he eats better than me!