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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask if you still 'tip' the postie, bin men, etc at Christmas?

239 replies

kitnkaboodle · 20/12/2016 23:16

I say 'still', because it is kind of an older generation thing to do. Having not done it before, I gave our postie a box of chocs last Christmas Eve as I work at home and have quite a lot of chats with him. My mum would leave whisky for the milkman, etc, and I think some people used to leave money in the dustbin lids for the bin men. Now wondering if I've started a new tradition and I should get him something this year too.

It's obviously not anything that anyone would get offended by, and no-one's going to say it's a bad idea. Just wondering how many people did it these days.

OP posts:
Itsmummydear · 22/12/2016 23:53

Yes definitely! Have missed the papergirl who's of school age but will catch her even if it's after xmas, have tipped cleaners, dog walker and window cleaner, postman and binmen to do when I can catch them!

I do £5 for all of them as if everyone did that they'd have a substantial amount for the festive season...

Woody67 · 22/12/2016 23:56

No. I wouldn't know them from Adam.

hoddtastic · 23/12/2016 00:07

no, i tip waiters/bar staff/ cab drivers/ hairdresser.

the rest the service has deteriorated so much I am recycling, doing tip runs, collecting post/not receiving it until 4pm/ having to redeliver post to neighbours. If the service was good (and i know it's probably not their fault) but I pay a fair whack of cash for these services, and supplement their work with litter picking, bulb planting etc. I do my bit.

don't have a milkman.

bimbobaggins · 23/12/2016 07:55

Only on mn where you do a nice gesture for someone you are being patronising and people are cringing.
I know that in my place of work if people hand in sweets/ biscuits etc all the staff love it and appreciate it .

1horatio · 23/12/2016 08:01

bimbo

Imo there's a difference whether you employ somebody (especially for housework and similar things, there are just different rules here) or whether it's the postman, for example.

5000candlesinthewind · 23/12/2016 08:01

We have a woman bin truck driver here Smile

FantasticFestiveBeasts · 23/12/2016 08:04

I would buy my postie a drink if I went to the same pub as him to say thanks for helping me out.

No different to £20 in a card that says thanks for saving me tripping to the sorting office - have a lovely Christmas with your family and have a drink on the Beasts family.

woodsies1975 · 23/12/2016 08:10

Nope. Although I might sneak the postie a tenner this year as he has been fab with all our parcels. DH's farm is early on in his round so if he sees cars there he knows we won't be home to sign so takes parcels etc in to the farm office instead. He has also been known to come back to our house having seen me heading that way through the village. Genuinely helpful guy.

MammaBean1988 · 23/12/2016 08:36

I tip my postie and milk/paper delivery people.

I've always done it because my folks always did it when I was growing up. Assumed it was 'the done thing'.

Now working as a postie and it's fairly widely received (and thankfully!) by those who've been doing the job for years and tend to know the people they deliver to.

(Aged 28, in Glasgow)

Purplehonesty · 23/12/2016 08:37

I gave the postie a box of home made cakes (I work from home making cakes) and she loved it

Bin men no, they aren't very nice

Don't have a milkman so it was a cheap do for me!

winkygirl · 23/12/2016 08:50

£10 for the bin men
£5 for the postman
£5 for the teen who delivers the weekly local free paper

I was trying to work out how minted the teen would be if everyone did this! 25 years ago I was the teen delivering weekly free paper - bloody loved Christmas! Xmas Grin

SherlockPotter · 23/12/2016 09:49

life I don't go to restaurants so no.

ThoraGruntwhistle · 23/12/2016 10:00

No, and I'd be very surprised if anyone else I know did either. I can't imagine giving binmen a present or cash, there seem to be about six of them working at a time so how would I know who to give anything to? We don't have the same postman every day, so again I would feel a total tit giving money to somebody I might have not seen before and might not see again. If I'm going to give cash to strangers I'd rather it went to a homeless person.

JacquesHammer · 23/12/2016 10:35

They have loooong memories!

Unfortunately ours can't seem to manage to remember how to do the basics of the job they're doing.

hackmum · 23/12/2016 10:40

I tip the postie, the milkman and the rubbish collectors.

PestoFrostissimos · 23/12/2016 10:42

I tip the postman.

Not the binmen, they're too bl**dy unreliable, I'm not encouraging them to miss more flipping collections!

Longislandicetee · 23/12/2016 11:09

Our lovely postie got card with £20 in it. As did the window cleaner (£50). Our gardner got £50 plus bottle of whiskey. Housekeeper got gift from kids and White Company stuff from dh and I. Our cleaner got £150 (we are away for Xmas) and chocolate and my PA got White Company stuff. When I see my hairdresser I will give her wine.

I don't think it's patronising, I think it's a once a year opportunity to show our appreciation for the little things that each of them does for us during the year that goes above and beyond and makes our hectic lives easier. For example, our kind neighbour who accepts parcels for us got champagne. We don't see that as a tip.Grin

It's nice to be able to say thank you and people have loooong memories.

Wayfarersonbaby · 23/12/2016 12:40

Is it only us whose bin collection is almost fully automated? A different automated lorry comes for each kind of bin, we have to put them out in exactly the right place on the pavement and then the lorry hooks them up and empties them. The bin men don't do much carting bins about, if your bin isn't in exactly the right place they won't take it. They just hook the bins on to the lorry and unhook them afterwards! And there's a different crew each time and they mostly come after I've gone to work.

We do live in an area where it's very big on different kinds of recycling, but it's not the cheery bin men hoisting heavy bags kind of thing that I remember from my childhood.

Wayfarersonbaby · 23/12/2016 12:43

Blingy you're clearly operating on a completely different income level than most people though, and clearly have much more extensive support and domestic service needs. The value of the presents you describe above would fund our entire Christmas!

CryingShame · 23/12/2016 12:48

I tip the milkman, £5 in a Christmas card. Even if he then dropped one of the pots of cream we ordered from him on the path, splitting the container. Replacement arrives tomorrow aparently hopefully

Pastamancer · 23/12/2016 12:50

We just put bin bags out here, no bins so they just pick up the bags and chuck it in the back. Some people put blankets on top to stop the seagulls from ripping the bags open but most don't bother

1horatio · 23/12/2016 12:59

Blingy

I don't think it's patronising, I think it's a once a year opportunity to show our appreciation for the little things that each of them does for us during the year that goes above and beyond and makes our hectic lives easier.

Exactly. Which is why giving our housekeeper or the night nanny (or the window cleaner, if we had one) 'a tub of sweets' would be imo insulting.

I'm kind of glad you wrote this.
Because I was secretly staring to wonder whether I was the weird one and whether this was something people don't do in England...

CandODad · 23/12/2016 15:19

Suppose it depends on the area. Our postie is different every day, we don't have a milkman and the bin men go out of their way to be difficult. So no, we don't tip.

nceccoli · 23/12/2016 15:48

I only give a Christmas gift to those from whom I receive a personal service. Or should I say a service where there is personal interaction. It just feels strange otherwise. I give my personal trainer a box of posh chocolates and a 20 quid Nandos vouchers as he eats there at least thrice a week. I gave my cleaner an extra 10 quid on top of her fee that day and a little Lush gift set. Back home where I come from, my dad, who was a cab driver, used to get tips from his passengers on festive days.

TroysMammy · 23/12/2016 15:56

No I don't because the Postman still puts junk mail through my letterbox despite a "NO JUNK MAIL" sticker and he uses my garden as a short cut.

The refuse collectors never leave replacement recycling bags when requested, forget to empty my food waste bin but still manage to knock it over. They collected all the recycling bags from the pathway to put on the pavement for easy pick up. Nothing wrong with this but then leave one contaminated bag outside my house with a sticker on it. It's not my bag, I blame the twat for putting it out and it can bloody well stay there.

So no the Postman and the Refuse Collectors can fuck right off.