To ask who you tip at Christmas and how much?

[ChocolateCinderToffee]

Inspired by another thread.

Postie?
Hairdresser?
Cleaner?
Window cleaner?
Gardener?

Anyone else? Do you tip people who are in any way friends even if you pay them for a service? Do you give gifts rather than money?

I love comments like this on MN. It means by tipping I can get great tables in popular restaurants and first pick of appointments at my hairdressers.

A table is a table. And surely it's first come first served for hair appointments - they're hardly going to be leaving a bunch if prime slots blocked out just in case one of their favourite, high-tipping customers might want them. In any case, don't most have an online booking system these days?

not tip, but tin of biscuits or chocs:
postie
Dr's surgery
cleaner
bin men
window cleaner
and tub of chocolates out for couriers to help themselves

Nobody...? Honestly, it would never have occurred to me to do so!

What is wrong with someone acknowledging the people who help them throughout the year? It doesn't have to be masses - it's the thought that counts.

Postie? ~ no, it's their job
Hairdresser? - no, it's their job
Cleaner? - that's me
Window cleaner? - he hasn't been for months
Gardener? - that's me

Why pay people extra for doing their job.

A table is a table. And surely it's first come first served for hair appointments

Maybe you dine in McDonald’s. Where I go, a good table has a corner spot, with good people watching, not in a walkway with waiters banging your back every five minutes or next to the toilet. Etc

When my Hairdresser and my beautician opened up after Covid, I was the first person that they booked in. Again, if you’re not bothered about the state of your roots for another couple of weeks, who cuts your hair or whether the time you get an appointment actually suits you, you crack on. I’ll keep on tipping

Maybe you dine in McDonald’s.

No, I don't. I just don't think I've ever been bothered by my table, whether it was in Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons or the village pub.

I'm rubbish about remembering to book a hairdresser's appointment and often fail to get one at the ideal time for me. However, I'm pretty sure the automatic online booking system has no idea whether I tip or not. All it knows is which slots are available and which aren't!

Agree with you @AuntieJoyce - for a start my hairdressers only has some online booking. For things with colour and cuts it has to be jiggled by reception. I have had free treatments from my hairdresser too. As regards eating out there are several places we go to regularly and as you say they know you and get you a good table or squeeze you in . If some people aren't fussy that is their choice.
Funnily enough a friend and I were talking about tipping ( whether money or a gift) the other day and it was even the done thing then when we grew up - the coalman, milkman etc and this was from not very well off people. It was part of the community spirit. TBH I don't find much of it in England.

I remember, as a child in the 70's, my parents always gave a tip to the bin men and the postman.
This was not a rich area but most people did the same.
I still do this but the service is nowhere near as good as it used to be.
I worked for HSBC for years and lots of our regular customers would buy us wine and chocolates.
It's just a part of Christmas for me.

Our cleaner gets a Christmas gift (equivalent money of another 3 hour clean). She's become more of a friend than a worker and she deserves it.

What's wrong with that?

Dh was a bus driver for a year and got verbal abuse multiple times a day, as well as physical threats daily. It's the most stressful job he's ever had and one of his very few gifts came from from a lovely regular passenger and was a candle and some bubble bath that she'd said always relaxes her after a stressful day. He loves it and still uses a candle and fancy bubble bath for himself. He had two people buy him beer which he very much appreciated the thought but he doesn't drink and he was also very nervous about another passenger reporting him if they get in the bus and there's four cans of Carlsberg at his feet.

nail lady - bottle of fizz
teachers - token gift
priest - £10
liturgy teacher - chocs and small gift
riding instructor - biscuits

cleaners - nothing. they are agency and different ladies come most weeks. feel a bit bad about this one but as we dont have a regular person i dont feel connected.

no idea who postie & bin men are.

Hairdresser and nail technician £20 each

To show that you appreciate them for doing something you can't or won't do for yourself.

No one. This isn't America

Same.

Postman £10
Waiters if we go out but we do that normally
My Mum's care home staff made them a hamper of food and drinks worth about £50

To show that you appreciate them for doing something you can't or won't do for yourself

That's their job though?!
If in America fair enough
Here in the UK we have minimum wage.
It just doesn't make sense that some jobs get tips but others don't.
Also seems like a patronising throw back to the 1800s or something throwing crumbs to the workers

Plenty of private sector people don’t either.

I’ll tip our cleaner as she comes regularly and she’s AMAZING. We don’t have other services regularly

Paper delivery person £30
Milk delivery person £30
Hairdresser
Give her a bottle of champagne and £30 contribution to drinks fund for salon night out
Cleaner
Give her 2 weeks off while paying her plus £50 plus wine and a hamper

Nobody.
Nothing.
In the UK, where I live, people are paid to do a job and/or set their own rates of pay.

I function without all of these people.

Not very stealthy stealth post I'd assume. 🫣

No-one

Nope.
Remember 20 quid is loose change to some MN not so stealth boasters though.

I tip waiters. That’s about it. Having said that the meals I’ve booked for over Christmas have already been paid for so I won’t be tipping the waiters.
My hairdresser is expensive anyway so I don’t tip.
I don’t see the bin men. I don’t have a gardener.
I always bought gifts for school staff when DCs were at primary school.
My grandma always gave the bin man a tip and he always gave her a Christmas card. That was in the days when he would carry her metal bin on his back from her back door, down the drive empty it and carry it back to her back door. Oh the nostalgia! She always tipped the milkman too.