I'm sure this has been done to death, but please humour me...

[snickersnack]

This is our first year of employing a nanny. She's lovely. I love her, the dcs love her.

Her birthday is just after Christmas. So I am faced with the need to think of two lovely presents for her.

So, my questions are:

For Christmas, is a bonus plus small present normal/acceptable? What size bonus?

I'd like her to have something from the dcs as well. But, realistically, anything they make (they are 1 and 3) is going to be something that only a close relative would actually want to have (ie fairly rubbish)...but I would like it to be something personal, that they can have a hand in. Is it odd to get them to draw a picture and put it in a frame? Or give her a photo of them? (She can always hide it - I don't go to her house, so it wouldn't matter if it wasn't displayed). Or a mug with their photo on? Or do, in fact, nannies not want stuff with their charges photos on staring them in the face when they aren't at work?

Birthday: any wonderful and unusual ideas for nannies? She's not a particularly girly person. I wondered about a spa day, possibly (god knows I'd like one if I looked after my two all the time) or is that just very boring?

Thank you if you got this far. It's the conjunction of birthday + Christmas that's stressing me out, I think!

Christmas - we do a weeks' pay, plus either photo or my favourite which is to make v alcoholic choc truffles with the kids (all they have to do is stir it) - google for recipes but it is basically melted chocolate and double cream and dead easy to make.

Birthday - spa day v good idea. We got our tomboy nanny a racing day at the porsche centre as a treat this year, which went down well, but less easy to organise. or horseridign lessons or something like that?

An idea for something they can make:

Do some fancy painting such as marbling, put a lovely photo of her with your kids/just the kids on top in the middle. Put that in a clip frame

Ta da lovely home made picture gift

boots do coasters that you can have a photo put onto and i think its £4.99 for 2 so these would be personal enough from the children without costing the earth.

christmas i get weeks pay as bonus and normally a small gift from kids

i also get a lovely calender with their pictures in each month - or a photot/picture by children inframe is nice

birthday - vouchers for spa day is nice as is amazon vouchers as then can be spent on lots of things

Christmas - yes bonus + small present is good. Squiffy's week's pay principle is the standard Fab Employer system and will make nanny very happy; not everyone can afford that, though, so don't worry if it's too much for you, you could do a smaller one. But in my experience money is always appreciated!

Mug with photo on is great - nannies definitely love charge-memorabilia, but making it useful too is ideal.

For birthdays, we do quite small but carefully-chosen presents (eg, she mentioned borrowing one of dd's bookmarks, so I got her a stash of glamorous sparkly ones) + (always) a bottle of champagne and a big bunch of flowers (having checked with dd first as to nanny's favourite colour). I've heard of vouchers going down well too (you can get ones which give you a choice of places to spend them in). Spa day things can be tricky because of finding free time - and, actually (accordingly), a lovely birthday present if you can manage it is An Extra Day Off Of Nanny's Choice.

Thanks everyone. I did wonder about giving her an extra day off to use the spa voucher, although she actually only works 4 days a week, so in theory should be fine.

Think we might do flowers from the dcs for her birthday - dd would love that - and vouchers. And Christmas will be the week's pay and mug with dcs on it.

Sorted...thanks!

wow a weeks salary as xmas bonus,is this the "norm" ?!

No - sorry I thought I made that clear - a week's pay is by no means the "norm", it's the 'top of the range' of a whole spectrum. "Norm" is a cash bonus of some kind, but that could range from a small round number at the bottom end of the range, to a week's pay at the top. Clearer?

I think it's important to say, as I wouldn't want a week's pay to have the reputation of being the norm (as, for parallel - on holiday entitlement - 4 weeks' holiday, 2 of nanny's choice 2 of family's choice, IS the norm), as that would just be unfair on employers who simply can't afford it.