Presents for nursery staff?

[PrincessConsuelaBannanaHammock]

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question but DD (almost 1) has just started nursery so I'm not overly sure of the general Christmas gift thing for nursery staff. Do you give gifts to your child's teacher or nursery worker?
DD is in the baby room which seems to have around 6 staff, and she has one key worker. Initially I thought I would maybe get a small gift for her key worker but she does seem quite close to one of the other girls who works there so I just don't know what to do. Would you not bother getting anything at all, get something for her key worker or just hand in sweets or a hamper type thing for the staff of the room?

Having worked in nursery’s I’d say something token like box of chocolates (we used to share out the big presents so usually enough for one staff to have least one, no one wants 4 quality street!) then if she had two people she spends a lot of time with maybe write them card or note to say thank you or something personal.

Have to say we did find it upsetting that we could look after someone for 50hours a week a year from 6m-4y and get nothing and then as soon as said child has been in school for one term same parent would be buying gifts for teacher and TAs. It’s not about money like I’d say a note or hand print from child really is lovely.

I love a card with a nice thank you message in it. A gift for the whole staff team (there is only 3 of us) is appreciated - a tin of shortbread goes down a treat. I don't expect gifts but as the previous poster says it rankles when you've had their previous child for all hours since tiny and have nurtured them with as much love and affection that you would give them to get not even a card for them to start school and within 3 months the teachers and ta's are being lauded as the best thing since sliced bread and gifts galore being bought. Phew, didn't think that bothered me but it obviously does. As I said, I don't expect a gift but a card with a nice message in it goes a long way.

If in doubt go for something addressed to "The all the staff at Little Poppets" or whatever. Most nurseries tend to then share/raffle off the boxes between staff so everybody takes one home for christmas. Otherwise there are 20 boxes of chocolates in the staff room in January. And one greedy bugger eats half of it

If you want to give to a specific person make sure it's clearly labelled personally for them.

But really anything to say you've thought of them is lovely. I was given a toy bus by a child when I stopped working at one place. He saw it in the shop and decided it's what I would want. That was over 20 years ago and I haven't forgotten.

I have bought up lots of the £5 shortbread tins from M&S, they will make great gifts for my children's teachers and nursery key worker

I've always given costa/ Starbucks vouchers to key workers and a box of chocs for the staff room.

I like doing a hamper with stuff the staff can use in their break room. Various nice teas, sugar packets, instant coffee, nuts or other healthy snacks. They get soooo much chocolate I think they are quite grateful for something different.

I always take in a case of Prosecco for the girls in his room. I figure they could do with it after looking after my delightful boy!

I usually buy small gifts for all of the staff in the room. Hand cream, socks, tea light holders?

For me it depends on the number of staff; when my DS has 3-5 staff in the room, I bought a small box of chocolates or a little gift (£5-10) for each. Now he is in a room with 8 staff, so I’m going to do a £10 m&s voucher for his lovely key worker and just take in a big tray of hot samosas and other Indian treats from the nearby Indian sweet shop for all the 25 or so nursery staff. I figured that they would be tired of chocolates and biscuits. That said, I like the healthy ideas too from one of the PPs, so maybe I might make up a big fresh fruit basket with some nuts, dates etc to make it look more luxe instead. Based on some of the comments above from PPs, I think that I’m going to spend more time this year in the messages in cards than I normally do!

I work in a nursery and biscuits or chocolates are always appreciated, by Friday we sometimes need them 😂 Or one parent filled our tea box with nice teas/coffees.

Love the fruit basket idea but I would avoid nuts as most settings would be nut free due to possible allergies.

Also pretty pens, post it's, pocket sized notebooks are always appreciated for writing notes on children.

Gloves, fluffy socks or a scarf for going outside as we are out in all weather's it does get chilly!!

I've still got a lovely little pot plant from one of my key children on my window sill.

In the past I've done a nice card and a christmas scratch card for each staff member which went down well.

Good point about the nuts! Will avoid those!

Love the scratch card idea; that might be cute for DS to put in the cards for all of the staff in the room, and then I can just do a small gift for his key worker and maybe a small hamper for all the staff (with some fruit, Chocs, biscuits and fancy teas/coffees for the staff room).

What a helpful thread! [santa]

Thanks so much for all the ideas
A hamper or something with a nice card sounds great!

One year I bought wooden tree decorations that I got my ds to colour in. My friend buys tea/ coffee and biscuits for their staff room