What are you getting the nursery/teacher?

[Kibble19]

Just looking for some thoughts, especially if you’re buying for nursery staff and need to get something for multiple people.

I always get nice notebooks/diaries for them from Tk Max

I have 5 pre school staff to buy for and have brought hand cream sets that were half price in Superdrug

I have bought them nothing.

I think my number is 5 too. I’m avoiding chocolate/biscuits etc as I’m sure they’ll be drowning in it from other parents.

I’m thinking of getting a box of 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the staff room but I’m not sure 🤔

My 4 year old wants to draw a picture for his key worker so I’m going to let him do that and then put it in a frame so he can give it to her 🥰

I’ve ordered my son’s preschool teachers a box of cupcakes each and a personalised iced biscuit. They’ve gone above and beyond to help him settle in to preschool and are so kind so we wanted to show our appreciation.

Well I’m definitely stealing that frame idea! That’s great!

If you do the Krispy Kreme idea, collect them on the morning you’re handing them in, they tend to go that wet, gloopy way after a day or so, I’ve found.

Having spent many years as a school governor I can confirm that the majority of edible gifts will go to a local foodbank and other gifts to a charity shop. Better to donate a book to the school library.

@Christmasiscoming2025its lovely he wants to do a picture but honestly I would not bother framing it as it won’t be displayed or kept most likely.

Gift card

Always a voucher for local coffee shop or supermarket, then they can get whatever treat they actually like to eat/drink, a card that expresses how much we appreciate their interactions with the child and sometimes a book for the class library

@sciaticafanatica @Christmasiscoming2025 Ex teacher of 35 years here. I treasure the home made cards and pictures the children drew or made for me. I liked a handwritten thank you note to. Far more valuable to me than anything you could buy. I have every one of them still, even the ones I received when I did my first teaching practice as a student some 50ish years ago. They are saved in scrap books and looked at regularly, remembering each child. I’m not the only teacher who does this. So yes, yes , yes to the picture. Not so keen on having it in a frame though. I couldn’t put up a frame in the classroom, I don’t have many places to display it at home and it might have upset my own children if I display someone else’s picture framed when their’s were just blue tacked to the fridge)

Absolutely not in my experience! I worked in schools and my sister is a teacher. Bar a few specific colleagues with allergies or on strict diets edible gifts always get eaten, sometimes we would swap among staff based on preferences. Toiletries harder as people have stronger preferences and ‘best teacher’ mugs etc tend to get rehomed. I would say avoid alcohol- lots don’t drink and of those who do many have strong preferences.
Anything personal like homemade cards/pictures always kept and thoughtful things personal to the staff member (personalised messages etc or related to something they did with the child) always kept too. Also useful things like pens/notebooks also appreciated.
In July I got my daughter to make cards for her pre school staff and inside got her to tell me something she liked doing with each person ‘I like it when X reads stories’ or ‘I like going to X with X’ and the staff really appreciated that.

Nursery worker here @Riv a card is lovely and nothing else is required but in all honesty we are not going to display some random kids artwork in our home

Someone did a collection and the whole class is getting the teacher a voucher

As a teacher, I would be absolutely buzzing if someone brought a box of Krispy Kreme, love that idea!

Not on my experience either, in our school we all LOVE the edible gifts!

Definitely not. In my setting anything edible is raffled to the staff - we all go home with a box of chocolates or biscuits, usually two each. (we have one staff member with an allergy - we swap to ensure she has things she can eat!)

Anything personal we keep - I have items given to me a decade ago that I still treasure. Some parents give plants, keyrings, little keepsakes - I keep every one and appreciate them very much. I've already been gifted a mug from a child this year that he picked out himself and was so excited to give it that he couldn't wait until Christmas. Pictures, bookmarks, photos, cards go into a folder to keep. I don't throw any of it away.

Sorry that you're so jaded, but I still love looking at the things given to me by children years ago.

Last year I got 6 bottles of wine, 2 red, 2 white, 2 rose. I checked first and one didn't drink so I got them a love2shop voucher for around the same value
This year I got each a Costa vouchers and a box of biscuits for the staff room
Appreciate this might not be your budget
They also get a handmade card and I've emailed the manager to let them know how great the staff are (they are!)

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll go with Amazon vouchers for the staff, and the voucher and a couple of extras for the key worker.

I can afford it money-wise, and it’s my boy’s last Christmas at nursery. I don’t grudge spending it as the staff are great and we all know their wages aren’t what they should be.

I tend to do £25 on a Costa gift card and £25 on Greg's. That way they can all have a wee coffee/ sausage role at some point.

Parent of young teens and also an ex teacher here…

Best thing is a card of thanks - ideally from the child as well as the parent.
Vouchers for John Lewis always most popular as an actual gift.
Random stuff - look, some teachers might cherish things but most of it will go straight to the charity shop.

At my children’s school we always do a class gift. People put in whatever they feel they’d like to (average about £15-£20 per family but £5 is fine!). We then get a card signed by every child and a generous JL voucher. This is always more popular than multiple bottles of wine, boxes of chocolates, random mugs etc.

Any gift is appreciated but if you want to make a teacher/nursery worker really happy, then a voucher means they can choose something they’d actually love.

To add, we have sometimes clubbed together to get a specific present - we have done this on years when we’ve known our class teacher (or their spouse!) well enough to know that they actually really want a new riding hat/ huge umbrella/ specific board game etc. That has been extra lovely too!

Use your Boots points to buy a beauty advent calendar and give it to the nursery staff by December 1st. It’s exciting and novel and has always gone down well when I’ve done this.

@sciaticafanatica.
I agree about displaying other children’s work in my home, although I did once frame a large finger painting and had it in my hallway for a few years because I really loved the colours. It did come down when I had my own little artist. I don’t advise buying a frame for the teacher though.
My former pupils were never “random kids”. I keep everything they made for me in hardback scrapbooks which I do occasionally look at especially now I have retired.
Maybe a nice scrapbook would be an appropriate gift rather than the frame?