Tell me about Christmas presents for nursery staff

[breatheslowly]

DD is 14 months and has a wonderful time at nursery. The staff are excellent and I can't speak highly enough of them. I would like to get something for her keyworker (she is keyworker to 4 babies) and also something for the room staff (6 in total). As this is her first Christmas in nursery I don't know what the done thing is. I want to avoid bath stuff or cheap chocolates as I think that you can get far too much of that sort of thing at Christmas. For her keyworker I was thinking about vouchers (not sure how much or what). No ideas for the room staff.

So...
Any ideas and what is the normal thing to do?

IME, the staff were always very happy with a big tin of biscuits or chocolates as they can all share them in the staffroom, and this seemed to be the norm

It might be worth speaking to the manager to find out what the nursery does. Ours used to pool all presents from parents and then share them out between staff (including ancillary staff like the cook, regular handyman and cleaner).

Upmarket biscuits always went down well!

Nice bath stuff or chocolates is perfectly acceptable!! Their wages aren't great so luxuries are a real treat.

Vouchers can be nice.

When I had my nursery the staff often used to get a big tin of Christmas chocs/biscuits to share as a team & then individual gift bags with all sorts of things in. The more personal the better. If you've got to know her can you use that knowledge,does she like a certian brand of smellies or would she enjoy a book/CD/beauty treat voucher?

We had one mum who always got us a huge basket of "Lush" goodies to share which made my office smell lovely for weeks!

Another time several of the mums knew we were having a staff do & gave us £50 towards drinks which was great.

Oh I meant to say thanks for thinking of them-many don't & it's so lovely that the staff are appreciated.

Some of the nicest gifts I have got from my nursery kids were not the most expensive by a long shot. One parent brought in a lip balm and a small chocolate bar individually wrapped for each staff member. I still have the lip balm and think of the child each time I use it.
One parent got me a mug, which I still use too.
Pens go down well, with the number of reports we need to write, or nice handwash (we wash hands a lot, and it's nice to moisturise at the same time)

Speaking as a nursery nurse although chocolates, and bubbly stuff is nice (we get a lot of it) and of course its nice receiving anything personally i would go with vouchers much more personal and then she can spend it on something she wants.

Pens are a great idea, nursery nurses fight over these as they always go missing! Hand creams are nice as we tend to wash our hands alot. But over and above that the best things we ever got was an individual card to each staff member thanking them for something personally - the cooks said thank you for the best roast potatoes in the world etc etc, was really personal.

This might be a daft question but should you give biscuits/chocolates a week or so before they finish for Christmas? I like the idea of giving something the day they break up.

Something good or staff might get 'droppy' if you know what I mean.

That's ok, DD bounces .

I would make sure any staff who are PT get their gift before the last day, especially anything perishable.

I try to get the staff something personal, individually wrapped and with a gift tag "written" by DS.

When he was in the baby room I got nice hand cream for all of the staff but also gave his key worker (who was fantastic) a bottle of bubbly.

This year I have bought some nice scarf/gloves sets from M&S but haven't singled out his key worker because he interacts with so many of the staff.

When he has changed rooms I have also bought hampers from Thorntons and 'A Quarter Of' which could be split and shared and went down well.