Holiday Gifts?

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What does everyone do for Holiday gifts? Do you buy gifts for teachers, assistant teachers, dance instructors? I'm trying to decide if I need a gift for my daughter's brownie troop leaders? How about the aides in my son's classroom that are there to help with special needs students (not my son)? There are some gifts I really want to do, like doing something for the wonderful women that run the front office at our elementary school, but there are others that just feel more obligatory than enjoyable. Where do you draw the line? How much do you typically spend on teacher gifts? Any creative ideas for teacher gifts?

Tags: gift, giving, holidays

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Permalink Reply by Tonya on November 10, 2008 at 6:14am: We always do something for the teachers that are directly involved with my son. I usually try to pick up candles, or some xmas thing for them after christmas when everything is on clearance for the following year. Then I store them till they are needed for next christmas.

This year I am going to make wooden signs with my cricut that say teacher in the background and thier names on the front. Should be a pretty cheap project.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lynn Turner on November 10, 2008 at 6:38am: This year I'm giving my special gourmet popcorn to everyone I don't want to spend a lot of money on. I'm making:

~ white chocolate w/organic lavender buds
~ milk/white chocolate pecans
~ savory herb/butter (rosemary, thyme, lavender, hint of garlic, paprika) great with cocktails!

Putting it in clear plastic bags, print cute labels on my printer, tie holiday-themed ribbon around bag and viola! Holiday decorated tins and boxes are great to use too (Wal-mart usually has a great selection).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lori on November 10, 2008 at 6:53am: Typically I make all my Christmas gifts. I sew, embroider, and make soap. Most of which is a dying art. :( I will still make gifts to my kids' teachers. I usually do give something to the Para Teachers in my kids' classrooms but only because I know them.

I have thought this through, what you start is what you are expected to keep on doing. If you give your child's Gym teacher a gift, you really should keep on doing it.

Both of my children are in elementary school.

Good Luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Heidi Caswell on November 10, 2008 at 7:55am: I like to involve my kids in gifts for their teacher, so it is from them, not me. Sometimes they've made their own cards, with a thankyou note, lately I've taken their photo and made it into a card with child adding their own note, using a card service I sell. Often I'll buy a large bouquet of flowers to go with card and the kids pick which flowers to give to which teacher.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Elaine Neetz on November 10, 2008 at 9:24am: I make homemade Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread, this time of year, in mini loaves and freeze them. Then, when there is somebody I need to remember, I take a loaf out of the freezer and give it to them. I remind them that it's frozen which means it'll be totally fresh when they thaw it.

The recipe is SUPER EASY--your daughter can even help. I give these to our mail delivery person, the FEDEX/UPS delivery people, and everyone else I want to give a little something to. Our son is a homeschooler, but I also take the bread to the people who work at his homeschool offices. The mini loaves are easy to freeze, and they thaw beautifully. Serve with cream cheese. Yummy!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JGoode on November 10, 2008 at 9:44am: we always make little treat bags - the kids love to help make the cookies and note cards - we've pitched in as a class for gift cards, etc. but i think the treat bags are the most fun for the kids to learn to give the thank you. - we usually decide together what kind of treats to make and then decorate the bags, etc. its a fun idea we do for our neighbors as well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by geekmom on November 10, 2008 at 9:42pm: I think it's a nice idea to give gifts to the teachers but that it can get a little overboard sometimes. They end up with way too many 'teacher' mugs and such. I like the idea of all the parents pitching in for a gift card, I also think "consumable" gifts like movie tickets, starbucks cards and such are nice.

Lately what I've been doing though is giving an education-related charitable donation and then writing a card to the teacher saying something nice about the work they are doing and letting them know about the donation in their honour. Unicef for example has lots of different educational programs on the go and you can make targeted donations to. Depending on your budget you can donate anything from textbooks to soccer balls to vaccines. The teachers at my son's school were thrilled and touched that we did this in their honour and as an added bonus it helped my kids to learn something about how fortunate they are to have access to such high-quality, publically funded education.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Allie on November 10, 2008 at 10:08pm: geekmom said:
I think it's a nice idea to give gifts to the teachers but that it can get a little overboard sometimes. They end up with way too many 'teacher' mugs and such. I like the idea of all the parents pitching in for a gift card, I also think "consumable" gifts like movie tickets, starbucks cards and such are nice.

Lately what I've been doing though is giving an education-related charitable donation and then writing a card to the teacher saying something nice about the work they are doing and letting them know about the donation in their honour. Unicef for example has lots of different educational programs on the go and you can make targeted donations to. Depending on your budget you can donate anything from textbooks to soccer balls to vaccines. The teachers at my son's school were thrilled and touched that we did this in their honour and as an added bonus it helped my kids to learn something about how fortunate they are to have access to such high-quality, publically funded education.

What a great idea!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Snacks420 on November 10, 2008 at 10:29pm: My kids like to do little crafty projects for their favorite teachers and I usually give the teachers some sort of gift certificate. When my son was in 2nd grade we gave his teacher a McDonald's gift book and she told my son that she absolutely loved it, that she had taken her two children out for a lunch...and to me that says that she did not have to cook that meal. And if she is anything like me, getting out of having to cook once in a while is a wonderful thing! She was really sweet about it and raved to my son about how thoughtful he was.
Does anyone have any cute crafts that a 7 year old and a 10 year old would be able to do with limited help? (You know how kids are...they want to do it all themselves...and of course that is the part that really makes them special imo)
Thanx!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Snacks420 on November 10, 2008 at 10:31pm: That really is a wonderful idea as well! Thank you for the suggestions

geekmom said:
I think it's a nice idea to give gifts to the teachers but that it can get a little overboard sometimes. They end up with way too many 'teacher' mugs and such. I like the idea of all the parents pitching in for a gift card, I also think "consumable" gifts like movie tickets, starbucks cards and such are nice.

Lately what I've been doing though is giving an education-related charitable donation and then writing a card to the teacher saying something nice about the work they are doing and letting them know about the donation in their honour. Unicef for example has lots of different educational programs on the go and you can make targeted donations to. Depending on your budget you can donate anything from textbooks to soccer balls to vaccines. The teachers at my son's school were thrilled and touched that we did this in their honour and as an added bonus it helped my kids to learn something about how fortunate they are to have access to such high-quality, publically funded education.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jenn Savedge on November 11, 2008 at 7:24am: I get overwhelmed by the number of folks that we're EXPECTED to give gifts to around the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I love giving gifts, but I don't like being expected to do so. To avoid surprises, we usually make a lot of edible goodies like chocolate covered pretzels, truffles, banana breads, etc. We give them away as gifts to whomever stops by. That way, we're never caught off guard without a gift. (And in the meantime we get to enjoy lots of yummy treats!!); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by geekmom on November 11, 2008 at 8:53am: I love this idea of having the kids make a craft for the teacher. I remember one year I had my daughter make christmas tree ornaments for people; you can get these undecorated cardboard ornaments at Michaels craft store, in different shapes. They're about a half inch thick with flat surfaces on either side. The kids can paint them, put on glitter, stickers, etc and maybe a little photo of themselves and write their name. After they're done you can put on Mod Podge or some other type of finishing product to cover everything up. It would be very easy for a 7 and 10 year old to do this without help.... though they might make a bit of a mess :-D

Snacks420 said:
My kids like to do little crafty projects for their favorite teachers and I usually give the teachers some sort of gift certificate. When my son was in 2nd grade we gave his teacher a McDonald's gift book and she told my son that she absolutely loved it, that she had taken her two children out for a lunch...and to me that says that she did not have to cook that meal. And if she is anything like me, getting out of having to cook once in a while is a wonderful thing! She was really sweet about it and raved to my son about how thoughtful he was.
Does anyone have any cute crafts that a 7 year old and a 10 year old would be able to do with limited help? (You know how kids are...they want to do it all themselves...and of course that is the part that really makes them special imo)
Thanx!!; ▶ Reply to This