What is an appropriate generous holiday gift for preschool teachers?

[Anonymous]

$100 amazon card. Or $50. Depends on your budget and the rules around gift giving in your school.

[Anonymous]

$50 is very generous, $150-$200 is ridiculous. A weeks tuition is crazy to me but hey do what you want with your money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$50 is very generous, $150-$200 is ridiculous. A weeks tuition is crazy to me but hey do what you want with your money.

A week's pay is completely standard for nannies and house cleaners, so I think that's where the idea comes from (typically divided up among multiple teachers).

[Anonymous]

I gave all my DC’s preschool teachers $100 gift cards plus a fancy box of chocolates during the holidays

And no, no one is going to be offended if you give more. (Or less for that matter)

[Anonymous]

I give $25-50 giftcards to each teacher. Preschool is only 9-12 for my child.

[Anonymous]

I think Christmas gifts to teachers including preschool should be three parts
1) gift card to somewhere like Amazon or target ($50 is great)
2) card from parents expressing appreciation…can be replaced with an email to the principal or daycare chief about how great they are
3) homemade art from the kid they care for made into an ornament or card

[Anonymous]

If you can afford to be generous, do so and believe me it is appreciated.

If money is so tight and you cannot afford.it then a heartfelt, genuine card and maybe even a five dollar Dunkin’ Donuts gift card is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Money is great. Ours really liked the massage gift certificates we gave as the place was two blocks from the center.

[Anonymous]

I get that you are new to having school aged kids, but I encourage you to seriously reconsider your relationship between you and your children's teachers. As your children get older and are getting grades, it starts to feel super weird to be giving their teachers money. Its also pretty awful that teachers in wealthy districts get cash thrown at them by parents but teachers in less wealthy areas don't. In fact, most school districts have a policy against it (or limit it to $25 or so). Your children's teacher is not a member of your personal household staff like your nanny is. I suggest a personal note and a small token of your appreciation such as a $25 gift card to a local bookstore.

[Anonymous]

Give each one of them a $115 AMEX gift card. they will love them and that way they can use them anywhere. Regardless of what anyone says, people always want cash unless it’s from someone they are friends with or family etc.

At $115 he will be on the high end of giftgiving without looking obnoxious. anything higher starts to get weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that you are new to having school aged kids, but I encourage you to seriously reconsider your relationship between you and your children's teachers. As your children get older and are getting grades, it starts to feel super weird to be giving their teachers money. Its also pretty awful that teachers in wealthy districts get cash thrown at them by parents but teachers in less wealthy areas don't. In fact, most school districts have a policy against it (or limit it to $25 or so). Your children's teacher is not a member of your personal household staff like your nanny is. I suggest a personal note and a small token of your appreciation such as a $25 gift card to a local bookstore.

OP here. Will be taking this approach when teachers make fair wages and social services for toddlers in this country are fully functioning.. Of course nothing is expected and the teacher isn’t part of family. I tip taxi drivers, too.

[Anonymous]

Do people give just straight cash? This is what I assume would be most desired, but somehow feels wrong? not proper? something? To just pop a $50 bill into a card. I usually do a target/Amazon gift card but I can also imagine the teachers probably get a lot of those and it's a lot to keep track of... Again a NW DC preschool. Someone please give me more insight into if people do cash or cards more? And teachers opinions are obviously the most important!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

One month's tuition is wild. It's supposed to be one WEEK at the high end. Ours is $1800 a month. We're going with $75-100 a teacher. We have 4 pre-K teachers and there are 20 kids in the class. So even $50 a parent is $1000 that each teacher would get. This is just a tip, they also receive a Christmas bonus from the actual school as well.

You tip a nanny a week's pay because you are the employer. We're giving our nanny $500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would be the _most_ per teacher that would be appropriate? These people are saints as far as I can tell

Based on this quote and on your (OP's) use of the word "generous" in the thread starting post, I suspect that your inclination is in the $1,000 per teacher range.

Without knowing the teachers' individual financial situation, I would consider $500 each unless you know that one is experiencing financial difficulty.

However, I know of pre-school teachers who have difficulty making monthly rental payments. Take this statement as you will.

Any amount above $50 to $100 should be made with discretion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would be the _most_ per teacher that would be appropriate? These people are saints as far as I can tell

Based on this quote and on your (OP's) use of the word "generous" in the thread starting post, I suspect that your inclination is in the $1,000 per teacher range.

Without knowing the teachers' individual financial situation, I would consider $500 each unless you know that one is experiencing financial difficulty.

However, I know of pre-school teachers who have difficulty making monthly rental payments. Take this statement as you will.

Any amount above $50 to $100 should be made with discretion.

OP again. Yeah, if I could give $1000 anonymously and not have it be weird I would. I will probably give $200 each in cash or gift cards to my kid’s two teachers and I liked the idea of a heartfelt card with art/ message from kid inside and chocolate. For the record this is a small private preschool so no PTA or gift restrictions and they’re not getting any additional group gift from parents.