Obviously do what you want. But I can’t imagine depriving my child of the secret Santa from their activities and teams. They love it so much and it’s not that time consuming.

Is this a troll post, OP? Surely you’re old enough to know that you don’t need to do what everyone else is doing?

Just give your teachers a gift card and call it a day. I have never sent in baked goods. There’s no need to participate in PTA things.

Who are the idiots who think home-made food gifts to teachers are a good idea? No teacher I know wants those - they're all trying to watch what they eat, and after seeing their students' hygiene, certainly don't want food from them. My kids' elementary school Principal wasn't a fan because of the risk of allergies or illness, but their middle and high schools organize food gifts to teachers. It's so... unhygienic.

I'm with you OP. If I was a teacher, I could care less about all these baked goods. They are unhealthy, full of sugar and white flour, nobody needs that these days. Give me a gift card present and I'm good to go.

You are surprised other people are into something you aren’t?

SMH.

Teachers don't want baked goods...they want gift cards. And I agree, I don't want anymore $5 crap in my house...it all ends up in the landfill.

I don't bake. I'm simply not a baker. If you come for dinner, I either toss a Mrs. Smith's apple pie in the oven for an hour, or I buy a box of Italian cookies.

So I'd just skip it.

Yep, I'm with you OP. I would skip the kid activity gift exchanges for sure. I enjoy baking, but by the time you are making several dozen of something it is a chore not a fun activity, and I'm sure the teachers would rather have gift cards.

Yea, I get it OP.

I never participate in food exchanges, partly because my child has a deadly nut allergy, partly because I don’t trust what random people bake in their kitchens (more so in times of Covid). It all seems unappetizing and risky to me.

I volunteered on the PTA for years and logged countless hours at school in the course of my duties.

Don’t do it. The teachers will just throw away any homemade stuff anyway.

Scrooge.

Each of my kid’s school’s PTA’s are hosting holiday cookie exchanges for teachers (parents bake for teachers to make up a box/bag of assorted things to take home) and it also seems like every major or minor extracurricular what’s to do a small secret Santa thing at their last meetup before Christmas.

Do do people have time and energy for this? I’m shocked how many families participate in the baking.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the teachers, I do, but this seems like so much work so close to Christmas, and my kids don’t need more $5-10 fidgets from all their secret Santa activities.

It all just feels like ONE MORE THING at a busy time of year. Yes I know I can decline (I do decline the baking but my kids don’t want yo be left out of secret Santa) but I’m surprised how many people are so into this.