Holiday Tips

For the hair dresser - I always double my tip to her and the assistant.

And yes, you can double the $25 - sounds very reasonable.

I am giving my hairdresser $25 in a card along with the tip that I always give her. She like yours always squeezes me in.

Tips are a very personal choice. I look at it as what they brig to you and how they go about bringing it. My mailman gets 35, because he is amazing. He brings pkgs that don't fit in my mailbox straight to the door, know my family and kids, we shared financial aid and college info and helped him with his college apps, he goes to great lengths to accomodate me all year round, not just on the holidays. My hairdresser, is invaluable to me. Whether I see her every month or 6 months, she squeezes me in, and remembers how I like my hair cut. I appreciate her, as it took me 3 lousy hairdressers to get to her, so I give her 50. It all comes down to what you can afford or how you value them..Everybody's different.

I would give your hairdresser double your normal tip.

As for the college student/music teacher, that one is slightly different.... how often does he come to your home? If it is weekly (4 x per month on average) then I say, "yes, give him an extra $25 and a treat you made". If he comes less often, then I would give him "2 week's average salary" as a Christmas bonus. It isn't really a "tip" for him. It was my personal experience that as a new employee, a week's salary was the bonus, but after you had been there for awhile, 2 week's salary was the "bonus" at the end of the year. I believe I had a fairly generous employer at that time, so others may have different experiences and you can take from mine what you will.

tips are personal, yes. The advice I usually see from the "experts" is that you give a hairdresser the cost of your most expensive appointment. So someone who gets foils/cut every other visit and just root color/cut in between would give the amount of the foil/cut service. You can add a small gift too if you like - chocolates or a scarf or a bottle of wine, depending on the person's personality.

I'd give the music teacher another $25. Cash for a college student is perfect. And add the treat that you and your child made too, plus a note from her about how much she enjoys her lessons.

I also tip my letter carrier (they can accept up to $20 worth, I think), my paper delivery guy, and my trash collector (that's a no fun job!) as I was taught growing up to appreciate these daily and weekly services.

I would give the music teacher $25 or a gift card of that value - that's what we give our daughter's piano teacher and her violin teacher. I also do $20 coffee cards for certain teachers at school along with a small office-supply type gift that we know the teacher can use -- her homeroom teacher loves Sharpies so just today she got a new pack of multicolored Sharpies, a coffee card and a little candy. (But then...we really do love her!).

Also, if you have time, I find that taking a few extra moments to package these little things nicely really means a lot to folks. My daughter made tiny stockings out of music-note-print material for the two music teachers and we put the cards in those. For the teacher we wrapped each thing and put them in a little, inexpensive basket from the craft store, all with snowflakes on them since she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Only takes a moment. For a hairdresser you could see if there's a hairdresser-themed ornament you can include; there are a lot of different occupationally themed ornaments these days. Just a thought and not essential!