Holiday Tipping Calculator
Work out each holiday tip from what you actually pay your cleaner, hairstylist or sitter, add gifts for the teacher and mail carrier, and fit the whole list to your budget.
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Set it to 0 to skip the budget check.
Who's on your list
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$265
$220 cash · $45 in gifts
$15
Budget: $250
$220
2 envelopes, or $205 to fit your budget
Your list of 4 people comes to $265 ($220 in cash, $45 in gifts), $15 over your $250 budget. Trimming every cash tip by the same share, in $5 steps, brings it to $250: see To fit budget below.
Enter what you pay each person to see your total.
Your list
| Who | Suggested | To fit budget |
|---|---|---|
| House cleaner One cleaning: $150 | $150 cash | $140 |
| Hairstylist or barber One visit: $70 | $70 cash | $65 |
| USPS mail carrier A $20 gift, not cash | $20 gift | $20 |
| Teacher A $25 gift, not cash | $25 gift | $25 |
Tips worked out from pay are rounded to the nearest $5. To fit your budget, gifts stay as they are and cash tips are trimmed by the same share, in $5 steps.
USPS carriers may accept a gift worth up to $20 per occasion and $50 a year from one customer. Never cash, checks, Venmo, Zelle or a credit-card-branded gift card such as Visa or Mastercard; a store or coffee-shop gift card of $20 or less is fine.
Public-school gift rules are set by each state and district. Massachusetts bars gifts worth $50 or more a year from one family and allows an anonymous class gift of up to $150 a school year. Ask the school, or give as a class.
FedEx doesn't let drivers accept cash or gift cards, and UPS discourages cash: a treat or small gift is the norm.
If the aide comes through an agency, ask the agency first: some don't allow gifts or tips.
If pickup is a city service, check first: New York City bars its employees from accepting tips for their city jobs.
What the guides say
| Who | Rule used here | In the guides |
|---|---|---|
| House cleaner | One cleaning | Up to a week's pay (Emily Post, Consumer Reports); $20 up to the cost of one visit (Care.com) |
| Hairstylist or barber | One visit | Up to the cost of one visit (Emily Post, Consumer Reports, Care.com) |
| Nanny or au pair | One week's pay | Up to a week's pay plus a gift from the kids (Emily Post); 1–2 weeks' pay (Care.com) |
| Regular babysitter | One evening's pay | Up to one evening's pay plus a small gift from the kids (Emily Post, Care.com) |
| Dog walker or pet sitter | One week's pay | Up to a week's pay (Emily Post, Consumer Reports); $50–$200 (Care.com) |
| Home caregiver or aide | One week's pay | A week's pay if you employ them full-time; for agency staff, ask the agency (Consumer Reports); up to a month's pay (Emily Post) |
| Trainer, groomer or similar | One session | Up to the cost of one session (Emily Post, Consumer Reports, Care.com) |
| Teacher | $25 gift | A $25 gift card and/or a small gift from the kids (Care.com) |
| Daycare teacher or staff | $25 each | A gift or $25–$70 each (Emily Post); a gift card around $20 (Care.com) |
| USPS mail carrier | $20 gift (the USPS cap) | A non-cash gift up to $20; never cash (USPS) |
| Package delivery driver | $20 gift | A small gift around $20, no cash (Emily Post); a small gift or treat, not cash (Consumer Reports, Care.com) |
| Trash or recycling collector | $20 each | $10–$30 each (Emily Post, Care.com); $50–$100 (Consumer Reports) |
| Landscaper or yard worker | $25 each | $20–$50 each (Emily Post); $20–$100 (Consumer Reports); $20–$30 (Care.com) |
| Doorman or building staff | $50 each | $15–$80, or $15 or more each for several (Emily Post); $25–$100 (Consumer Reports, Care.com) |
| Building superintendent | $80 each | $20–$80 (Emily Post); $25–$100 (Consumer Reports); $100–$200 (Care.com) |
Ranges as each guide publishes them. How the amounts used here were picked is under How this is worked out.
How this is worked out
- For someone you pay by the visit, week, evening or session, the tip is one unit of that pay, rounded to the nearest $5: the amount at least one of Emily Post, Consumer Reports and Care.com names for each of them. Where a guide goes higher, such as two weeks for a nanny, What the guides say shows it.
- Building staff, trash collectors, landscapers and daycare staff get a flat amount per person, picked inside the overlap of the guides' ranges, or as close to it as their figures allow.
- Teachers, mail carriers and package drivers get a gift at a typical value, not cash; a USPS carrier's gift is capped at $20.
- Over budget, gifts keep their value and the rest of the budget is shared across the cash tips in proportion to each one, rounded down to $5 per person. What is left goes out in $5 steps, at most one more per person, to the tips that use up the most of it, and on a tie to those that lost the most in rounding.
Add a short handwritten note to every tip or gift; Emily Post says one should always go with it.
Holiday tipping calculator. Each person's Christmas tip or gift, and the total against your budget.
This holiday tipping calculator turns the price of one cleaning, one haircut or one week of nanny care into a year-end tip and adds up your whole list. It gives the mail carrier and the teacher a gift instead of cash, and when the list runs past your budget it trims each cash tip by the same share, in $5 steps.
What a holiday tip is, and how this calculator sizes each one
A holiday tip is a once-a-year thank-you, in cash or as a gift, to the people who work for you or serve you all year: the house cleaner, the hairstylist, the nanny, the doorman, the mail carrier. This holiday tipping calculator sizes each Christmas tip from what you pay that person, one unit of their pay rounded to the nearest $5 — one cleaning, one visit, one week or one evening. A cleaner who charges $150 a visit gets $150, and a babysitter paid $87.50 for an evening gets $90.
The list mixes three kinds of people. Anyone you pay by the visit, week, evening or session gets one unit of that pay. Building staff, trash and recycling collectors, landscapers and daycare staff get a flat amount per person: $50 for each doorman, $80 for the superintendent, $20 for each trash collector and $25 for each landscaper or daycare staff member. Teachers, USPS mail carriers and package drivers get a gift instead of cash, valued at $25 for a teacher and $20 for a carrier or a driver. The carrier's $20 is the per-occasion cap the Postal Service applies to its employees.
The three guides behind those figures — the Emily Post Institute, Consumer Reports and Care.com — do not always give the same answer. Emily Post and Consumer Reports put a house cleaner at a week's pay, while Care.com says $20 up to the cost of one visit. Care.com gives a nanny one to two weeks' pay; Consumer Reports has no nanny row. For people paid by the visit or the week, the calculator uses the one unit at least one guide names, and the folded "What the guides say" table under the results lists each guide's range with its source, including where a guide goes higher.
For the people you pay by the visit or the week, survey data runs below the guides. In Bankrate's survey of 2,445 U.S. adults, run October 27–29, 2025, the median holiday tip among people planning to tip a housekeeper was $50, and among those planning to tip a childcare provider it was $48. Emily Post phrases its pay-based figures as ceilings — "up to" one week's pay for a housekeeper — so a tip below one full unit still sits inside that guide.
Enter a budget and the calculator checks the list against it. Under budget, the second card shows what is left. Over budget, a "To fit budget" column appears in the "Your list" table: gifts keep their value and each cash tip is trimmed by the same share, in $5 steps. The "Cash for envelopes" card says how much cash to withdraw and how many envelopes to fill, with a crew counted one envelope per person.
Restaurant checks and per-visit percentages have their own page: for dinner, delivery or a split check, use the tip calculator.
How to use it: one Brooklyn household, start to finish
Maya rents in a Brooklyn doorman building. Her cleaner charges $160 a visit, her hairstylist $80 a cut, three doormen share the front desk, and a USPS carrier brings her mail. She has set aside $300 for December. The prices are Maya's; yours go in the same fields.
1. In "Your tipping budget", she types 300. The field takes whole dollars, and 0 switches the budget check off.
2. Row 1 already says "House cleaner", with a $150 starting value in "Cost of one cleaning". She overwrites it with 160, and the row's tip becomes $160: one cleaning.
3. Row 2 is "Hairstylist or barber". She replaces the $70 starting value in "Cost of one visit" with 80, for an $80 tip.
4. Row 3 is "USPS mail carrier". She leaves it at one person: the row is a $20 gift, not cash, and a note with the Postal Service rule appears under the results.
5. Row 4 opens as "Teacher". Maya has no children in school, so she switches the dropdown to "Doorman or building staff" and sets "How many" to 3. At $50 each, the row comes to $150.
6. The cards update as she types. "Total for your list" reads $410, with $390 in cash and $20 in gifts. "Over your budget" turns amber at $110. "Cash for envelopes" shows $390 and "5 envelopes, or $280 to fit your budget", because each doorman counts as one envelope.
7. In the "Your list" table, the "To fit budget" column reads $115 for the cleaner, $60 for the hairstylist, $105 for the doormen ($35 each) and $20 for the carrier's gift. The $280 of cash left after the gift is about 72% of the $390 suggested, and each cash tip lands within $5 of 72% of its own suggestion. The four lines add up to $300.
8. Maya withdraws $280 and fills five envelopes: $115, $60 and three of $35. For the carrier she buys a $20 coffee-shop gift card, which the USPS rule allows; a Visa or Mastercard gift card would break it. A short handwritten note goes with each one.
If $115 feels thin for a cleaner who has come every other week all year, she can raise the budget or drop the last row with "− Remove last person", and the plan recalculates as she types. The page address now carries her list, so a bookmarked or texted link reopens it the way she left it.
Five holiday tipping lists, worked through
The opening list: cleaner, hairstylist, carrier and teacher on $250
The calculator opens with four people against a $250 budget: a house cleaner at the $150 starting value, a hairstylist at the $70 starting value, the USPS mail carrier and a teacher. The suggestions are $150 and $70 in cash, a $20 gift for the carrier and a $25 gift for the teacher.
Total for your list: $265, made of $220 in cash and $45 in gifts. Over your budget: $15.
To fit $250, the gifts stay at $45 and the remaining $205 is shared between the two cash tips: $140 for the cleaner and $65 for the hairstylist. "Cash for envelopes" reads "2 envelopes, or $205 to fit your budget". With a $265 budget the second card shows $0 left and the summary says the list is exactly your budget; at $300 it shows $35 left.
A nanny, two trash collectors and three doormen on $600
A nanny paid $850 a week, two trash collectors at $20 each, three doormen at $50 each and the mail carrier's $20 gift. The total is $1,060, of which $1,040 is cash, and it runs $460 over a $600 budget.
| Who | Suggested | To fit $600 |
|---|---|---|
| Nanny or au pair (one week's pay) | $850 | $475 |
| Trash or recycling collector, 2 | $40 | $30 ($15 each) |
| Doorman or building staff, 3 | $150 | $75 ($25 each) |
| USPS mail carrier (gift) | $20 | $20 |
After the gift, $580 is left for $1,040 of cash tips, a share of about 56%. Each person lands within $5 of that share: about $474 for the nanny, $11 per trash collector and $28 per doorman, rounded in $5 steps. "Cash for envelopes" shows $1,040 in 6 envelopes, or $580 to fit. With trash collectors on the list, a note warns that a city sanitation crew may be barred from taking tips: New York City bars its employees from accepting tips for their city jobs.
A $40 budget: when the gifts alone use it up
The calculator's opening list (a cleaner at $150, a hairstylist at $70, the mail carrier and a teacher) with the budget lowered to $40. The two gifts, $20 for the carrier and $25 for the teacher, already cost $45, so the fit keeps them and drops both cash tips to $0, marked "card only" in the To fit budget column. "Cash for envelopes" reads "2 envelopes, or $0 to fit your budget", and the summary under the cards adds that a handwritten card is a fine thank-you on its own.
The gifts in this plan cost $5 more than the budget. Removing the teacher row brings the gifts down to $20 and leaves $20 of the $40 for the cleaner and the hairstylist.
Rounding at the edges: $87.50, $12, $2.40 and a typed amount
A babysitter paid $87.50 for an evening, a barber who charges $12, a trainer entered as $2.40 by mistake, and a "Someone else (your amount)" row at $33, on a $50 budget.
- Babysitter: $87.50 rounds half up to $90.
- Barber: $12 rounds to $10.
- Trainer: $2.40 rounds to $0, and the row asks you to "Enter what you pay".
- Your own amount: $33 stays $33, because a typed amount is only rounded to the whole dollar.
The list totals $133, all cash, $83 over the budget. Fitted to $50, it becomes $35 for the babysitter, $5 for the barber, $0 for the trainer and $10 for your own amount. "Cash for envelopes" counts 3 envelopes, since a $0 row gets none.
A caregiver, a package driver, the super and daycare staff on $1,000
A home caregiver paid $700 a week, a package delivery driver, the building superintendent and one daycare staff member, with a $1,000 budget. The rows come to $700 in cash for the caregiver (one week's pay), a $20 gift for the driver, $80 for the super and $25 for the daycare staff member.
Total for your list: $825, of which $805 is cash and $20 a gift. Left in your budget: $175. "Cash for envelopes" asks for 3 envelopes.
Two notes appear under the results. If the aide comes through an agency, ask the agency first, because some don't allow gifts or tips. FedEx doesn't let drivers accept cash or gift cards, and UPS discourages cash, so a treat or small gift is the norm. The $175 left over could cover more daycare staff at $25 each, or go toward next December.
Bankrate's 2025 holiday tipping survey next to this calculator's rule
| Who | Users planning to tip | Median tip among tippers | Rule used here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housekeeper | 56% | $50 | One cleaning, in cash |
| Childcare provider | 47% | $48 | One week's pay for a nanny, one evening's pay for a babysitter |
| Teacher | 47% | $25 | A $25 gift |
| Landscaper, gardener or snow remover | 37% | $50 | $25 per worker |
| Mail carrier | 27% | $20 | A $20 gift, never cash |
| Trash or recycling collector | 21% | $25 | $20 per collector |
Holiday tipping mistakes that cost money or break a rule
- Cash, a check or a Visa gift card for the mail carrier. USPS employees can never accept cash or cash equivalents: checks, money orders, Venmo, Zelle or a gift card backed by a credit card company. A store or coffee-shop gift card of $20 or less is fine, and a carrier handed something worth more than $20 has to return it or pay its fair market value.
- Forgetting the $50 yearly limit. The $20 cap applies per occasion, and one customer's gifts to the same carrier can't pass $50 in a calendar year. A $20 card at Christmas plus $20 on another occasion leaves room for $10 more that year.
- Tipping a city sanitation crew in cash without checking. If pickup is a municipal service, the collectors may be barred from taking tips, as New York City's are. Emily Post's guide allows cash or a gift for a private crew and says to check city regulations when the service is municipal.
- Reading the starting pay as a typical wage. Choosing a person in the dropdown fills a round starting value — $150 a cleaning, $70 a visit, $850 a week for a nanny — so the row isn't blank. They are round numbers picked to be overwritten, so type what you pay: a cleaner who charges $110 gets $110.
- Assuming one cleaning equals a week's pay. The cleaner's field asks for the cost of one cleaning. For weekly help the two are the same; for someone who comes twice a week, the week's pay Emily Post and Consumer Reports name means two cleanings, so enter the cost of a week if that is the reading you want to follow.
- Handing a FedEx or UPS driver cash. FedEx bars cash and gift cards and UPS discourages cash, according to Consumer Reports, so a driver may have to turn the envelope down. A treat or a small gift works for both; the calculator lists a $20 gift.
- Tipping an agency aide without asking the agency. If a home caregiver comes through an agency, Emily Post and Consumer Reports both say to check with the agency first, since some don't allow gifts or tips.
- Applying one state's teacher rule everywhere. Public-school gift rules are set by each state and district. Massachusetts adds up everything one source gives a teacher over 365 days, so a $25 card in December and another in June reach the $50 its rule bars; your state may draw the line elsewhere, so ask the school, or give as a class.
What the calculator leaves to you
The calculator applies fixed rules. It has no generosity setting, and it doesn't scale a tip for how long someone has worked for you or what you earn. The guides handle tenure loosely: Care.com gives a nanny one to two weeks' pay, possibly more after a long time with you, and one day's pay per month worked if the nanny is new. None of the three ties a tip to what you earn. The 20-30-50 rule that etiquette author Elaine Swann gives in Consumer Reports' cheat sheet does scale by service quality, but as a fallback for a tight budget, below one full unit. To give more or less than a suggestion, add a "Someone else (your amount)" row and type the figure.
The flat amounts come from national guides and sit inside the overlap of their ranges, or as close to it as their figures allow: $80 for a superintendent is inside Emily Post's $20–$80 and Consumer Reports' $25–$100 but under Care.com's $100–$200. A New York City doorman of 22 years, interviewed by Brick Underground in December 2025, suggested $100 or more per doorman and $75–$175 for the super, so a Manhattan or Brooklyn doorman building may call for more than the flat amount.
The budget fit cuts everyone in proportion. It can't know that you would rather keep the nanny's week whole and skip the landscaper; if priorities matter, remove or edit rows until the list matches them. With crews, a few dollars can stay unspent, because one more $5 step costs $5 per member: five doormen need $25 for one more $5 each.
Payroll tax is out of scope. If a nanny, housekeeper or caregiver is your household employee, IRS Publication 926 covers your obligations as an employer; check it, or ask whoever runs your payroll, before adding a bonus. Teachers, municipal crews and agency aides can each be bound by gift rules of their own, and the notes under the results flag each case.
Rounding to the nearest $5 can lift a pay-based tip up to $2.50 above a guide's "up to" figure: an $87.50 evening becomes a $90 tip.
Holiday and Christmas tipping questions
How much should I tip my hairdresser for Christmas?
Up to the cost of one visit. Emily Post, Consumer Reports and Care.com each name one visit or session as the figure for a hairstylist or barber, so a $70 cut means a $70 holiday tip. Care.com adds that a gift works if you tip well throughout the year.
How much do you give a house cleaner or cleaning lady for Christmas?
The calculator suggests one cleaning: a cleaner who charges $140 a visit gets $140. The guides range wider. Emily Post says up to a week's pay and Consumer Reports one week's pay, which equals one cleaning for weekly help, and Care.com says $20 up to the cost of one visit. For a cleaner who comes every two weeks, the calculator still uses one cleaning, the figure Care.com names. In Bankrate's 2025 survey, the median among people planning to tip a housekeeper was $50.
How much should I tip my doorman for the holidays in New York?
The calculator gives $50 per doorman, inside Emily Post's $15–$80 and the $25–$100 range from Consumer Reports and Care.com. One New York voice puts it higher: a doorman of 22 years told Brick Underground in December 2025 that he suggests $100 or more for doormen, $75–$175 for the super and $25–$50 for porters. Set "How many" on the "Doorman or building staff" row for the flat amount, or add a "Someone else (your amount)" row if you plan to give more.
Can I give my mailman cash or a gift card for Christmas?
A store or coffee-shop gift card of $20 or less, yes. A USPS carrier may accept a noncash gift worth up to $20 per occasion, capped at $50 a calendar year from one customer, but never cash, checks, Venmo, Zelle or a Visa or Mastercard gift card.
How much should I give my nanny as a holiday bonus?
The calculator uses one week's pay: a nanny paid $850 a week gets $850. Care.com suggests one to two weeks' pay, possibly more for a nanny who has been with you a long time, and one day's pay for each month of employment for a new nanny. Emily Post says up to a week's pay plus a gift from the children. To follow the new-nanny rule, work out the days, switch the nanny's row to "Someone else (your amount)" and type the result. If your nanny is your household employee, IRS Publication 926 covers your tax obligations; the calculator doesn't handle payroll tax.
Do you tip garbage collectors at Christmas, and how much?
If tips are allowed, the calculator suggests $20 per collector and starts the row at two. Emily Post and Care.com give $10–$30 each; Consumer Reports gives $50 to $100 or a gift card of similar value, without saying it is per person. Check first if pickup is a city service: New York City's Conflicts of Interest Board says City employees may not accept tips for doing their City jobs. In Bankrate's 2025 survey, 21% of users planned to tip their trash or recycling collectors, at a median of $25.
How much should I spend on a holiday gift for my child's teacher?
The calculator lists a $25 gift, the amount in Care.com's chart (a $25 gift card and/or a small gift from your kids) and the median teacher tip in Bankrate's 2025 survey. Public-school gift rules are set by each state and district. Massachusetts, for example, bars gifts worth $50 or more from one source in any 365 days and allows an anonymous class gift of up to $150 a school year. Ask the school, or pool a class gift.
Do I tip FedEx or UPS drivers for the holidays?
A small gift or a treat. Consumer Reports notes that FedEx forbids employees from accepting cash or cash equivalents such as gift cards, and UPS discourages its drivers from taking cash. The calculator lists a $20 gift for a package driver, in line with Emily Post's small gift in the $20 range, which the Emily Post Institute suggests only if you get regular deliveries.
Is it rude not to give a holiday tip if money is tight?
No. Etiquette author Elaine Swann, quoted in Consumer Reports' cheat sheet, says it's never considered rude not to tip, and Emily Post says you shouldn't feel obligated to go beyond your personal budget and suggests homemade gifts or a few written words instead. A short handwritten card is a thank-you in its own right.
My holiday tip list is over budget. Who should I cut first?
The "To fit budget" column treats everyone alike: it keeps gifts whole and trims every cash tip by the same share, in $5 steps. To protect someone, such as a nanny who works 40 hours a week, edit the list instead: remove the last rows, or swap a lower-priority row for a "Someone else (your amount)" row with a smaller figure, and the cards update as you type. Consumer Reports also prints a 20-30-50 rule for when envelopes of cash aren't in the budget: 20, 30 or 50 percent of a single service for good, excellent or exceptional service. On an $80 haircut, 30% is $24.
What do I do with the "To fit budget" amounts?
Use them as your cash list. The "Cash for envelopes" card says how much to withdraw ("or $205 to fit your budget" on the list the calculator opens with) and how many envelopes to fill; each envelope holds the amount in the To fit budget column, and a crew row shows the amount per person, such as "$15 each". Gift rows keep their value, so buy those at the listed amount. Add a short handwritten note to each; Emily Post says one should always go with a tip or gift.
Should a holiday tip be cash or a gift?
Cash for the people you pay by the visit or the week, a gift where cash is barred or awkward. Emily Post notes you never have to give both, except in a few cases such as a child adding a gift for the babysitter. USPS carriers can't take cash, FedEx forbids it and UPS discourages it, and Care.com's chart gives teachers a gift card or a small gift. The calculator keeps the two apart: the total card splits cash from gifts, and the cash card counts envelopes. The New York doorman Brick Underground interviewed said wine or cookies are appreciated, though a card with a bit of cash attached is still welcome.
How does the calculator trim tips to fit my budget?
Gifts keep their value, and the rest of the budget is shared across the cash tips in proportion to each one, rounded down to $5 per person. The leftover then goes out in $5 steps, at most one more per person. No one ends above their suggested tip, the cash never exceeds what the budget leaves after gifts, and each person lands within $5 of their exact share. With crews a few dollars can stay unspent, because each extra $5 step costs $5 for every member of the crew. If the gifts alone use up the budget, every cash tip drops to $0 and the table says "card only".
Where do the suggested tips and gift limits come from?
Pay-based tips use one unit of what you pay, the amount at least one of the Emily Post Institute, Consumer Reports and Care.com names for that person. The flat amounts for doormen, supers, trash collectors, landscapers and daycare staff sit inside the overlap of the guides' ranges, or as close as their figures allow. The gift rules come from the USPS 2025 Holiday Ethics Guide and 5 CFR 2635.204, Massachusetts Ethics Advisory 19-1 and the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, all listed in the sources on this page. The arithmetic runs in whole cents; rounding to the nearest $5 can put a pay-based tip up to $2.50 above a guide's "up to" figure.
Can I share my tipping list with my partner, and is the calculator free?
Yes to both. The calculator is free and needs no account. As you edit, the page address picks up whatever differs from the opening list, so a bookmarked or texted link reopens the same people, pays and budget. The embed widget runs the same calculator if you want it on a blog or a building's community page.
Is a holiday tip the same as a restaurant tip?
No. A holiday tip is a once-a-year thank-you to people who serve you all year, sized from what you pay them, while a restaurant tip is a percentage of each check. For the check at dinner, use the tip calculator.
How can I spread the cost of holiday tips over the year?
Divide your list's total by the months left before December. A $410 list works out to about $34 a month over twelve months. For any other target, the savings goal calculator works out how much to set aside each month.
Sources & References
- USPS Employee News, 2025 Holiday Ethics Guide — carriers may accept a noncash gift worth $20 or less if one customer's gifts total no more than $50 in a calendar year, and never cash, Zelle, Venmo or credit-card-branded gift cards
- USPS Employee News, Giving, receiving (December 2, 2020) — cash equivalents include checks, money orders and gift cards backed by credit card companies; gift cards for a retail store or online vendor are not cash equivalents
- 5 CFR 2635.204(a), Gifts of $20 or less (eCFR) — an employee may accept unsolicited gifts worth $20 or less per source per occasion, up to $50 a calendar year from any one person, never gifts of cash
- Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, Advisory 19-1: Gifts and Gratuities — public employees may not accept gifts worth $50 or more from one source in any 365 days; a public school teacher may accept a class gift of up to $150 a school year when the givers are not named
- New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, Holiday Gifts — City employees may not accept gifts or tips for doing their City jobs
- Emily Post Institute, Holiday Tipping Guide — suggestions by provider, from up to one week's pay for a housekeeper or dog walker to $10–$30 each for trash collectors, and a short handwritten note with every tip or gift
- Consumer Reports, CR's Holiday Tipping Cheat Sheet — one week's pay for a house cleaner, the cost of one session for a hairstylist or trainer, $25 to $100 for a doorman, and FedEx forbidding cash or gift cards while UPS discourages cash
- Care.com, Holiday tipping guide: Who should you tip and how much? — its holiday tip chart: 1–2 weeks' pay for a nanny, $20 up to the cost of one visit for a house cleaner, $25–$100 for a doorman and a $25 gift card for a teacher
- Care.com, How Much Does Child Care Cost? 2026 Cost of Care Report — an average weekly cost of $870 for a nanny (40 hours) and $175 for a babysitter (8 hours)