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Sorry, but those would all be losers in the book of most teachers I know. Think of how many kids they are getting gifts from...do they really want 25 bags of candy? Could they possibly use 25 bookmarks? And a letter from your child...that should happen throughout the year whenever something great occurs in the classroom. Then it feels genuine, not obligatory.

A good teacher gift is a gift card for a grocery store, book store, or department store. If you can't afford that, then make a coupon offering to run an errand for her, deep clean her classroom, organize her books, or something truly helpful like that. (You know you should be volunteering regularly throughout the year, too.) Even a pack of simple classroom goodies like reward stickers or happy birthday pencils would be appreciated, as so much of that comes out of a teacher's pocket.

I am not a teacher, but my mom was and while she was always touched by the gifts she recieved, it was obvious which were the ones that were given after much thought and which were just quicky tokens. She never complained about her gifts, but seeing the same crap year after year made me vow I would never fool myself into believing that my kid's teacher really needed her one thousandth apple-shaped Christmas ornament or "world's best teacher" tote bag.

I am a preschool teacher. One of our favorite gifts is a Starbucks gift card ($5 is fine!!). I like the classroom goody idea above. Pretty note cards are good. Bringing in lunch one day (with advance warning) would be awesome. Take her a Panera Bread menu and let her choose something. Bring it at lunchtime, and she will feel spoiled rotten!!

I like the Panera lunch idea, AKB2003.

We give Barnes and Noble gift cards.

My 2 yr old daughter goes to preschool once a week. A staff of 5 takes care of the kids; 2 teachers and 3 aids. Should I give a different amount to the teachers? What's a good amount to spend?
Thanks.

As a teacher, I have to say a handwritten note from the child means ALOT after all the hard work we put in. Gift cards are always great, too!

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Sorry about that.

As another daughter of a teacher, I love avimom's suggestions.

However, my son's preschool put a note in all of our boxes this week, asking us to consider making a donation of any amount to the holiday bonus fund. The school is a non-profit and can't afford bonuses for the staff. I will be happy to just write a check, knowing it will be divided up between my son's three main teachers plus the other four teachers who regularly help out in his classroom and the support staff who are just as important but usually overlooked.

Oh, and I ran into one of my son's teachers at the store the other day, where he was buying stickers for the kids, presumably with his own money. My mom also did this all the time. It's true.

I like and agree with the comments more than the suggestions in the post. This year our daughter's daycare staff (2 main teachers and 4 supply) are getting small plants in pots ($1.99 each at Ikea), and included in the card with them will be gift cards to Ikea ($25 and $10 each, respectively). The notes will say "Thank you for helping our daughter grow", and I'll ask Josie to tell me what makes her happiest about each caregiver and include it. I can't thank these people enough for their time and care, and because I know some of them work a few jobs other than just this, I only wish I could do more.

As a teacher, the ideas in the comments are definitely better than those in the post itself. In particular, with any kind of food gift, you need to be sure the recipient isn't allergic to or otherwise unable to eat the food. At my school and my son's preschool, parents get together to fund a gift card for the teacher (and smaller ones for the aides). I've loved receiving cards from bookstores and Target! And I know that preschool teachers especially don't make much money, so these kinds of gifts are really, really helpful.

Except for the letter (which should accompany something else), those are horrible ideas, imo. I agree with the idea that a gift certificate is the best idea.

I am a teacher. Always give teachers gift cards! Please don't give them food. I have a peanut allergy, so lots of peanut products have been given away.

These comments are great suggestions, not just for teachers, but for caregivers as well. I've been struggling with what to give my son's three-days-a-week sitter. We're already giving her Christmas week off with pay, but we wanted to give her a little gift as well. I like the idea of a gift card accompanied by a card made by my toddler. Thanks!

I'm in education as well. I definitely like getting gift cards. There's only so much bric-a-brac/apple/teacher-y stuff that a person can handle.