Gifts for Daycare Teachers - Ellwood City,PA

I dont see how anyone could be sad to get Christmas cookies or something. Or you could make these, which are super easy and look like you spent a lot of time on them:

you just get the pretzel squares or they sell shapes like christmas trees and bells and stuff for the holiday (or the squares) put them on a cookie sheet put a rolo on top and bake them for just a few minutes at 350 just long enough for the rolo to get soft then you put a whole pecan on top and squish it down a little. Easy as pie. If you dont want to use pecans, you could do christmas colored m&ms.

Bake cookies and put them on a pretty plate or in one of those holiday containers.

This year I had EIGHTEEN teachers to buy for with three kids and dance teachers. I got those cute 'toe' socks from Wal-Mart and a scented $1 hand sanitizer they had in their holiday section. The socks were $3 each. They also had those comfy fuzzy ones for $3. All were holiday themed. They also had holiday lotions for $1 each. I put the socks and sanitizer in a $0.25 holiday bag and that is what all 18 received from my kids! They seemed to like them. $4.25 a piece.

I've done the cookies plenty of times though. Usually I'll mix it up with a couple different kinds of cookies, some dipped pretzels, and a few slices of peppermint cake or something. I just lay it pretty, put red saran wrap on, and tie a nice bow.

I am a dance teacher myself. One little girl decorated used, clean vegetable cans with wrapping paper and 'fuzzy' stuff on the top. She put candies in them and passed them out. They were adorable! I loved it!

ooh i really like the ideas on here already! i'm on a budget too, but i figured i should get 'em like a gift certificate for the whole center to order some pizza or something. like a $30 gift card and then they could pitch in for the rest. my daycare's a real daycare center and i don't have time/patience/energy to sit down & make gifts and my gift certificate's easy...not as thoughtful i know, but easy! :)
good luck chica w/your giving spirit! :)

Hi L.,
I always bake cookies for gifts. When my son was in daycare, I made a cookie platter and gave it to them to share. I hope this helps.
L.

How about buying a pack of Christmas cards and buying some scratch off lottery tickets. Put roughly $5 in each card?

I'm getting my daughters daycare provider a $50 gift certificate for dinner, because she spends roughly 10-12hrs a day with my her while I am working. My daughter loves it there and it's a big ease off my shoulders.

If you don't know the teachers very well and there are several teachers, maybe you could get a gift for the center. A new game or craft for the kids to do.

We usually make candy or cookies or loaves of banana nut bread and wrap them up for each teacher. For the front office staff I usually just load up a plate of cookies for everyone.

I made batch of homemade granola bars this year to go in our baskets. You could also do chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. Good luck!

My son goes to a daycare that is rather large and the teachers rotate through, so he interacts with as many as 15 different teachers throughout the year. It's not feasible for me to get something for all of them and many of the other parents feel the same way. So we collect money from everyone who wants to give, pool it and then split it to get each of the teachers a nice gift card. It might be too late to do it this year, I'm not sure what kind of time frame you are working under. We also gave them all one of our christmas cards, which has my son's picture on it.

Another idea is to provide a holiday breakfast or lunch for all of them. Make some muffins or buy donuts or bagels and coffee or a sandwich platter at lunch with salad and fruit or something. Then it's something for all of them.

I just got our pre-school a popcorn tin for the teachers to enjoy. It was on sale for $3.88. I love the school and would have loved to more but I think they will be fine with this.

Walmart sells a small (but still a nice size) fruit basket for less than $11. A box of chocolates.

The best gift I every got as a teacher were scratch off lotto tickets. They are only a $1 or 2 and you have the chance of winning a lot of money & scratching them off is fun.
I also like the fruit basket idea.

I did a $5 Panera gift card for the main contacts at my nursery, and then provided a second "anonymous" (sp?) gift card of $5 as well and gave it to the contact and told her to give it to another lady within the nursery, saying there are so many woman that work there so I just got one extra.

Hi L., I am a daycare provider, and the gifts that I have received are gift cards for a resturant or movie theater. J.

Updated

Hi L., I am a daycare provider, and the gifts that I have received are gift cards for a resturant or movie theater. J.

Updated

Hi L., I am a daycare provider, and the gifts that I have received are gift cards for a resturant or movie theater. J.

I haven't really done gifts for our daycare teachers in the past (haven't really been able to). But, I have always heard that the teachers like homemade food/goodies. To me, when you don't know them that well (well enough to know what gift they would like), plus you don't know how many there are, then homemade goodies would be great.

I've also heard about teachers getting the same old things from kids year after year, and they just pile up. I hate to get someone something they won't really like or something they can't use, that will just clutter their house. Something to eat is a good idea for them to enjoy, but it won't clutter :)

Or, and I don't have any ideas for this, but perhaps something for the classroom? Maybe even some books?

I went on the internet and got some recipes for homemade fruit dip, chip/veggie dip, drink mixes, rubs, etc., went to our local bulk food store and got all of the ingredients (very cheap because they were in bulk and made a big basket full of them. I got the ziplock food bags from AC Moore (craft store) and blank labels to write the instructions on (I typed them out and printed them out on the printer). I assembled everything (this takes some time because some of the mixes have several ingredients to measure out) and put them all in the basket and put them in the teacher's break room with a sign that said to pick 2. It seemed to go over pretty well and it's an inexpensive & homemade gift :)

May be a fruit basket or a cheese basket from hickory farms. Many malls have kiosks this time of year and sell them. I am sure you are not the only one who has a tight budget. Merry christmas.

My 2 kids have been in day care since they were 3 months old - they are 5 and 2.5 now. In the past we've given gift cards - even a small amount on say a gas card, local store or restaurant or dunkin donuts - are appreciated. You could also arrange with the center director or head teacher a day when you could order sandwiches or bring some in or perhaps a casserole. Many folks are on diets and overloaded with cookies, candies, etc. anyway. The idea of the lottery tickets is nice as well - thoughtful, but not a huge outlay of cash necessary. Everyone can use a little dreaming...

If you do not want to slight anyone and are not sure of the exact number of staff there are do a catered breakfast. You can make up a tray yourself, bagels, muffins, fruit, cream cheese, etc. Send in a box of Joe from Dunkin Donuts with a nice thank you note. We love getting those types of thank you's. As a matter of fact I have one set of parents doing that for us tomorrow.