Escaping the winter chill in a coffeehouse in downtown Springfield, Ill., Don Peck paid $5 for a fancy coffee, then dropped a $1 bill into a tip jar sitting beside the register.
Twenty percent, said the state worker, who was on a midafternoon break.
The tip jar seems to be filling more quickly these days, the baristas said.
Its improving a little bit, said Ella Sturgeon, who has been whipping up lattes on and off for two years. And I think it is because its Christmas.
Sitting at a corner table sipping his concoction, Peck said that while he and his wife do give their mail carrier cookies as a holiday gift, he makes tipping most everyone servers, people who help with luggage, his barber a year-round habit.
If youre a generous person, youll do it year-round, he said. People who are only tipping at holidays are probably doing it out of guilt, or peer pressure.
Whatever the reason, people give holiday tips and they get confused doing it.
Its very obscure to a lot of people, said tipping expert Jacqueline Whitmore, founder and director of The Protocol School of Palm Beach, Fla. Theyre not sure who to tip, and theyre not sure how much to tip.
Whitmores suggestion: Take care of those who have taken care of you.
Everyones holiday tip list is different, she said. People should tip service providers they see often. For some people, that may mean tipping a housekeeper. For others, it may mean tipping the woman who manicures their nails every two weeks. Other service providers that people might consider tipping, according to various etiquette groups, include teachers, pet groomers, overnight delivery people, trash collectors, parking-garage attendants, handymen and lawn-care workers.
Fifteen percent of a bill for general services dinner, hair cut, taxi cab ride, pet grooming is usually the tipping benchmark, according to The Original Tipping Page at www.tipping.org. Holiday tips should be on top of these, it suggests.
Tip suggestions vary but are generally $5 to $15 for delivery people, about the cost of one service for service people such as hairdressers and manicurists, one or two nights pay for babysitters and a weeks salary for nannies and housekeepers. Etiquette International suggests that restaurant regulars generously tip their servers at the holidays.
While a couple of servers said people tip less because they are being more frugal at this time of the year, others said the opposite.
People are always a lot more generous during the holiday season, said waiter Steve Sowers.
Restaurant owner Michael Higgins said members of his wait staff get extra from their regulars during the holidays. Laughing, he noted that he reverse tips regulars by giving them extras, too, such as free desserts.
Thats the time of year that you really take care of the people who take care of you, he said. And youre conscious of that.
Most people agree that holiday tipping, whatever the amount, should come from the heart not from guilt.
The pressure, I think, comes from within, Whitmore said. People feel a little more stressed through the holidays to send cards, to send gifts, to make phone calls, to make meals, to go to parties so there is that little bit of pressure, but it usually comes from within. n
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