For most of the year, tipping is a transaction — you get a service, you add a percentage, you move on. The holidays work differently. Holiday tipping is closer to an annual thank-you: it goes to the people who have shown up all year, often without you noticing, and it usually goes to people you have never tipped before. Your doorman. The person who cleans your house every other Thursday. The woman who has cut your hair for six years.
That shift is exactly why it causes so much anxiety. There is no percentage to fall back on, the amounts are larger than a restaurant tip, and nobody tells you the rules. Worse, some of the most commonly repeated advice is wrong — there is one group of workers who cannot legally accept a cash tip from you in any amount, and they show up on almost every holiday tipping list anyway.
The short version
If you want the whole thing in one table, here it is. Amounts below reflect the ranges commonly cited by etiquette and personal-finance guides; treat them as a starting point, not a bill. What follows the table explains where the ranges come from and when to ignore them.
| Who | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Doorman / concierge | $20 – $200 each | Dense doorman markets run far higher; see below |
| Building superintendent | $50 – $300+ | Usually the largest single tip in a staffed building |
| Regular housekeeper | Up to one week's pay | Scale to how often they come |
| Nanny / regular childcare | One to two weeks' pay | Plus a gift from the child, if that is your custom |
| Dog walker | One week's pay | Or one session if the schedule is irregular |
| Hairdresser / barber | Cost of one visit | Split across stylist, colourist, assistant if several people work on you |
| Trash / recycling collectors | $10 – $30 each | Check municipal rules — some employers prohibit it |
| Newspaper delivery | $10 – $30 | If you still have one |
| Mail carrier (USPS) | No cash, ever | Non-cash gift under $20 only. See the section below |
| Teachers | Usually a gift, not cash | Many districts cap the value; check first |
Why every guide gives you a different number
If you have read more than one holiday tipping article you have noticed the figures do not agree. One says $25 for a doorman, another says $200. Neither is wrong, because the number depends on things a national guide cannot know: how many people work in your building, how long you have used someone, what a service costs where you live, and what your neighbours do. A $100 tip is generous in one city and slightly awkward in another.
There is a more useful way to think about it than copying a number. Holiday tipping tends to follow one of two logics. For people you pay directly and regularly — a housekeeper, a nanny, a dog walker — the tip is usually expressed as a share of what you already pay them: a week's worth, give or take. For people you do not pay directly — building staff, delivery workers — it is a flat amount that reflects how much you rely on them. Once you know which category someone falls into, the number gets much easier.
Building staff: the one that gets expensive
If you live in a building with a doorman, this is likely your largest holiday tipping expense, and the reason is arithmetic rather than generosity. A building with four doormen, two porters and a superintendent is seven people. Even at modest amounts per person, the total lands somewhere most people did not budget for.
A few things make this manageable. Tip the superintendent the most — they are the person who handles the emergency at 11pm. Weight the rest by contact: the doorman on your usual shift who takes your packages every day is not in the same category as the one you see twice a year. And if the building has a staff list posted in December, use it; it exists precisely so residents are not guessing.
One thing worth knowing: in some buildings the staff pool holiday tips and split them. If that is the arrangement, a single envelope to the building is fine and individual envelopes may actually complicate things. It is a reasonable question to ask the super directly.
People you pay regularly
For a housekeeper, nanny, regular dog walker or personal trainer, the common benchmark is roughly a week of what you normally pay them. That works cleanly for someone who comes weekly. It works less cleanly for someone who comes once a month, where a full week's pay would be four times a normal payment — for irregular schedules, the cost of one session is a more sensible anchor.
Length of relationship matters more here than anywhere else. Someone who has worked in your home for five years is in a different position from someone who started in October, and it is normal for the amount to reflect that.
Hairdressers and personal care
The usual benchmark is the cost of one visit — so if you pay $80 for a cut, the holiday tip is around $80, on top of your normal per-visit tip. If several people work on you, the amount is generally split rather than repeated: the stylist gets the largest share, with smaller amounts for the colourist, the assistant who washes your hair, and anyone else who is regularly involved.
The rule almost every guide gets vague about: your mail carrier
This is the one to get right, because getting it wrong puts someone else's job at risk rather than just embarrassing you. Letter carriers are federal employees, and federal gift rules apply to them year-round, holidays included.
USPS employees may accept a non-cash gift worth $20 or less per occasion, and no more than $50 in total value from any one customer over a calendar year. Cash is not permitted in any amount. Neither are cash equivalents — that includes cheques, Venmo, Zelle, and gift cards that can be converted to cash. A carrier who accepts an envelope of cash is not receiving a nice gesture; they are being put in a position they may have to report.
So the answer is not "how much" but "what". A $20 gift card to a specific coffee shop is fine, because it buys coffee and nothing else. A $20 Visa gift card is not, because it is functionally cash. Baked goods, a thermos, a note — all fine. If you have wanted to give your carrier something for years and never known what, this is the constraint that explains why the usual answer feels unsatisfying.
Private couriers are a different matter. UPS and FedEx drivers work for private companies, and while both have their own gift policies, they are not bound by the federal rules that cover USPS. Policies vary, so cash may or may not be permitted depending on the employer.
Teachers, and other places where cash is the wrong answer
Cash is also usually the wrong instinct for teachers. Many school districts limit the value of gifts staff may accept, and some prohibit cash outright. The specific rule varies by district, so the practical advice is to check your school's policy rather than assume — a class gift organised by several families is a common way around the awkwardness, and a written note from the child is generally valued more than either.
If the total is more than you can spend
It very often is, and the honest answer is that holiday tipping is discretionary. Nobody is entitled to it and nobody should be made to feel that a smaller envelope is an insult. If the arithmetic does not work this year, reduce the amounts rather than dropping people entirely — a smaller tip with a handwritten note lands better than silence, and the note is not a consolation prize. People remember being thanked specifically far longer than they remember an amount.
The other adjustment worth making is to narrow the list. Tip the people whose work you actually rely on and skip the ones you barely interact with. A guide listing fifteen categories is describing the maximum, not the expectation.
Timing and delivery
Mid-December is the usual window — early enough that it arrives before people take time off, late enough to feel seasonal. Cash or a cheque in a card is the standard form for anyone who can accept it, handed over in person where possible. For building staff, an envelope with the person's name on it prevents the awkwardness of a tip going to the wrong shift.
Whatever the amount, write something specific in the card. "Thank you for everything" is fine. "Thank you for carrying the packages up when the lift was broken in August" is what people keep.
Sources
USPS gift rules are set out in the Postal Service's own ethics guidance for employees. The tipping ranges reflect figures commonly published by consumer and personal-finance outlets; they are conventions rather than rules, and they vary by region. School district gift policies vary and should be checked locally.