I have 1 child in a specialist school, 1 child I home educate and 2 children in primary. Around here it is typical for primary aged children (4-11) to buy teacher and teacher assistant gifts. Some also buy gifts for the school office staff too. It is not so typical for secondary school age (11-16). However, my eldest is at a specialist school for autism and they have always bought gifts for staff, escort and class mates. His class size is 5 pupils.
It is not expected to get/give gifts but it is nice to be generous, to thank people and give back. Gifts do not have to be expensive, everyone has a different budget. This year we are doing handmade gifts. I let the children decide who they want to give gifts too. If they were doing class gifts - I would step in to make sure no one was left out, but other than that scenario, I encourage them to make this decision - as its their gift.
My eldest found a recipe in a Christmas make book about decorated Christmas Tree Cakes. We made a large tray bake and then cut out individual Christmas trees. We then decorated the trees. We also purchased some party boxed to place each of the cakes in and he could decorate those with Christmas stickers. It also makes this easier for him to hand out to everyone.
This year, for my primary children, we are giving gifts to their teachers only. They do not mention their class assistants or have much interaction with them. It may come across as mean but they have chosen to bless their teacher, not to exclude the assistants, but bless the person they have the relationship with and I will honour their choice. I want them to think about present buying as choosing to honour someone rather than be obligated to give presents.
This year, we are giving the teachers a plant. I purchased some small terracotta plant pots and the children painted them with acrylic paints. We left them to dry overnight. They then decorated them with gems/stickers. The children filled the pots with potting soil and placed in the plants. We gave them a good water and left them on the window sill - I wanted to make sure they didn't die straight away. The children then made their own tag, from last years Christmas card and put the potted plant in cellophane.
Voila - It was a really easy make and we all enjoyed doing this together.
What Christmas Gifts have you made this year?