Helpers and Christmas

S

Sazzy

Registered User
Hi All

What's the deal at Christmas? Do you buy your helper a Christmas gift from your child? Do you give them a pay rise? i also heard that you have to give them an extra month's pay at Christmas - is this true?

Thanks
 
we have had the same helper for almost 5 years. we have always given her: $500 in her christmast card, a few small gifts (we once gave her a dvd player from DCS ~$250) and some chocolates in her stocking. we usually give her bath products (it's become a joke in our house!) and she gets enough "luxury" to last the year (bath salts, scrubs, moisturisers, exfoliators etc)...

we've NEVER given a whole month's pay... we can't afford it.

we DO always invite her to have new year's eve dinner with us (we go all out on seafood: lobster, king prawns, alaskan king crab etc)
 
Sazzy,

As she's only been with you for a few months, I think a gift is fine. We normally give cash $500 or a nice gift (last year it was tv for her room). We also give cash for birthdays (D's and her's), CNY, Diwali. In the end it adds up to a month's pay.
 
we never give gifts, only cash. i am definitely sure she would prefer cash. last christmas we gave $1000 HKD, but depending on how long she's been with you and your feelings about her performance, I think anything between $500 - $1000 HKD is more than generous. In addition to Christmas, we give her cash on CHinese New Year's and Mother's Day (random, but my husband started it since she's a mom of two). For her bday, I actually just remembered I made her 7 pairs of shorts in Shenzhen and my son painted her picture which she loved.
 
Once our helper had been with us for a year we started one '13th month' at Christmas, prior to that we did half a month.

I know some people do a cash gift at CNY instead, or spread it over bdays and festivals throughout the year as Rani does.

We only do small token gifts from the kids for Christmas and bdays etc. as she prefers cash to send home. If she's going home to the Philippines we do small gifts for her kids also.

As everyone says above, it's what you deem appropriate and what you can afford.
 
We give our helper the "13th month" payment along with a small gift for Christmas (a pair of slippers last year). Other than that we don't give her money for festivals etc.
 
As our helper has only been with us a few months we definitely will only give her a token gift for Christmas--maybe a warm sweater as she's so cold here in HK. The reason for this is that we barely give each other gifts at Christmastime--my son gets one big gift and sometimes, if we remember/have time my husband and I exchange gifts. Same thing with birthdays. So, to us, Christmas (and all holidays) are more about the actual meaning of the holiday than the gifts--more about spending time together and having a good meal or something. I feel more comfortable about keeping business as business and at the end of one-year's employment (next September) we'll give a year-end bonus of an amount we feel is appropriate.
 
We usually give a cash gift for various occasions, but will sometimes include a thoughtful "gift" gift - Hari Raya, Christmas and Chinese New Year as well as her birthday. It's no more/less extravagant that what we would give other members of our family.
 
Our helper will get her 13th month - half at Christmas and half at CNY. As she has only been with us a few months it will be pro-rata this year. I also purchased her a DVD and gave it as an early gift.

As a side - do you give money for your helper's child for their birthday and/or Christmas?

Thanks.
 
as i said, we've never paid a 13th month. i've never received it and i've been here for coming up to 15 years. our helper will probably get $500 at xmas, and same at CNY. we have given other gifts at xmas (including a dvd player).

we've never given anything for our helper's child. (he's now in university).
 
We usually buy a very small something for our helpers daughter (last year it was lots of little hair clips and minnie mouse ears). She has a new baby so will get something little for her also.
 
we give our helper the 13th month for Xmas and CNY combined. plus a small gift for her 8 year old daughter at xmas (this year 2 books)
 
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