Do you buy gifts for your mail carrier/paper boy?

I got a nice little card from my paper carrier. I've never actually met him, but I'm thinking he's around 12. Should I send him something for Christmas? I wasn't sure if this was something you are supposed to do or not. I thought about just buying him a card and slipping $10 or $15 in it. Also, do you get anything for your mail carrier? I ask this because I know you get something for your hair dresser and I keep thinking this is something I've heard of people doing. Any thoughts? I don't want to be a scrooge!

You get something for your hairdresser??? Whoops! (Note to self...send hairdresser some money)....I usually give my mail carrier a card with $20 in it, I figure they deserve it! If you give them cookies or other food, they probably won't eat them....my ex boyfriend from a while ago used to work for the city, and all his work buddies would come home from a garbage route and throw away all the foodstuffs....their claim was you never know what was in it. I think $10 is a good amount for a paper carrier.

Something for the hairdresser? That's a new one on me.

We don't have the paper delivered, and the mail carrier changes so often, there's no relationship to acknowledge. We do put some $$ in a card for our cleaners.

i dont know who our postman is, they change constantly, i dont know who does the cleaning, the stairs are usually dirty anyway! And i havent stuck with a hairdresser here in germany, So no i dont give it out!

I saw a commercial for pizza hut gift cards, so they will be getting those. Who doesn't like pizza?

My mother always gives something to her mail carrier. It's been the same lady for a while now and she knows our dogs by name. Sometimes she even gives them tennis balls! How sweet is that? She talks to them if they are outside alone (on leads). I've seen her just toss each one a ball from her jeep. Mom has chatted with her before too. I personally won't be giving our mail carrier anything because well, I'm not sure who it is anymore. Our mailboxes aren't by our house. Plus I'm still a tad ticked that they couldn't go 100ft away to put my pictures in my door instead of bending and stuffing the envelope clearly labled KODAK into my mailbox! Fortunatley they managed to not bend my pictures, otherwise they would have had one irate woman on thier hands!

I'd give them something small if they've done a good job this year. I'm sure the paper carrier would really enjoy it too!

The last place I lived in where we had a delivery boy, I gave him a $5 gift certificate to MacDonalds every year.

We have had the same postman for about 10 years. Every year I make special cookies for him (hes diabetic) and wrap them up in a nice gift box along with a card and for the past few years my kids have made pictures for him.

If they're like a regular person, I think they should be given something for Christmas. I'm giving cash gifts to the garbage guys, the mail carrier, & the newsboy.

Nope. We don't have a paperboy and I cannot STAND our mail lady. (Long, stupid story!)

At my last house, we had more of a "rural route" mail delivery and I was constantly getting packages delivered. My mailwoman always went above and beyond to deliver my packages. We would give her a gift every year. the Postal Service in our area really discouraged giving cash to the carriers as it was against their policy. I would try to give her either some unique holiday decorations, candles, bubble baths, gloves, etc.

At this house, the mail is handled a bit differently and we have had a few carriers. We don't get the personalized service like we did at the old house, so there will not be a gift going out this year.

My father used to be a door to door milkman. It was AMAZING the amount of gifts he would bring home every year from his customers - cash, candy, gloves, homemade goodies (he would go into these peoples homes and kitchens, so he knew what goodies were OK to eat ) and MANY bottles of liquor

Absolutely not! Half of the time, my mail winds up in my neighbors' box and vice versa. By the same token, I often have to call the newspaper office, because my paper hasn't been delivered.

My newspaper carrier tucked a card into one of last week's papers. The card went into the recycling bin, with the paper.

Back in the dark ages, when I had a paper route, my long time regular customers gave me a card every year, with money tucked inside. The weekly subscription rate was $1.35 (yeah, it was a long time ago), and they would give me $5 or $10. For a few years I shared the route with my sister and they would give us each that amount. So, the minimum was the same as one month's worth of bills.

I was a teenager, and really appreciated the cash, much more than a gift certificate. I didn't go to pizza hut, or McDonald's, and would have had to get someone to take me anyway.

I was always very proud of the fact that people thought enough of the service I provided to give me that little bonus. If you have terrible service, I wouldn't bother. And these days, I think the newspaper provides the carriers with the cards to hand out, so don't feel obliged to give him anything just because he gave you a card.

We have had so many mail deliverers (and argued with a few of them for ripping packages trying to shove them through the letter box when they are obviously too big) so NO.

But the paperboy is getting $10 (we usually gave $20 but he has only been doing it since October) and are also buying a gift for the superintendent who always takes in my packages and checks to see if I am home 10 times a day because I am never here the first 9 times to deliver them for me because she knows the post office is closed by the time I am done work.

I'll give the paper boy cash and the mail carrier a gift card! Thank you everyone

I swear we don't have a regular mail delivery person and the person who has been delivering the newspapers later has been terrible (they should be paying me to tolerate the poor service). We used to get the newpaper say 3-4 pm now some days its been 6:30-7:00. Terrible!! My hairdresser has 3 cats (2 were mine from Grizzly's litters long ago) I made some cat toys and will give him some wine and home made crackers!!!

We don't have a "regular" mail carrier, but I leave a card with €15 for the newspaper carrier. He delivers our morning paper by 5:30 a.m. in all sorts of weather, which I really appreciate. I doubt that a lot of people here do that, because he always calls and thanks me.

I my mail lady, so I do. She always gets out of her truck, rain or shine, to bring a package to the door. She's really sweet.