Cheesy Xmas gifts to or from a teacher…

[Fyrefox]

In many American elementary schools, there’s a tradition of students giving small gifts to their teacher at Xmas, and often getting a small gift back from them. The gifts given/received were usually inexpensive, and could be quite tacky or even amusing. Within a school, teachers would sometimes share with others in the system their most outrageous gifts. If you participated in this tradition or privy to teachers that were, what were some memorable gifts given to or received from a teacher?

I remember one teacher sharing a Kleenex dispenser she had been given that was a large doll’s head fitted over a small tissue box. The tissues were extracted through the doll’s scalp. It was…creepy!

 

[JaniceM]

I don't recall kids giving gifts to teachers, but we always took up collections to buy Christmas presents for our school bus drivers. One of the older kids would be put in charge of the money, and purchasing the gift. The only one I recall was a nice shirt for the driver.

 

[terry123]

We always got gifts for teachers. Usually it was a box of candy or an assortment of nuts and fruit.

 

[RadishRose]

I vaguely remember my mother handing me small wrapped boxes for the teachers....but I don't remember what was in them.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

I had nuns. They're hard to buy for.

 

[jujube]

I think my mom always sent a plate of cookies or fudge as my gift. That's all that I remember. I know we never "bought" anything.

 

[Pinky]

Pretty coffee mug, usually.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

We never gave our teachers gifts but I remember a Sunday school teacher who was so old that my mom had her as a teacher. She smelled of mothballs and every Christmas she gave each one in our class a handkerchief. My mom said she got one just like it.

To make matters worse we were separated into smaller groups and sat in the pews of the church a few feet from each other to be taught our lessons. My best girlfriend and I were separated one year so she had a different teacher.

The day we were given our gifts the moth ball lady gave out the handkerchiefs wrapped in leftover gift wrap. Needless to say, we weren't thrilled.
My girlfriend a few pews away got hers and dangled a bracelet with charms of the full ten commandants!
I'm sure they weren't expensive but I thought they were made of gold.

Looking back, maybe that's all the poor old lady could afford but at the age of eight, I was livid.

 

[Fyrefox]

I can remember teachers being given food gifts, usually homemade cookies or fudge, by students at Xmas. What was unrealized was that teachers did their own determinations of the likely cleanliness of the student’s home to determine which food gifts were safe to eat, and which would be trashed! Charlie Brown’s food gift was then likely safe, whereas Pig Pen‘s was not…

I think that the cheapest Xmas gift I ever received from a teacher was…a bookmark! Even in the 50’s, kids knew cheap…

 

[Jules]

My mother and ex were teachers so I saw the presents but don’t remember anything in particular. The students were excited and expected them to be opened right away. Some that my mother received were more pricey than average and she didn’t like that; she felt it was about displaying wealth. I liked it when she got chocolates.