Just wondering what you all do during the holidays for co-workers.
Do you give cards out to everyone you work with on the floor?
Do you do anything special for the CNAs you regularly work with?
Do you limit this giving to those you've connected with on a personal level as well as professional?
Do you do anything to kiss up to the boss- in my case the DON? :wink2:
Just curious here - it's my first year at this particular facility, and I have some really great CNAs and Nurses I work with. I'd like to do something to make people feel appreciated but not go overboard either....
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
I donated $5.00 in each of my co-workers name to an angel tree adoptee. They are the children of our lowest paid employees so it is such a good cause. Everybody said they liked it and I felt it was the true spirit of christmas.
We do the Secret santa/ secret pal thing too. We are getting a small itme for our "pal" each week. It is difficult here becuase we all know each other so well that we are already guessing who we each have. Still pretty fun!
Everyone pulls a name from a jar. The name you get is who you buy a $15 gift for. Last year there was a CNA who was having it very bad financially. (lost her husband, was off work w/ surgery for a while, and her house burnt down. yep, all in the same year) She had 3 girls and no way to pay for presents. We all got presents for her kids instead of exchanging w/ each other. I thought it was a great idea. She was very suprised. We also have a party where everyone brings a dish. (The gift exchange and party is specific to each shift) The last place I worked didn't do anything. None of my shift went to the hospital party.
I am a supervisor and planned to get nice little gifties for all my nurses. After all, they got me something for my birthday, and totally surprised me with a card and a gift card for Boss's Day, and I don't have much family to buy for anymore. But we supervisors received strict orders last week that we can't spend more than $5 on each nurse. I don't want to give them something that looks cheap and tacky, so I put in a full weekend trying to be creative but I feel very inadequate. Here is what I put together. Would love y'all's feedback on how you would feel to receive in a glitzy giftie bag from the dollar store:
usual chocolate Christmas candy (50 cents worth from dollar store);
little pinecones I picked from the yard, spray painted and tied together with a nice cord (25 cents a reel) and a pretty glass angel or tree ornament ($1 at dollar store);
pine tree scented candle in a tin ($1 at dollar store);
two homemade CDs, one with relaxing New Age music, one with smooth jazz, each in its own jewel case (20 cents apiece at dollar store) and with individualized album covers (different art work for each) with your names printed;
candy cane to decorate gift bag;
$1 scratch lottery ticket.
I feel really chintzy, especially as we weren't given dollar limits to spend on our peers (other managers).
I head to Target after Christmas to buy for the following year. Last year I found cute tote bags with Christmas scenes on them for 39cents each after 90% discount. I put a votive holder with candle in each, candy canes, and a cookie cutter. I paid 40 cents for the votive holder from crateandbarrel.com outlet and a penny each for the cookie cutters from an online cooking website.
I had enough to put together 40 of these for my coworkers, 20 for each of my children's classes (no candle though, but tow different types of candy canes). So, 80 bags. I think I paid about $70, but that covered 80 people!
People sure seemed to act like I went all out too!
Oh, I alos buy my coworkers/classmates of my kiddos' Chritmas card the year before too!
CrateandBarrel.com still has a few pretty clearance holiday items in the online outlet if you are still looking for stuff.
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
I usually can't afford to give out gifts for all 50 of my nursing/CNA staff (and that is just my day shift ones). However, I normally print out a card telling them all how appreciated they are by me and have it in our break rooms. You wouldn't believe how happy that made folks...since no one had ever bothered with presents or even saying thank you for your hard work before!
So that became my tradition, but this year it was very bittersweet! I turned in my two week notice at my facility (found a much better paying job with career advancement opportunities I can't pass up!). So I knew my Christmas letter was going to be difficult since it was a goodbye and happy holidays letter !
SOOOOO...I found a bag of sand dollars I collected at the beach after a storm (about 60 of them), went to a fabric store that was having a sale on small ribbons and bought one of each color they had (at 25 cents a spool!). Then I broke out my glue gun...all my old buttons, silk flowers, charms, beads, you name it. I made up the cutest decorated sand dollars I have ever seen, all different from one another (kids helped, that was fun!)
Everyone loved them because they know I made them, and everyone found it fun to find that particular one that matched their personalities!
Then I wrote my letter using sand dollars as my theme! How sand dollars take the punishment of the tides, storms, etc. and still come out lovely and well sought after by many. And how that represents the hardships and even the good times we all go through day after day! And that their own sand dollar is not only a representation of their own beauty and sacrifice..but will always adorn their tree in the spirit of appreciation of them being them!
Lets just say that really worked wonderfully!
Total cost of making these (besides three days time just doing it as I felt like it)...6 bucks in ribbon! Everything else I had as 'leftovers' from other craft projects waiting for a purpose again :)!
!
ShannonB25
186 Posts
LOL..yeah, I guess it would! That's cool. I just started a new job- maybe this will be the lucky place that will change my pattern :)